Organisations in the West Midlands prove their staff can Thrive at Work
Organisations across the region have officially been recognised by the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) for their work in actively promoting the health and wellbeing of their staff.
Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands and Dr Julie Nugent, the WMCA’s executive director for economic delivery, skills and communities, joined a virtual event this week in which 53 employers received accreditation for their work under the Thrive at Work scheme.
Initially set up in 2018, Thrive At Work supports organisations in improving the health and wellbeing of their employees, with accreditation enabling them to demonstrate their commitment to good employee welfare.
The programme is part-funded through the Mental Health and Productivity Pilot.
Of the 53 employers recognised at the event, 37 achieved Foundation Level, 14 were accredited with bronze and for the first time this year two were accredited at silver.
Continue reading here.
Regional Youth Orchestra
Warwickshire Music worked in collaboration with Coventry and Solihull Music Hubs over the weekend of 19th and 20th November 2022, to deliver our first Regional Youth Orchestra of the year at Kings High School, Warwick.
Over forty young musicians who have achieved a standard of grade 5 and above, from across these three areas joined together to perform Handel's Fireworks Music, Stravinsky's Firebird, Copland's Hoe Down and Pirates of the Caribbean by Klaus Badelt. Staff from the three music services worked with the young people across the two days which culminated in an amazing concert to families and friends.
Feedback from parents has been incredibly positive:
"I would like to thank all the teachers and Warwickshire Music for organising this wonderful opportunity"
"The performance was brilliant! Thank for your dedication to these young people!" 
"The weekend course was so inspirational and enjoyed by all, course delegates and parents alike! The standard of playing in the concert was jaw-dropping - far beyond what is expected after a two-day course!"
"Our son thoroughly enjoyed himself, he is still buzzing three days on! This is a fantastic course he will definitely remember forever - so thank you from the bottom of our hearts".
We look forward to our next Regional Orchestra course on January 7th and 8th 2023 that will be delivered in partnership with the National Youth Orchestra.
For more information about the Regional Youth Orchestra and to find out how your students can join the January course, please contact Kay Hinkle at Warwickshire Music: kayhinkle@warwickshire.gov.uk
Exclusions and suspensions
Exclusion is a serious matter. Only a school’s headteacher (or a person with the authority to act on behalf of the headteacher) can exclude a pupil.
Warwickshire's webpage for school exclusions is https://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/exclusions and you can find all the documents and model letters.
If you need to contact/notify the team please email them on: exclusions@warwickshire.gov.uk
Year7 arson awareness
Warwickshire Fire & Rescue Service Prevention Team has recently been busy delivering important fire safety and arson awareness sessions to Y7 pupils in Warwickshire schools. The session continues the golden thread of our targeted education programme, building on knowledge and awareness gained during Y1 and Y5 sessions.
We introduce the concept of short- and long-term consequences of fire-play and arson. The students are shown quite a hard-hitting video of a young boy who suffered terrible burns and mental trauma after he was 'playing with fire' and then encouraged to share their thoughts about what they have seen. We then divide the students into small groups and each group is presented with a theme to discuss the consequences of arson fires which they are then encouraged to feed back to the class. These include environmental, financial, social & emotional, emergency services, legal and health. This is an opportunity for the students to be as creative as they like and to showcase their own ideas! We have had some fantastic diagrams, posters, flow charts, stage performances and even some rap performances!
When they are given the freedom to choose their own style of presentation, many of the students become very engaged with the topic and the message that they are trying to deliver. It can be loud, it can be messy, but it is always fun, and the students often exceed our expectations and produce some innovative performances!
Teachers feedback has been consistently positive as can be seen from some of the comments below:
Fantastic session - well planned and delivered. Students extremely engaged especially being a Friday last lesson! Thank you.
A really well planned and resourced session led by Sara. Really raised awareness among learners.
Brilliant presentation! Very knowledgeable and great energy to keep the students engaged.
The most enjoyable part of the session was Rebecca's delivery of the session and resources - an enjoyable engaging session for the learners
At the end of the hour-long session, each student is given a Fire Safety in the Home leaflet and an arson awareness pen to keep and are encouraged to share the important messages they have learned with family and friends.
We would love to deliver more of these sessions across the County so for any schools not already taking part, please contact us to book your slot. The topic sits well within the curriculum for Year 7's and is usually delivered as part of PHSE.
For more information you can contact Sara Beirne / Rebecca Roberts on 02476 314376
Another opportunity to join a supportive group of fellow heads with HeadsUP4HTs
You can download the poster here.
Warwickshire County Council needs you - children, young people, learners, parents, carers, educators!
To make sure that our Education, learning and careers web pages are useful and accessible for all the people who use them and need them. Please take 10 minutes this December to complete our "card-sorting exercise".
Please spread the word and ask others to take part.
Celebrating community spirit
Communities across Warwickshire continue to support each other through challenging times with so much great work taking place to make life a little easier for people in need.
Warwickshire County Council is using the festive period, traditionally known as a time for giving, to share details of local projects set up with community funding and offer some ideas for people looking to spread a little kindness and good will.
Throughout December people can follow the council’s festive countdown Advent Calendar for stories about some of the voluntary groups, organisations and individuals who are strengthening Warwickshire communities, and for information to help one another stay safe and well.
People’s own community stories can be with the county council on Facebook and Instagram using #KindWarwickshire.
For advice or support to help people through difficult financial times there is lots of information on the Cost of Living website.
Health and wellbeing information and advice through the cold winter months can be found on our wellness webpages.
Update information re: the U-18 Integrated Care Record (ICR)
You will be aware that work was undertaken earlier this year to enable the Integrated Care Record (ICR) to go LIVE in Warwickshire. On completion, health and social care professionals across the county now have a more joined-up view of patient records.
The second phase is now underway and this includes children and young adults under the age of 18. Soon, Children and Families social care staff (as well as Adult Social Care staff), will be able to view health records of patients U-18, which are also used by health colleagues too in various health settings including hospitals, clinics, GP surgeries and specialist treatment centres.
The ICR enables health and social care practitioners the ability to make better, faster and safer care decisions. From the individual customer/patient and their parent/guardian/carer, the ICR puts less pressure on the adult to remember all the details about their own or a dependents’ care, and reduces the number of times they need to share their story or clinical history.
For more information about the ICR, please go to https://www.happyhealthylives.uk/our-system/integrated-care-record/