New SEND and Inclusion Strategy launched

Last month, Warwickshire County Council’s Cabinet approved a new strategy to support learners with Special Education Needs and Disabilities (SEND).

This follows a full consultation with SEND learners, parents/carers, teachers and other stakeholders during November and December 2018. Responses were analysed during workshops and meetings, with the majority of respondents agreeing with the proposed vision and priorities of the strategy.

The new strategy will build on the Vulnerable Learners Strategy 2015-2018, working in partnership with schools, parents and their children to involve them in key decisions to deliver an effective SEND system.

By working in partnership, it will ensure that the needs of SEND learners are met in all educational settings, which means schools can focus on supporting vulnerable learners to be independent and safe in school and beyond.

A leaflet summarising the six priorities and key activities to deliver each of these, will be distributed to parents/carers and to all Warwickshire schools over the coming weeks. In the meantime, both documents are available online via the links below: 

Read the leaflet here

Read the full strategy document here

Legal advice for schools - Social Media and Surveillance

Warwickshire Legal Services has issued this important message to make schools aware of the risks associated with repeated or extensive viewing of social media accounts

With the prevalence of social media in today’s society, it is easy to take the view that if a person shares information about themselves online that there is no limit to how this can be viewed. However, regulations are in place to protect the rights of every individual to his private and family life, his home and correspondence, and limits the rights of public authorities to interfere with this (European Convention on Human Rights – Article 8).

Any surveillance seen as necessary by a school can only be carried out for the prevention or detection of serious crime, and when this is proportionate and properly authorised. The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (‘RIPA’) governs all state agencies, including schools and local authorities to carry out covert surveillance activities and provides for an authorisation process to enable them to conduct those activities lawfully. The use of these powers is overseen by the Investigatory Powers Commissioner and the Home Office has a Code of Practice for its use.

The Code of Practice makes clear that the use of the internet to uncover information can in some circumstances amount to surveillance. This is because there may be an expectation of privacy over information which is on the internet, particularly where information on social media websites is accessed. If the study of an individual’s online presence becomes persistent, or where material obtained from any viewing is to be extracted and recorded, this may amount to an unwarranted interference with the privacy of the individual.

Headteachers should therefore be aware that repeated or extensive viewing by staff of social media accounts, including twitter and facebook posts, without the individuals’ knowledge, may risk interfering with the privacy of those persons and constitute “surveillance”.  

It is unlikely that an authorisation under RIPA will be available for such surveillance since it will not be carried out for the purposes of a criminal investigation. Nevertheless, the County Council has a policy in place which provides that an application must be considered by the Assistant Director (Policy and Governance), the Senior Responsible Officer for RIPA, where it is proposed to carry out covert surveillance, even if this is not covered by RIPA.

The County Council’s policy and further guidance on RIPA and surveillance is available here: https://i.warwickshire.gov.uk/content/ripa-regulation-investigatory-powers-act-2000/ripa-regulation-investigatory-powers-act-2000

Or you can seek further case specific advice from the Council’s Education Solicitor Guy Darvill on:  01926 476973, guydarvill@warwickshire.gov.uk 

Support for raising awareness around dental health

National Smile Month, the largest and longest-running campaign promoting good oral health, runs from 13 May to 13 June 2019. 

According to Public Health England a quarter of five year olds have tooth decay, with an average of three or four teeth being affected.

This leads to around 60,000 missed school days a year and causes problems with eating and sleeping. Children’s tooth extractions are also one of the largest causes of hospital admissions in the UK.

School Health are promoting National Smile Month and have some excellent resources to help support schools in raising awareness around dental health.  Our Health Support Workers have already made a number of bookings to work with schools to deliver sessions promoting dental health with pupils. If you would like us to visit your school then please give us a call on 03300 245204.

Our contact details

• ChatHealth – Young People can contact us directly using our confidential text messaging number – 07507331525
• ChatHealth Parentline – Parents can contact us directly using our confidential text messaging number – 07520619376
• Central number for schools - schools wishing to contact the School Health Service can use the central number 03300 245204, selecting option 1,2 or 3 depending on where your school is located.

School Health would really like to attend as many school events as possible.  So if you have a sports day, open day, parents evening or any community events taking place in the near future, then please give us a call and we will endeavour to attend.  If we aren’t able to attend we will send you some information which could be displayed about the School Health service.

KS2 Agreement trialling meetings show improvements in quality of writing and teacher knowledge

Warwickshire's Assessment Team recently ran a series of Agreement Trialling meetings for Key Stage 2 writing assessments for teachers in Year 3 and Year 4. 

The aim of the sessions were to ensure teachers:

• were up-to-date with the latest assessment information and documentation
• understood their role in helping children to secure the writing skills (compositional and transcriptional) that underpin statutory end of Key Stage 2 assessment – and in-school, consortia
  moderation
• had an opportunity to present and discuss their evidence trails for writing at this point, during the school year
• could accurately moderate their judgements with colleagues from other schools, outside their consortia
• could share and evaluate good practice, processes and systems, compare their body of evidence with others and identify their own next-steps

Evaluation

Over the four half-day sessions, approximately 85 teachers attended from a mixture of Years 3 and 4. Teachers from the same school were encouraged to sit separately unless they were current job-shares.

After sharing and clarifying expectations around the statutory knowledge and skills outlined in the national curriculum programmes of study; the end of KS1 and KS2 Teacher Assessment Frameworks and the corresponding recording grids, a considerable proportion of time was scheduled for collective discussion and moderation around the given standards (age-related expected standard or age-related greater-depth standard) using a clear set of criteria.

All attendees brought and presented a range of writing evidence, working either as a group or in pairs to discuss and agree their teacher assessment judgements. Teachers engaged enthusiastically and were openly encouraged to reflect upon, and evaluate, the quality and quantity of their evidence at this point in the year, consider how it compared with others in the group, the accuracy and robustness of their assessments, and to identify next step actions to move their practice on.

Since the initial core offer of professional development in 2015, the subsequent ATMs, and the roll out of consortia moderation for the whole of KS2, there have been significant improvements to the quality and quantity of writing in Years 3 and 4, as well as in teacher knowledge and expertise.

Teachers in lower KS2 now have a far greater understanding of the statements within the national standards, and their engagement in the process of moderation has improved tenfold. Increased accountability across both year groups is clearly evident, as teachers demonstrate a greater understanding of the important role they play in statutory end of KS2 assessment. They are far more confident and willing to present and discuss both their own and each others’ writing trails; are increasingly adept at identifying their own strengths, gaps in skills coverage and balance of genres and text types; are much more willing to share good practice such as, curriculum themes and texts that excite and engage children, as well as effective systems and processes for editing and proof reading the compositional and transcriptional elements of writing.

These meetings have a ‘buzz’ and evaluative feedback confirms all the above.

For further information about these meetings please contact edassessment@warwickshire.gov.uk

Westgate Primary is the latest Educaterers school to receive top food hygiene rating

Westgate Primary School in Warwick has received a five star food hygiene rating – the highest rating possible – from the Food Standards Agency.

The school’s catering premises, which are run by Midlands-based school caterers, Educaterers, were inspected by food safety officers and rated ‘very good’ across the board.

Hygienic food handling, cleanliness and the condition of the facilities and building, and the management of food safety all received the top marks from the Food Standards Agency.

Read the full article

Arts & Minds competition - open for entries!

2019 entries now open!

Arts & Minds is a schools-based competition organised by the NASUWT to celebrate Black History Month.

The competition is open to children and young people from primary, secondary and special schools across the UK and includes categories based around art, creative writing and The Anne Frank Poetry Award. Entries must explore themes around diversity, race, equality and identity and reflect the competition's aims to promote cultural diversity and equality and tackle racism in schools.

Prizes include £1,000 for the overall winning school and £350 for the winning schools in each of the three categories - primary, secondary and special, which will be presented at a prestigious awards ceremony in London on 8 October 2019. 

Closing date for entries is 5 July 2019.

For more information see the NASUWT website.

Free assembly plan - epilepsy awareness

It's National Epilepsy Week 20-26 May, and the Epilepsy Society, the UK's leading charity for epilepsy research and support, has put together a free, interactive resource for schools to raise awareness.

The pack includes an assembly plan aimed at Key Stage 2 and explores some exciting facts about the brain, what causes a seizure and how to help someone who is having a convulsive seizure. There is a powerpoint and detailed script/guide for the person delivering the assembly.

Download your free resource pack here.

Poster competition

The Epilepsy Society is also running a nationwide poster competition for pupils to design a poster about Seizure First Aid. The winning pupil will receive a £25 voucher and £100 for their school's science department.

1 in 20 people will have a seizure at some point in their lives so to provide children with advice on how to safely help someone could make a real difference.

Need to get hold of further information / contact details to include here