HEADS UP

Heads Up 25 September 2020

WE3 Family of schools

Period product scheme for schools and colleges in England

Learners at all state-maintained schools and 16 to 19 education organisations in England have access to free period products in their place of study. Schools and colleges can order free period products through a government scheme and they have access to a wide range of period products in the most cost-effective and efficient way. 

In the guidance below you can find more information on:

  • choosing and ordering period products
  • distributing products within institutions
  • tackling stigma

Find the guidance here.

School Sustainability Lead Officer

We are pleased to announce that we have extended the closing date for this important job within WCC Education and Early Years Services. 

This is an important role which will make a critical contribution to school improvement work and will focus on school performance, developing sustainable schools and collaboration with key stakeholders, partners and other services.

As a Lead Officer you will be part of the team which fulfils the Local Authority’s statutory duties to ensure school performance and standards are of the highest quality. This particular sustainability role is responsible for working with schools to address challenges such as school organisational change, schools in exceptional circumstances and supporting recovery work, for example improving resource management and addressing deficit budgets.

 

Please for more information click here. 

Our Nightingale Hub - Catch Up Funding: An example

Nurture and the principles of nurture have always been central to the ethos at St. John’s. All staff have been carefully recruited to support Senior Leaders in enabling children to overcome emotional barriers and successfully access learning at whatever level is appropriate to them at that particular time.

Following closure of schools to all except key workers in March, we, like all other schools remained in close contact with our families, in particular those with additional needs or potentially vulnerable. During the pandemic we further developed relationships with parents and carers to a level where they would approach us if they were having difficulties or needed support themselves. It soon became apparent that we would have a significant number of children, who for whatever reason, could present as school refusers, need extra nurturing and emotional support or just not be ready for the structure and routine of everyday “new normal”.

We decided to set up our Nightingale Hub as a bubble to support those children back into school, liaising closely with parents we created a safe additional class, staffed by a teacher and with SLT support to facilitate a successful return to school. The aims of our Nightingale Hub are:

  • Support a positive return to school.
  • Support the period of re-adjustment and help to re-establish relationships with adults and peers.
  • Additional provision for morning transition, including time for calming and settling.
  • Targeted support to teach mindfulness and breathing techniques.
  • Additional focus on well-being and emotion coaching approaches.
  • Opportunity to develop emotional literacy and strategies for self-regulation.
  • Intervention to re-establish and develop essential learning skills of memory and recall.
  • Clear structure and routine and help rebuild concentration and focus through ‘chunked’ learning.
  • Focus on individualised programmes for key learning in Maths, reading, spelling and grammar (this will require liaison with and input from class teacher).
  • Incorporate classroom learning opportunities in a supported manner (English recovery curriculum, Learning theme and science curriculum).
  • Support the transition back into the class.

The Hub is a safe and calm environment with its own entrance, this makes it easier for children with high levels of anxiety to come into school discretely. It is based on the principles of nurture and has input from the Assistant Head for Pastoral and Inclusion on a daily basis to ensure a high level of support for the children. The vision was the children would reintegrate back into their own class after intervention and this could take anything up to a term. Nightingale would then be used more flexibly for emergency places should the need arise. Please find here the area that we focus. 

It has been worth the investment, the children are calmer, more settled and will have a much quicker integration back into the classroom than we thought. This can facilitate the Hub teacher undertaking some targeted interventions in the future.

 

In photo: Mrs Andrea Eastham (SENDCo) and Mr Scott McKenzie (Teacher delivering the intervention)

Article written by Mr Darren Barrow (Head Teacher)

Statutory School Census - 2020/21 Academic Year

The statutory school census dates of the 2020/21 academic year are as follows: 

                                Census Day             Deadline for return to LA 

Autumn                    Thu 1st Oct                          Fri 2nd Oct 

Spring                      Thu 21st Jan                        Fri 22nd Jan 

Summer                  Thu 20th May                       Fri 21st May 

The data collected via these returns are used by the DFE for funding purposes, to support strategic objectives and to inform policy decisions. As in previous years, the autumn school census will be used to fund the schools block of the dedicated schools grant.  

It is therefore vitally important that you are satisfied with the accuracy of your schools’ return before uploading it to the LA, and that it is returned by the prescribed deadline.  

Prior to each census ICT Development Service will up-load census documentation to the Warwickshire Learning Platform (WeLearn365) which can be found at: http://bit.ly/midaspages and on the download site http://wsd.we-learn.com/downloads. These will assist you in preparing and running your census returns. 

If you have any technical queries regarding the SIMS system and generating the return please contact the ICT Development Service Desk on (01926) 414100. 

If you have any other questions about this data collection, please contact Michelle Ali, Business Intelligence on 01926 742169 or by e-mail businessintelligence@warwickshire.gov.uk 

Senior Leaders’ Webinars

As outlined in Heads Up at the beginning of term, we have partnered with Gateway Alliance to offer you access to a series of educational leadership webinars. These webinars will be running throughout the year and will feature prominent inspirational speakers who will be addressing leadership themes through the current context in which schools are operating.

The next webinar is coming up on Thursday 8th October (10:00-11:00am), is entitled “Tackling the Language Gap and Accessing the Curriculum” and is being led by Alex Quigley - National Content Manager at the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) and author of both ‘Closing the Vocabulary Gap’ and ‘Closing the Reading Gap’.

This is the 2nd in a series of 7 webinars which form part of Gateway Alliance’s Senior Leaders’ Network - CPD Programme. The Local Authority have funded schools’ access to 3 of these 7 webinars. Schools can choose which 3 are most relevant to them and, if schools wish to access more of the sessions, these can be purchased through Gateway Alliance.

HOW TO BOOK

You can book your place at these webinars by visiting the Gateway Alliance website: www.gatewayalliance.co.uk/finder/ just search subject ‘Senior Leaders’. In order to access your 3 FREE sessions you will need to use voucher code: SLweb3! when making your booking. If you subscribe to the Gateway Alliance already – please log-in to your account before you book on.

 

To browse Gateway’s full CPD programme for 2020-21 please take a look at their Training and Development Brochure.

 

If you have any questions or queries please contact Gateway Alliance on 02476 347697 or email: info@gatewayalliance.co.uk

Educational opportunities from the Holocaust Educational Trust

The education team of the Holocaust Educational Trust has put together ways to support teachers throughout the school year. 

The trust is offering for free: 

  • Teacher Training/CPD programme

Free online teacher training opportunities to support primary and secondary teachers at all stages in their careers, including those currently undertaking teacher training programmes. 

  • Educational resources

Free, downloadable lesson plans, classroom resources and guidance documents for teachers. 

  • Outreach Programme

The team is working directly with schools to coordinate live online Holocaust survivor testimony with schools and students across the UK. These sessions are delivered over video call platforms including Zoom, Google Meets or Teams, for the academic year 2020-2021.

Please check here more details. 

Heat4Health project

Heat4Heath project aims to support vulnerable people, including 0-24 SEND families, to achieve affordable warmth by improving energy efficiency, providing energy advice and where possible reducing fuel bills and accessing grants. 

This scheme covers Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Coventry and Solihull.

Please see attached summary and leaflets(for residents and professionals) about the Heat4Health project.

To make a referral, you can do any of the following

  • Complete a short, easy, online Enquiry Form hactonenergy.org.uk/contact-us/
  • Contact Act on Energy on 0800 988 2881
  • Email advice@actonenergy.org.uk
  • Contact your local Community Outreach Worker by telephone or text:
    • Amanda 07458 306300                 North Worcestershire & Solihull
    • Alvynne 07458 306298                 South Warwickshire & South Worcestershire
    • Josie 07458 306299                 North Warwickshire & Coventry

Covid-19 Return to School - Attendance Information and advice for Head teachers

We all know that returning to school is vital for children's education and for their well-being. Some parents are reluctant to send their children back to school.

Click on the link below to read some comprehensive advice and ideas of what to say to them, how to get help for them and how to support them. There is also advice on absence coding for a range of scenarios involving COVID testing and isolation absence, along with some advice regarding the use of part time timetables as a bridge to full-time attendance. 

Please read more here. 

Changes to admissions process

Over the Autumn term Admissions Service are reviewing the guidance WCC provides to schools relating to the admission process. Today we are rolling out two changes to the existing practice as we strive to improve the experience of the admission process for parents and schools.
1. New functionality has been made available within Synergy Web (previously known as SAM) and is now live for schools to provide live updates on the number of pupils you have on roll in each year group. (Find here the Synergy Web guide)
We ask that all schools please check this information currently displayed and keep this information up to date as this will allow the admission teams to better advise parents and carers of spaces available at your school, the guidance below outlines the steps you will need to take with Synergy Web to update this information.
2. Previous School Information (PSI) (find here the document) questions will now be answered directly by the parents as part of the online application process for in year applications and available for schools to view as part of the application details within Synergy Web. The existing form has been a identified as a significant cause for delays in the processing of in year applications and has at times lead to children missing out on school unnecessarily while the admissions team wait for this information to be received. We intend to operate this new process for a trial period from now until the end of October and welcome any feedback heads may have on how this process can be improved further. 
Moving the collection of this data online aims to provide a simpler process for parents and still ensure schools have the correct information to identify if a child falls under the Fair Access Protocol.  The information schools now see will appear slightly differently than with the previous process and guidance on how to view this is outlined below.
We are committed to improving communication around admissions and remind heads there is now a dedicated inbox for any concerns or queries you may have regarding the Admissions process.

headteacheradmissions@warwickshire.gov.uk

The Challenges of Blended Learning

Sarah Fitzgerald, Teacher Advisor from ICT Services has been supporting schools with this challenging issue and has shared below some real-life scenarios.  She has also made suggestions regarding managing Parents Evenings in our current context.
 

One form entry and everyone is isolating: The  teacher is also working at home delivering the same lessons through MS Teams /Gsuite using a mixture of powerpoint, maths/literacy subscriptions such as White Rose maths, websites, DfE resources plus live webinars to the children at home  and then setting them assignments or homework which they mark online.  Added advantage is online evidence to demonstrate to OFSTED .  Feedback from staff and parents on this approach has been really positive.

 

Two form entry: If you have a split year group,  in two classes then you will still have one teacher at school teaching their class.  While the other class isolates at home the teacher would be doing the above. 

 

Two form entry with a poorly member of staff who is unable to work:

Solution: A

The teacher from that year group who is well,  delivers a live teaching sessions to both classes regardless if they are at home or in school.   The teacher records it just in case a pupil can’t get to a computer.    For those at home the children can still talk to their teacher as they would do in school via chat.

 

Marking work:

Children's could be uploaded and set as an assignment for those working at home and homework online for everyone. If TA support available, they could be tasked with uploading the materials to the online class team.  Marking would be done half online and obviously some in books.  

 

Solution: B

One school uses the phase leaders to set all of the online work for the school and the teachers just teach in the classroom whilst online to both pupils in school and at home.

 

A FAQ from one school:

 If a school sends say Y7 home to isolate, the Y7 teachers deliver online lessons etc. If only sending half of the bubble home, they are then having to deliver F2F and online at the same time

Answer: Deliver the lesson live to everyone at the same time and record it: those is school receive face to face teaching and those at home can also see it at the same time but it will be online. If they can’t get to the lesson the recording is available for them to watch when they can access a computer.

Welford on Avon Primary School has kindly shared with us an example of their communication to parents:
'This message is for those people who are working at home today. Everything that you need for today is in the files section of the Teams page. 

If you child would like to log in at 9am to follow the lessons then that is perfectly fine and I shall be on screen and they can listen to the teaching input for every lesson. If they would prefer to hear the input for each lesson and work at their own pace then I shall be free at 9:30am to talk them through the day.'


Parents Evenings
 
Schools in contact with Sarah have indicated they are intending to do their parent evening online.

A guest can be invited to a MS Teams meeting via their outlook calendar and a meeting created just for that parents without them using a child’s log in details.  That obviously requires parents to share their email addresses with school.  This approach ensures a private meeting.  Sarah recommends schools do not create one Team meeting and invite parents in and out of that one meeting, due to potential issues re chat conversation threads and crossover of parents.

There clearly can't be a 'one size fits all' approach to the challenges of Blended Learning but we are happy to share examples of good practice from schools as above so please do share with Sarah or any member of the School Improvement Team.

Headteacher Wellbeing

Just a reminder that we are still offering our ‘Listening Ear’ service, along with some forthcoming webinars specifically to support Headteacher wellbeing and in the spring term a coaching course for Headteachers, following which we are hoping to form a group of Headteachers available to support their colleagues through coaching.
Please find here a full list of resources to support Headteachers with their own mental health and well-being: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. 

Save the date – Nuneaton Education Alliance Launch

Tuesday 6th October 2020, 13.30-15.00

We would like to invite all Nuneaton heads to a launch of the Nuneaton Education Alliance. This exciting work has been developed as part of the Nuneaton Education Strategy. The event will be held virtually on Microsoft Team.  Please check Heads Up next week for further details.

Recovery Fund

  • We know there is an overwhelming amount of work to do and information to receive at the moment and in recognition of that we are happy to extend the deadline to receive Action Plans from Consortia/Secondary Area Network Leads until Friday 9th October.  Chairs should receive notification from Sophie Thompson today of their consortium/network allocation.
  • Consortia have freedom -within the '5 levers of recovery' (relationships, community, curriculum, metacognition, disadvantage) - to decide on the content of their plan and which partners/providers - if any - they work with.  We would like to draw your attention, however, to a selection of programmes on offer from CUREE (the Centre for the use of Research and Evidence in Education).  Some of you have previously with CUREE on a WCC 'closing the gap' project and will remember their focus on use evidence-based research, their information analysis, and their support with identifying effective strategies .  CUREE are able to offer cpd support for consortia on  coaching and mentoring for school improvement and staff wellbeing; increasing the impact of your CPD on staff and pupil learning; using Research Lesson Study (RLS) to close the gap and removing barriers to literacy.  The packages are ready priced up according to number of schools.  To find out more see here.  For further information please contact bart.crisp@curee.co.uk or  rebecca.reybould@curee.co.uk
     
  • We know that colleagues in Nuneaton schools are likely to be participating in one or all of the strands of the Nuneaton Education Alliance (the Thrive Approach, Talk for Reading and an upcoming maths strand).  We appreciate that consortia in this area may choose to use some of their Recovery Fund to link to this work. 
Taylorfitch. Bringing Newsletters to life