Securing the Best Start to Life
Have you signed up to hear about ofsteds new early years blog?
You’ll find out more about developments in the early years sector here. The team will use the blog to raise awareness and promote a better understanding of education and care in children’s early years.
Childcare Choices campaign promoting financial support with the cost of childcare
The Department for Education has developed a provider toolkit which contains a step-by-step guide on how to register and promote government funded childcare support to families using your service.
You can also use the parent toolkit to raise awareness of the campaign and direct your parents and carers to the Childcare Choices website which has all the information they need about the funding that eligible families could get to help pay for their early years and school aged childcare needs.
The Childcare Choices campaign aims to raise awareness and understanding of the support available from the government with the costs of childcare. You can help ensure your parents and carers aren’t missing out by directing them to the Childcare Choices website, where they can easily find the right offers of childcare support for them.
Communications toolkits and resources
Big Garden Birdwatch
Big Garden Birdwatch is fun, free and for everyone. And you don’t need a garden to take part! Counting birds from your balcony, or your local park will play a vital role in helping us understand how UK birds are doing.
Sign up for your free guide and let's look out for birds together on 27-29 January.
Free online event - Multilingualism in the early years: Celebrating every child
Louise Campbell White, EAL advisor at the Early Years Alliance, will be speaking at this free Nursery World webinar on multilingualism.
The webinar will look at approaches that celebrate and support bilingual and multilingual children as well as strategies to ensure all children are engaged in their setting's language and literacy learning.
Register for free here.
Ofsted inspections: what EY providers and practitioners need to know
Ofsted has added answers to wide range of new questions in its 'Ofsted inspections: what EY providers and practitioners need to know' guidance, including: 'How will leadership and management be looked at during my inspection?', 'Can I leave the children alone with the inspector?', 'Do I have to allow inspectors to use their phones during an inspection?' and 'Does Ofsted expect me to use formal words with children?'.
They've also made some amends to answers to existing questions.
Sensory food education
Get insights on how sensory food education can help young children engage with food, and benefit them in early years (EY) settings.
TastEd works with EY settings and primary schools, training practitioners in delivering sensory food education. TastEd - based on the Sapere method used in Finland and Sweden - gives children opportunities to explore food, using their senses, to help them learn to love eating vegetables and fruit, for life.
TastEd’s sensory food education activities support the Early Years Foundation Stage Statutory Framework and Development Matters guidance and can be used in any EY setting.
Celebrating Warwickshire’s Family of Schools
Save the date - Spring Term 2023 Headteachers' Conference
Save the Date!
Spring Term 2023 Headteachers' Conference
Thursday 23rd March 2023 (9.00am – 1.00pm)
Deli lunch bags for all delegates to eat in or take away
Venue
The University of Warwick
Rootes Building (close to the Arts Centre)
CV4 7AL
Parking will be free to delegates on the day
Agenda to follow shortly
Support for children eligible for benefits related Free School Meals
Update on the Household Support fund administered by Warwickshire’s Local Welfare Scheme:
- The Household Support Fund (HSF) is a grant that has been made available to local authorities in England to support those most in need this winter to help with global inflationary challenges and the significantly rising cost of living.
- Distribution of the grant will continue to be through the established Warwickshire Local Welfare Scheme and will take the form of food and energy support that is targeted and by application.
- There will continue to be targeted support for families/carers of children eligible for benefits related free school meals. The second automatic cost of living payment in the form of vouchers will be sent out in February and will have a minimum value of £120 (£30 per child for food support and £90 per household for utilities support.).
- We will follow the same process as we have done with previous support and will send out letters to schools this week to share with parents/carers.
- We can confirm that we will not need schools to send in updated pupil data.
- If you do have any queries, please the Local Welfare Scheme Mailbox at localwelfarescheme@warwickshire.gov.uk
Thank you for your ongoing support
Working together to improve school attendance
Recording pupils’ attendance during strike action
- If a school has to restrict attendance by telling some pupils not to attend school on a strike day, the Y code should be used for pupils who told not to attend.
- Pupils who are required to attend should be marked in the normal way. If a pupil is required to attend school on a strike day but does not, then they must be recorded as absent.
- The Y code does not count towards the pupil or school’s absence record.
Providing remote education: guidance for schools - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Prioritising attendance is essential for pupils to get the most out of their school experience, including for their attainment, wellbeing, and wider life chances.
Remote education should not be viewed as an equal alternative to attendance in school. For this reason the DfE expect schools to consider it only as a last resort when the alternative would be no education, and only after it has been established that the pupil is, or will be, absent from school. In such cases, remote education can have the benefit of allowing absent pupils to keep on track with their education and stay connected to their teachers and peers.
Schools should consider the approaches set out in this guidance while also working closely with pupils, parents, carers, and any other relevant partners such as the local authority, to remove any barriers to attendance as detailed in the Working together to improve school attendance guidance.
- Pupils absent from school and receiving remote education still need to be marked as absent in the register.
- Schools should continue to record pupil absence in the register in line with the Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006 and attendance guidance, using the most appropriate code.
2nd February 2023 – 2pm – How schools are sharing automatic daily attendance data with DfE - Governors
Reminders
- School Attendance Network – Save the Date
The Warwickshire Attendance Service and the Stowe Valley Multi Academy Trust are jointly planning a school attendance network event. The purpose of the event will be to discuss the new attendance guidance and begin the development of an attendance support network.
The proposed date is 6th March 2023, 12:30pm to 3:30pm
The initial meeting will be in person and is targeted at those responsible for school attendance, especially the school’s Attendance Champion. The venue is currently being arranged and further details will follow.
- An invitation for schools to share daily attendance data and sign up for webinars
The DfE have advised local authorities that at some point this academic year they will start to contact schools who have not yet signed up to Wonde, as this will become a requirement.
75% of schools in England (74% of schools in Warwickshire) are now sharing daily attendance data with the DfE. Sharing data means you’ll be able to access daily attendance reports on view your education data.
- To help you access and use the free reporting service, the DfE have a series of webinars for schools, trusts and local authoritiesstarting this month. They will be holding monthly webinars, where you can learn about new features and get support with non-urgent technical issues.
- Working together to improve school attendance is now the attendance guidance that should be used for schools, trusts, governing bodies and local authorities.
- Improving attendance: good practice for schools and multi-academy trusts. There are some really useful effective practice attendance webinars produced by the DfE in conjunction with schools, with good or improved attendance, sharing their good practice. It is highly recommended that your attendance lead/champion access this free resource.
- Additional attendance resources are available on the Education Huband Teaching Blogs
- The code ‘X’ code can no longer be used in the attendance register to record COVID-19 related absence.
Contact Us
If you wish to discuss any issues relating to school attendance, please feel free to contact the Warwickshire Attendance Service:
was@warwickshire.gov.uk
Guidance for Industrial Action
Please find links to two documents produced by School Improvement and HR that were sent out to school from schoolimprovement@warwickshire.gov.uk on Monday.
These were followed up in the briefing on Tuesday and now included in this issue of Heads Up. They will be reviewed every Monday during the industrial action period.
Parents and Carers Invited to Online Secondary School Offer Webinar
Parents and carers of children currently in Year 6 who submitted their application for their child to start secondary school in September 2023 will receive their secondary school offer on National Offer Day, 1 March.
To help them know what to expect, and to learn more about how to respond to the offer they’ve been made, they are invited to join our school admissions team at an online webinar on Tuesday 28 February at 7pm.
At the event, called “Getting your Secondary School Offer: Guidance for Parents and Carers”, the admissions team will share advice and guidance on the decision they will need to make to accept or decline their school offer and explain what happens next. There will also be an opportunity for them to ask questions during the event.
Anyone wanting to join the webinar should book a place online at: https://bit.ly/3iYtAZj
Any parent or carer not able to join us on the evening will be able to watch a recording shortly after, when it will be shared on the Warwickshire County Council school YouTube channel: http://bit.ly/3H13ddk
Free webinars by The National Child Sexual Abuse Centre
The National Child Sexual Abuse Centre are delivering a suite of free one-hour webinars. The webinars have been designed to give professionals working with children the knowledge and confidence to use the CSA Centre’s Signs and Indicators template and Communicating with Children Guide within their work. The sessions aim to give professionals the knowledge and confidence to act when they are concerned about a child and provide guidance on what professionals can do to help children share what they may be experiencing.
The webinars have been designed to support professionals across a range of organisations.
For further information and details on how to book a place, please use the following links:
Coventry and Central Warwickshire Teaching School Hub Update
Please find below:
Support young people to get the jump on their education and training choices
For anyone, taking a next step in life can feel daunting. But for a 14 to 19 year old young person, making a decision today that could affect the rest of their life can be overwhelming.
With either too much or not enough information about their choices, young people can struggle to move forward confidently, either taking a ‘safe’ route or settling for a path they perhaps wouldn’t have, had they known the full range of pathways open to them.
The government’s ‘Get the Jump’ Skills for Life campaign brings together, for the first time, all post-16 and post-18 education and training choices in one place, so they can make an informed decision about their next step.
The campaign covers all education and training options, and specifically spotlights technical education routes, which have lower levels of awareness:
- T Levels
- apprenticeships
- higher technical qualifications
Please support young people by directing them to the new webpage on the National Careers Service website (gov.uk/get-the-jump) and by using the materials in the ‘Get the Jump’ toolkit wherever you can.
It's sNOw joke: it's #Child Friendly Warwickshire's winter newsletter!
In this edition we’re celebrating the impact of generous festive donations, sharing ideas on how you could be more child friendly in 2023, introducing our new Young Poet Laureate and encouraging both adults and young people to #GetInvolved. Have you ever thought about fostering or becoming a Youth Councillor? You'll also find a spotlight on friends of the programme and what they’ve been up to, plus information on staying safe in wintery weather, our SEND consultations, our new Instagram channel, and the launch of our 2023 competition!
As always, don’t forget to tell us about any great child-friendly activities you’ve been doing or if you have something planned!
Read the full newsletter here and subscribe to receive future editions here.
If you have any ideas for partnership working or if you or someone you know is doing something to be more #ChildFriendly, please let us know by emailing childfriendly@warwickshire.gov.uk. You can find out more by visiting the CFW website or searching #ChildFriendlyWarwickshire on social media.
Half term events at Warwickshire Country Parks
Throughout the school holiday, parents can choose from a range of fun and educational events at Ryton Pools and Kingsbury Water Park, designed to help children learn about wildlife and develop a love for nature.
Ryton Pools:
Weekly Events at Ryton Pools:
Kingsbury Water Park
For more information about Warwickshire’s Country Parks, visit: www.countryparks.warwickshire.gov.uk