New senior leadership structure in Education Services

In the recent edition of Heads Up, on 2 May, we shared with you some changes within the Education Services senior leadership structure, part of the wider transformation across the council to embed our new operating model. This will ensure we are in the best shape possible to meet the challenges of the future and that we are getting the best from the resources available to us.

We can now share with you the current structure chart for Education Services (click the image below to view full size).

Please note that interim arrangements are still in place to cover the role of the Assistant Director of Education Services, with Hayley continuing to be the main point of contact until Ian Budd is well enough to return.  We wish Ian a speedy recovery and look forward to him rejoining us soon. 

Please note that there is no hierarchy in this chart with respect to the members of the team who sit underneath the Commissioning and Delivery Managers (Jane, Hayley and Sarah).

Important reminder to all schools - teaching stranger awareness

Following a number of incidents at Warwickshire schools in recent weeks, Warwickshire Safeguarding Children Board's Taking Care Scheme would like to issue an important reminder to schools about the teaching of stranger danger.

Please remind all of your school staff to follow the guidance below when communicating with children and young people around this issue.

For more information about the Education Safeguarding Service and Take Care Scheme visit www.safeguardinginwarwickshire.co.uk

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As promoted by Warwickshire Safeguarding Children Board’s Taking Care Scheme please do not teach blanket ‘stranger danger’ messages to children.

The reason for this is that sometimes a stranger is the only person who can help us and is a far safer option than not talking to anyone. E.g. a child lost in a shop is far safer to tell a stranger they are lost than to wander off looking for the person they have separated from. We may choose to discuss the likely ‘safest’ strangers in such scenarios, such as a mother with a pram or small child or someone who works in the shop.

However, we do need to clarify the stranger issue, as plainly there are situations we may want to warn children about for their own safety e.g.

• not to get in a car with anyone (NOT just someone they don’t know) unless their parent/guardian knows who/ where/ when etc and has given permission.

• not leaving school with someone other than who they were expecting unless their parent/guardian knows who/ where/ when etc and has given permission and they have checked with a school staff member. Sometimes a password system is used so that children are only released into the care of an adult who can give the correct password – this is usually changed as soon as it has been used once.

• not to walk off with anyone (NOT just someone they don’t know) unless their parent/guardian knows who/ where/ when etc and has given permission. 

• If someone tries to grab them it is ok to break all the rules of politeness to others e.g. scream, kick, punch, bite…etc. Whatever they need to do to draw attention to themselves and alert others to the fact they are in danger.

Please reinforce these safety messages to the children regularly without giving them the idea that ALL strangers are ‘bad’.

Ofsted’s publishes new inspection framework

Ofsted has how published the outcome of the consultation on its new education inspection framework, following a record 15,000 responses - the highest Ofsted has ever received.

The main changes include:

• A greater emphasis on the curriculum with a new 'quality of education'  measure

• Two new separate judgements for 'behaviour and attitudes' and 'personal development' 

• A move away from using a school's internal performance data as inspection evidence

• An increase from one to two days for short inspections, except for small schools (150 pupils or fewer on roll)

Some ideas have not made it into the new version of the framework, including the proposal to give inspectors preparation time on-site prior to the inspection.

The new framework and inspection handbooks will be used across all education inspections from September 2019. 

Teaching Leaders Programme

Do you have aspiring middle leaders? Do you want to improve your school's performance and help more children and young people from disadvantaged areas?

If the answer is yes, then the Teaching Leaders Programme might be just what you're looking for.

Delivered by registered charity, The Ambition Institute, and fully-funded by the DfE, the Teaching Leaders Programme has been independently shown to be the only middle leadership development programme in England to have an impact on pupil outcomes. It provides participants with access to over 100 hours of development across the two year course, including one-to-one coaching, national whole-cohort development days and local peer group support sessions. 

It also provides the opportunity for participants to complete either the NPQML or NPQSL through the programme.

There are no additional supply costs to the school, with all training taking place outside of school hours and the school and its pupils can directly reap the benefits:

• Primary schools - there is an increase in performance of low attaining pupils with Teaching Leaders participants, resulting in +9% in Maths, 6% in Reading and 7% in Writing.

• Secondary schools - 1 in 12 pupils achieving a grade higher at GCSE in departments led by a Teaching Leaders Participant.

The ideal candidate? A Primary phase leader or secondary head of department are obvious candidates, however there will be lots of variations to job titles, so as long as participants are in a middle leadership position, line manage another staff member and have some level of responsibility for teaching and learning outcomes in classrooms (so not staff that are 100% pastoral), they will be eligible to apply.

With the programme being fully-funded by the DfE, schools do have to meet certain eligibility criteria to be able to access this training free of charge.

Enquiries

To enquire if your school would be eligible or for further details you can visit the Ambition Institute's website, or contact Lorraine Moulton, the regional manager for Warwickshire: Lorraine.moulton@ambition.org.uk