Warwickshire news
Nuneaton area - Admissions outreach 21st November
The Admissions Service will be carrying out some outreach work in the Nuneaton area on Tuesday 21st November 2017.
The aim of this event is to help families in the local area with all areas of the admissions process, but primarily with completing their application for a school place.
This is in respect of those children who are due to start school in Reception September 2018 (ie: those who are, or will turn, 4 years old before, or on, 31st August 2018) and those children who currently attend Year 2 at an infant school and will, therefore, need to transfer to Year 3 at a junior school, in September 2018.
Families are welcome to come and find out more, as well as speaking with officers from the Admissions Service, and have the opportunity to complete their child’s school application, at:
Hatters Space Community Centre
Upper Abbey Street
Nuneaton
CV11 5DN
Tuesday 21st November 2017, 2pm – 7pm
We would appreciate it if ALL schools in the Nuneaton and Bedworth areas could notify families of this event and highlight it in any upcoming newsletters.
Profile of Chris Malone, Head of Education and Learning
After our recent Headteachers' Conference, we received feedback that delegates would like to hear some biographical information about our new Head of Education and Learning, Chris Malone:
Chris Malone brings a wealth of experience to Warwickshire. She was a primary headteacher in Gloucestershire, and taught in several primary schools, large and small in urban and rural Herefordshire, across the full primary age range. She has also worked as an advisory teacher for early years, NVQ assessor, principal of a Further Education Centre and a playgroup leader.
More recently, Chris spent six years in Gloucestershire and four years in Oxfordshire, in a range of local authority leadership roles. Examples include senior commissioning manager for services from birth to 25 in a joint commissioning team managed by Health, and line managing social care managers, Access and Inclusion Manager, Early Years Strategic Lead, and Strategic Lead for Education Quality. She also spent eight months working for Ofsted as an HMI for schools.
In recent years she has shared the role of Deputy Director for Education, with two colleagues, and led a genuinely 'system-led' school improvement function. Chris has a relentless focus on improving outcomes for vulnerable learners, as well as a determination to achieve cost effectiveness with reducing budgets. A resident of Warwickshire, she is married with three grown up children, one of whom teaches in the county.
Warwickshire Headteachers' Autumn Term Conference
On the 7 November Headteachers in Warwickshire attended the County Council's Autumn Term Conference.
This was a new format from previous briefings with a cross-phase, whole day event being held around a specific theme. Schools from across a whole range of education providers in Warwickshire were invited to attend; including nursery schools, primary schools, special schools, secondary schools, FE and sixth form colleges. 145 delegates attended (131 head teachers/senior leaders from 129 schools and settings).
The conference had a focus on well-being and mental health and included presentations from-
- John Linnane, Director of Public Health
- Professor Des Hewitt, University of Warwick
- Chris Malone, Head of Education & Learning
- Phil Kelly, Headteacher of Higham Lane School
- Rise - the new service to deliver emotional well-being and mental health services for children and young people
- Public Health - Suicide Prevention
- Young people including a member of Youth Parliament.
An email has been sent to all Headteachers with a link to the presentations and papers shared at the event. If you have not received this please email schoolpartnerships@warwickshire.gov.uk.
There was also an opportunity for attendees to take part in one of the following breakout sessions:
- "What makes an Emotionally Intelligent Classroom?" - Victor Allen, Author and consultant on Emotional and Social Intelligence
- "Strategies for Measuring Wellbeing and the Impact of Interventions" - Dr Rina Bajaj, Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families
- "Principles of Nurture Provision: a leadership approach" - Helen Stollery, Head of Quality and Standards, Nurture Group Network
A marketplace with 12 providers took place during the breaks and over lunch, with the objective of sharing information about the types of services available to schools and settings:-
(Warwickshire Educational Psychology Service, Warwickshire Specialist Teaching Service, Warwickshire Flexible Learning Service, Warwickshire HR Service, Warwickshire Schools Library Service, Children and Young People’s Drug and Alcohol Service (Compass), School Health and Well-being Service (Compass), Coventry and Warwickshire MIND, Ambition School Leadership, Teach First, Coram Life Education, Warwickshire Music Hub).
We would like to thank those of you who attended and who provided feedback on the day, and we apologise for the issues with the venue and reassure colleagues that these will be followed up.
Talkingshop – FREE Consumer Rights, Financial Literacy and Cybercrime education
Are you interested in helping your year 12 and year 13 students prepare for life beyond school or college, either at University or in employment?
Consumer education, financial literacy and cyber-crime awareness sessions are being offered free of charge by Warwickshire County Council Trading Standards.
The educational sessions, which run under the umbrella programme ‘Talkingshop’ are delivered on-line and in real time by Trading Standards consumer, financial literacy and cyber-crime experts.
Over 5000 Warwickshire students have already participated in the Talkingshop educational programme.
The programme can be amended to fit a school or college’s particular requirements.
The programmes cover:
Financial Literacy, including:
- Opening a bank account
- Payday and other high interest loans
- Budgeting
- Moving into rented accommodation
- Credit and debt
- Buying a used car
- Contracts (for example for mobile phones)
- Store cards
- Priority loans
Consumer Rights, including:
- Your statutory consumer rights
- Returning damaged and mis-described items
- Your rights in a sale
- Shopping from home
- Buying on auction websites
Cyber Crime, including:
- Safe shopping online
- Online banking
- Social media safety
- Protecting your PC
For more information, get in touch at simoncripwell@warwickshire.gov.uk.
Educaterers - New primary school menu launched
Primary schools who use the Educaterers service, who have taken over delivery of school meals from Warwickshire County Council, will be interested to know that they launched their new primary school menu on 6th November.
Educaterers, a Local Authority Traded Company – the first for Warwickshire County Council – delivers 125,000 meals a week across the county and will be providing pupils with new photograph menus on a three week rotation. This means that pupils can see what the meals look like before making their choices.
The menu – which now includes a deli bag option – is fully compliant with School Food Standards. Educaterers have also been awarded The Soil Association’s Silver Food for Life accreditation. See an example menu.
New dishes on the menu include salmon pasta bake, cheesy barbecue bacon pasta and a strawberry bun made with fruit juice and strawberries, so no added sugar in the mix.
Educaterers is wholly owned by Warwickshire County Council as the sole shareholder and delivers meals to 195 schools in Warwickshire. Among the initiatives designed to encourage take up of school meals, they have launched the Nutrigang campaign to create a more engaging lunchtime experience for younger pupils.
Educaterers hope that their new menus are enjoyed by primary schools that use their service and welcome your feedback, which provides an active part in both the development of their future menus as well as the retention of favourite dishes and popular themes.
For more information go to www.educaterers.co.uk, or email contactus@educaterers.co.uk.