Outstanding result for Rugby childminder

Congratulations to Crang Juliet (Childminder - Rugby) who recently received ‘Outstanding’ judgements across all the four inspection areas - quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development and leadership and management.

Ofsted stated:

The childminder is extremely effective in evaluating her own practice. She accurately identifies her skills and areas she can improve. The childminder has a positive attitude and is proactive in making necessary improvements. She seeks out specific training to support gaps in her knowledge and extensively researches practices in childcare and engages in webinars. The childminder frequently spends time with other providers and is highly effective in sharing ideas for activities and good practice.

Young children play harmoniously alongside one another. The childminder knows the children in her care extremely well. She knows the signs that indicate children are tired and how their mood changes.

The childminder's practice is extremely consistent in ensuring children are always emotionally secure.  The childminder extensively supports the children, so they know what is going to happen next.

The childminder is very flexible in her approach to how activities are implemented. She makes excellent use of what she knows from her assessments of children's development and plans for specific learning intentions for each child. The childminder is highly effective in adapting activities and following the children's spontaneous interests and supporting them to lead their own learning.

Children are making outstanding progress across the seven areas of learning. The childminder skilfully incorporates the children's interests in the adult-led activities.

Children with English as an additional language are supported extremely well by the childminder. She is fluent in French and therefore can fully converse with children in their home language. The childminder is highly effective in using this attribute to extend children's English-speaking skills, significantly enabling them to communicate with adults and children alike.

The childminder has established excellent strategies for working in partnership with parents. She extensively shares with parents their children's achievements, her current plans and specific targets for their individual children to make progress. Parents describe the childminder as excellent.

You can read the full report on Ofsted's website here.

Education resources for Victory in Europe Day (VE Day)

Keeping residents and communities safe in Warwickshire

Residents in Warwickshire can access a whole raft of information and advice online to help keep themselves and others in their community safe by visiting the Safe in Warwickshire website.

The website was set up by the multi-agency Safer Warwickshire Partnership Board and aims to provide easily accessible information to help reduce crime and disorder and promote safety in Warwickshire.

Within the site, which is updated daily, there are links to Cyber Crime, Prevent, Exploitation, Hate Crime, Domestic Violence, Crime Prevention, Trading Standards updates and a whole host of other useful links to Community Safety matters. 

A regular e-newsletter is also sent out to keep people updated on the latest information and anyone who would like to receive this can sign up here.

The information would be helpful to students, parents and carers and staff in your school so we would encourage you to share the link to the website through your newsletters and website.

Visit the Safe in Warwickshire website

New wellness support for Warwickshire County Council foster carers

Updated information on support for service children in schools

Educaterers post recipe a day so school dinners can be recreated at home!

With many children not at school right now, parents and carers may be getting requests to recreate their regular school dinners at home.

And as school meals aren’t what they used to be – with fresh fruit kebabs on the menu, rather than semolina pudding – it’s perhaps not surprising!

So Warwickshire-based school caterers, Educaterers, are posting a recipe a day on social media from their Educaterers Recipe Book, via the Warwickshire County Council Twitter and WCC Facebook accounts, hashtag #Educaterers.

The recipe book was developed by Educaterers to help pupils and their families to re-create some of the school meals they enjoy at home and encourage healthy eating. You can download the whole book for free here.

Prior to the Covid-19 outbreak, Educaterers worked with the pupils and staff of Birchwood Primary School in Dordon, north Warwickshire, to test out and develop some of the recipes included in the book ~ including the first recipe which was posted on Thursday 16th April, Funny Face Pizzas!

Also included in the recipe book is a simple recipe for hand-baked bread, which can be used as a base for the pizza.

Other recipes are Chef’s Sausage Rolls with a Twist, Fantastic Fish Cakes and, for the more adventurous, Chilli Chicken Fritta with Coconut Spinach.

For those with a sweet tooth, there are also recipes for Up-beet Chocolate Muffins and Lemon Drizzle Cake.

Warwickshire Fire & Rescue Service are reminding parents and carers that this is also a good opportunity to teach children about fire safety in the kitchen.

Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Services Community Fire Safety and Arson Manager, Moreno Francioso, said: “Alongside the fun activities such as cooking cakes and biscuits, why not test your smoke alarms as part of the activity, and remember, never leave a child unattended in the kitchen when the appliances are turned on.”

Tips to help keep you and your family safe while cooking at home include:

• Avoid leaving children in the kitchen alone when cooking. Keep matches and saucepan handles out of their reach to keep them safe.
• Don’t leave cooking unattended.
• If a pan catches fire, don’t take any risks – Get Out, Stay Out, and Call 999.
• Keep tea towels and cloths away from the cooker and hob.
• Take care if you’re wearing loose clothing – this can easily catch fire.
• Take care with electrics – keep leads and appliances away from water and place grills and toasters away from curtains and kitchen rolls.
• Make sure you have at least one smoke alarm on every level of your home and test them regularly.