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

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.