WE2 An empowering curriculum
Are you missing out on Pupil Premium Plus funding?
Are your children previously looked after (CPLA) missing out on funding?
Each child who has been looked after and then adopted or subject to a Special Guardianship Order is eligible for Pupil Premium Plus (PP+). Schools will receive £2,300 per year for each child previously looked after.
Many of our CPLA require additional support, particularly in helping them develop healthy Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH). Ensuring you access their PP+ will support you with finding the resources give CPLA every opportunity to improve their life chances.
It is worth encouraging your parents and carers to come forward so that you can identify any CPLA in your school.
For further information regarding CPLA visit http://www.adoptionuk.org
Deena Moorey, Virtual School Head - deenamoorey@warwickshire.gov.uk
Don't miss Young Carers Day 2019
It’s Young Carers Awareness Day on 31st January 2019 and Warwickshire Young Carers would like to see schools get involved.
The focus this year is mental health, and the Carers Trust has produced lots of free resources for schools, giving ideas on how to get involved and materials for use in the classroom to help raise awareness.
Here are some of our ideas for ways to recognise Young Carers this January:
- Hold a non-school uniform day encouraging students to wear red and yellow (Warwickshire Young Carer Colours) or even dress as Freddy our Mascot (at the top of this page!)
- Decorate a cut out paper person! Warwickshire Young Carers will be decorating a cut out paper person with all of them being joined together into a giant chain to represent the number of Young Carers in the county. We would love schools to get involved in this. To find out more and to request paper cut outs for your young carers to decorate, please email schools@warwickshireyoungcarers.org.uk. Finished people can then be sent back to us to be added to our chain.
- Don’t forget to share what you get up to on social media and tag us so we can see, share and spread the word further. Use #youngcarersawarenessday and #CareForMeToo
Please get in touch with any questions on schools@warwickshireyoungcarers.org.uk
We look forward to working with you this year.
Annual Music Conference for Warwickshire Schools
Thursday March 7th 2019, 9.30am - 3.30pm at Bulkington Village Centre
Last year Warwickshire Music ran its first Schools’ Conference for colleagues from all key stages and it was a remarkable success with increased delegate numbers – so we are doing it again.
Why should you allow your music specialist to attend?
- Free attendance
- £200 to pay for a cover teacher
- Free gift for all delegates
- The priceless opportunity to meet, to play, to talk and to learn with musically minded colleagues
The Warwickshire Music Annual Schools’ Conference is for everyone working in education who values music: classroom teachers; music teachers; music co-ordinators; secondary music teachers and head teachers.
There was a strong request from last year’s delegates for more practical workshops and more information about the amazing range of music opportunities that Warwickshire Music supports.
This year we will also focus on supporting schools for the Music Mark Award and Artsmark awards.
There are limited spaces so book now using the online form to guarantee your place:
Book my place at the Warwickshire Music Annual Schools' Conference
Please feel free to forward this invitation to colleagues in your school or setting. Come along and find out how Warwickshire Music can contribute to a broad and balanced curriculum for your school.
Jeremy Dibb
Director Warwickshire Music
Key updates for RE Subject Leaders and Coordinators
***Please forward the link to this article to the person responsible for Religious Education in your setting***
Spring Term Bulletin for Religious Education (RE) Leads
In this latest bulletin, Coventry and Warwickshire's RE Facilitator, Jennifer Jenkins, shares some really useful updates, guidance and links to help support teachers delivering RE across the area.
We hope you find it a useful resource and encourage you to forward this on to the person responsible for RE in your school or college.
Spring Term RE Bulletin
This bulletin is issued termly to keep RE Leads updated on developments, resources and support available to them. If you do not receive this directly and would like to be added to the circulation list, please send your name, school and email address to sacre@warwickshire.gov.uk.
Free CPD twilight for RE Subject Leaders and Coordinators
Thursday 7th February 2019, 4.30pm to 6pm at Seva School, Coventry
Focus of the session: Assessment in Religious Education
Religious Education (RE) subject leaders and coordinators from all Warwickshire primary, secondary and special schools are invited to the next twilight meeting on Thursday 7th February 2019, 4.30 - 6.00pm at Seva School, Link House, Eden Road, Coventry, CV2 2TB.
These sessions are organised by Warwickshire County Council in partnership with the Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education (SACRE) and are completely free to attend. They provide an excellent opportunity for teachers and subject coordinators of RE to:
- seek advice and support from the RE Facilitator
- receive updates on local and national developments in RE
- network with other RE coordinators
- develop subject knowledge
The focus for this particular twilight session will be assessment, following lots of requests from teachers who attended the last event held on 11th October.
Feedback from the teachers who attended in October was extremely positive; teachers said the session gave them suggestions for activities to take back to the classroom and provided 'fantastic ideas and resources' to share with other staff. It was also a really valuable opportunity to meet other RE leads and to share good practice.
How to book
To book your place email your details (name and school) to sacre@warwickshire.gov.uk.
SACRE Annual Report
The latest annual report on the work of Warwickshire Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education (SACRE) has recently been published and is available to read on the SACRE website.
How can the Specialist Teaching Service help you?
Following the success of the taster session held on 29th November, the Specialist Teaching Service (STS) will be holding another event in January giving schools and settings an opportunity to find out what support the service can offer.
The session will take place on 31st January, 4.00pm to 5.30pm at Cawston Community Hall, Rugby and is free for all Warwickshire schools and settings to attend.
It will provide an opportunity to:
- Meet your local STS team
- Explore the latest resources, strategies and evidence based intervention to support learners with SEND
- Take part in activities learning how to support learners within the areas of Cognition and Learning, Communication and Interaction, Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) and Speech and Language.
For more information or to book your place please contact Mel Twells: melindatwells@warwickshire.gov.uk
Growing up in Warwickshire with social media: Annual Health Report
'EAT, SLEEP, SELFIE, REPEAT: Growing up in Warwickshire with social media' - What did Warwickshire's young people tell us?
The Director of Public Health’s annual report informs local people about the health of their community, as well as providing necessary information for decision makers. Released in Autumn 2018, the theme of this year’s report is the impact of social media on the health and wellbeing of Warwickshire’s young people.
In total, over 2,000 people aged 10-16 responded to a survey asking how they use social media and the ways that it affects them. This new animation released for 2019 highlights what they had to say.
Some of the findings include:
- 89% of young people in Warwickshire use social media
- 58% of young people in Warwickshire do not think the amount of time spent on social media affects their physical activity
- 31% of young people in Warwickshire say social media affects the amount of sleep they get
Recommendations have been made including the need to harness social media as an engagement tool, and to build the resilience of young people to protect them from harm online.
Read the report and watch the animation at: warwickshire.gov.uk/publichealthannualreport
Thank you to everyone who helped us to gather these survey responses.
SACRE Report 2017/18
The latest annual report on the work of Warwickshire Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education (SACRE) has recently been published and is available to read on the SACRE website.
SACRE is a statutory body convened by the Local Authority (LA) to offer advice in relation to quality, standards and progress of Religious Education and Collective Worship in community schools.
It is a statutory requirement that SACRE produces an annual report by 31st December each calendar year detailing their activities. The report must be sent to the Secretary of State for Education as well as to key partners, including schools and councillors.
The main purpose of the report is to hold the LA to account, by informing the Secretary of State and key partners what advice SACRE gave the LA during the year and how that was responded to. This includes advice on RE and Collective Worship in those schools for which the LA has responsibility.
You can find more information about the work of the group on the SACRE website.
WE3 Family of schools
Deadline 18th Jan - Statutory Spring School Census
***Important message to all Warwickshire schools***
The second statutory school census return of the 2018/19 academic year will take place on Thursday 17th January. Deadline for submission to the Local Authority (LA) is Friday 18th January.
As in previous years, the 2019 spring school census will be used in the calculation of the pupil premium and the early years block of the dedicated schools grant. The Department for Education (DfE) will also be sharing a provisional extract of year 6 data to the Standards and Testing Agency (STA) on 7 February which will be used to populate the system for registering pupils for the Key Stage 2 national curriculum tests. Where census data has not been returned, the STA will be reliant on schools to manually enter these pupils into the pupil registration system to ensure they are correctly registered for the Key Stage 2 tests.
It is therefore vitally important that you are satisfied with the accuracy of your schools’ return before uploading it to the LA, and that it is returned by the prescribed deadline.
Prior to each census, the ICT Development Service (MIDAS) up-load census documentation to the Warwickshire Learning Platform (WeLearn365) which can be found at: http://bit.ly/midaspages and on the download site http://wsd.we-learn.com/downloads. These will assist you in preparing and running your census returns.
If you have any technical queries regarding the SIMS system and generating the return please contact the ICT Development Service Desk on 01926 414100.
If you have any other questions about this data collection, please contact Michelle Ali, Insight Service on 01926 742169 or by e-mail insight@warwickshire.gov.uk
Thank you for your continued support with these collections.
Insight Service
Commissioning Support Unit, Resources Directorate
Ofsted launches consultation on new framework
Ofsted's long awaited consultation on the new Education Inspection Framework was launched on 16 January by Her Majesty’s chief inspector, Amanda Spielman, in a speech to the Sixth Form Colleges Association.
The proposals will affect how Ofsted inspects schools, early years settings and further education and skills providers.
The revised framework has a stronger focus on whether pupils are being taught a broad curriculum, rather than concentrating so heavily on performance data, and also includes for the first time a separate judgement for behaviour.
Ofsted are seeking views on the proposals before the final inspection framework is published in summer 2019, for implementation from September 2019.
Alongside the consultation, a number of other materials have been published:
- These slides set out Ofsted's approach to working towards the new framework
The consultation runs until 11.45pm on 5 April 2019.
We would encourage as many of you to respond as possible. There are various ways that you can send in your comments, including a downloadable questionnaire and an online form.
REMEMBER that Amanda Spielman will be joining us at our Headteachers' Conference on 21st March so make sure you come along to find out more....and you'll still have time afterwards to submit your response by the deadline. We'll be sharing an agenda and booking details in a couple of weeks time.
Support for the budget setting and monitoring process
Warwickshire County Council officers have been working with schools in recent months who have found themselves in unexpected budget deficits.
In order to support all schools in the budget setting and monitoring process, we have put together a visual summary that sets out the key actions and monitoring responsibilities for the local authority and for schools. This clarifies what is expected in the "Scheme for the Financing of Schools" (Section 48 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998).
The process covers four topic areas:
• Budget planning
• Termly reporting
• Annual returns/year end
• Cash flow issues/deficit recovery
Please could we ask you to share this summary with the appropriate members of staff in your school as well as your Governing Bodies and encourage them to follow this process.
We hope that you find this visual reference useful and that they will help to improve financial planning.
For any queries please contact Neill Butler (WCC Finance) on 01926 412240 or email neillbutler@warwickshire.gov.uk
Complex complaints management course
Warwickshire Governor Services are offering this course (free to subscribing schools) on dealing with complex complaints. Course details are outlined below.
Course Overview:
As more schools deal with protracted, persistent or serial complaints this course aims to provide delegates with the skills and processes to manage them effectively.
Target Audience:
Governors, head teachers and individuals who have responsibilities for complaints handling in schools.
Course Aims:
- To outline the key elements of a school complaints procedure
- To explore the steps and stages through the process
- To highlight specific issues to look out for and alternative avenues of support
- Consider the impact of complaints on schools
- Looking after yourself
The course will be led by Julia Kenny and Amanda Gardiner from Warwickshire Governer Services.
Date: Monday 11th March 2019
Venue: St Michael’s Centre, Church Lane, Budbrooke, Warwick, CV35 8QL
Time: 9.30am – 12.30pm
To reserve a place on the course please contact Governor Services on 01926 745120 or email governors@warwickshire.gov.uk
Please note for non-subscribing schools there will a charge of £100 per delegate
WE4 Employability
Showcasing career opportunities in the tourism & hospitality sector
Film for use in schools and colleges
A short film, currently in the final stages of production, will be shared with schools and colleges at the end of January, hoping to inspire young people to consider a career in the Hospitality and Tourism sector.
The development of the film has been funded by Warwickshire County Council and shaped by a group of leaders drawn from Lovely Pubs, MacDonald Hotels, Q Hotels, and the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. It will comprise a dozen or so brief ‘talking head’ interviews with enthusiastic and successful employees who will talk about their roles, career paths and future ambitions. A wide range of jobs will be featured including catering, event management, finance, gardening, human resources, sales & marketing and weddings.
The film will be made freely available to schools and colleges for use in careers sessions and events, and will be shared in Heads Up and also directly with careers leads.
It is hoped that teacher and parent perceptions of careers in the industry will be improved as a result of the film. Businesses in the sector will also have access so they can use this in their own recruitment drives to address skills shortages.
For further information please contact glennrobinson@warwickshire.gov.uk.
An insight into the world of hospitality.....My Hospitality World campaign
In addition, a campaign is being launched to give pupils the opportunity to explore hospitality as a potential sector to kick start their career journeys.
The 'My Hospitality World' campaign will run from 27th February to 5th March 2019, and will see hoteliers opening their doors and running a series of activities aimed at a variety of ages.
There will be a mix of school-led and parent-led activities on offer, to allow students with heavier curriculum commitments an opportunity to engage with employers outside of school hours.
A dedicated team will be on hand to support careers leads in planning and booking events, and will also be able to provide more information around travel bursaries, if required.
For further information please contact faywinterburn@warwickshire.gov.uk