WE3 Family of schools
Grants to families on low incomes raising disabled or seriously ill children
Family Fund is a UK-wide charity providing grants for essential items to families on low incomes raising disabled or seriously ill children. The Department for Education has provided Family Fund with additional funding to support more families through the pandemic, and families are encouraged to apply for grants for items that can help their child including computers, sensory toys, clothes and family breaks.
The National Teaching Awards 2020
This week, The One Show is celebrating all those working in education as they announce the Gold Teaching Award winners.
We are proud partners of the Teaching Awards Trust and sponsor two of their Awards: Outstanding New Teacher of the Year and Lifetime Achievement.
Tune in to BBC1 every weeknight this week, at 7pm, to join the celebration and find out who will be taking home a Gold Teaching Award.
To all those nominated – we wish you the best of luck!
Warwickshire Primary School catering team win national award in recognition of outstanding efforts during Covid-19 pandemic
A primary school catering team from Warwickshire has won an award from the UK’s national school catering industry body, in recognition of their achievements in going ‘above and beyond’ to deliver school meals and more during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Educaterers catering team from Knightlow Primary School in Stretton-on-Dunsmore, near Rugby, were one of just three school catering teams from across the UK who were short-listed for the ‘Primary School Catering Team’ title in the LACA Awards for Excellence 2020, the winners of which were announced today (Wednesday 25th November).
The LACA Awards acknowledge individuals and teams who continue to make a real difference to school food and education catering.
The Knightlow Primary School Team consists of Educaterers employees Catering Supervisor, Kayleigh Hall, and Catering Assistant, Tia Nelson. Kayleigh worked as a Catering Assistant with Educaterers for 4 years prior to her appointment as Catering Supervisor in March this year, just before the start of lockdown.
Knightlow Primary School is at the heart of the village of Stretton on Dunsmore. With a population of around 1200, there is a strong community spirit in the village, with families sending their children to either Knightlow or Our Lady’s Catholic Primary School in Princethorpe, where the Educaterers catering team also provide delicious, nutritious lunches.
Knightlow Primary School remained open throughout the crisis, with Kayleigh and Tia diligently caring for and feeding vulnerable children and the children of key workers.
Read more here
Blended Learning Update
Training
Training has been offered to all primary schools (see here for Powerpoints and meeting recordings if you have missed these).
The Role of Consortia ‘Expert Users’
The consortium expert users have almost completed their training and are now in a position to provide your school and staff with remote support for:
- Remote/Bended learning options
- Microsoft Teams training
- Google Classroom training
- Purple Mash training
Specifically, your nominated expert user can help you to select an appropriate Learning Management System (MS Teams, Google Classroom, etc.) and support you and your staff in using this in a blended approach to learning. This will not only ensure that you can meet the requirements the Government has for remote learning but will also allow your staff and pupils to get the most out of these tools when used in a traditional classroom environment.
ICTDS will continue to support the expert users as they support you.
Schools are at very different stages with remote learning. Many did fantastic work with the available tools last academic year during the first lockdown and so may not feel that they need any further support at this stage.
If you would welcome support for your school please contact your allocated expert user to discuss your needs. Contact details for expert users were shared in the Education Corona bulletin for schools on 23.11.20 (to be repeated 30.11.20) and in an email directly to headteachers from Sarah Fitzgerald on 25.11.20
If you have further questions regarding this offer, please contact our Service Desk to raise a support call –ictdsservicedesk@warwickshire.gov.uk
Examples of Good Practice
See here for case studies collected by ICTDS and shared on their blended learning site. The team will continue to collect and share good examples.
Updated DFE Guidance – Remote Learning Webinars
DFE have made a variety of webinars available: this guidance has been updated with an offer for middle leaders to be delivered by Ark English Mastery via Zoom on 9th December 2020 at 4pm. Previous pre-recorded webinars are still available here.
A Day Retreat for Headteachers
A offer for Warwickshire Heads to attend a Day Retreat at a very low cost has been made by Schoolgenie, an organisation set up to support flourishing school cultures, from Jeanie Davies, Author of The Trust Revolution in Schools (Routledge, 2020) in partnership with Warwick University and Leaders from the Headteacher Supervision Hub.
The Headteacher Supervision Hub is a large team of professionally trained supervisors, aiming to develop capacity to supervise every teacher in the country. They are based at the Carnegie School of Education, Leeds.
For information about the Day Retreat look here
Senior Leaders’ Webinar – Restorative and Relational Based Practice
Working in partnership with Gateway Alliance we are pleased to share information of the next educational leadership webinar coming up this term. This is the 4th of 7 webinars that are being run by Gateway Alliance this academic year and featuring prominent inspirational speakers who will be addressing leadership themes through the current context in which schools are operating.
The next webinar, coming up on Monday 30th November (10:00-11:00am), is focused on “Restorative and Relational Based Practice” and is being led by Mark Finnis - one of the UK’s leading exponents of restorative practice.
Session Overview:
Restorative and relational based practice describe a way of being, an underpinning ethos, which enables us to build and maintain healthy relationships, resolve difficulties and repair harm when relationships breakdown.
The key learning points for the webinar are:
- An introduction to the concepts and philosophy of restorative practice
- Consider your practice
- The importance of building connection and investing in social capital – a relational model
- An overview of the social discipline window – a model of challenge and support
- Restorative language and questions
- Planning and reflection time
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 already subscribe to Gateway programmes please remember to log-in before booking your places.
To browse Gateway’s full CPD programme for 2020-21 please visit: www.gatewayalliance.co.uk/finder/. If you have any questions or queries please contact Gateway Alliance on 02476 347697 or email: info@gatewayalliance.co.uk
Covid 2020 Children's Book Book available- "The year we muddled through"
Owlet Press are offering a new book for children at a special price by a local author which helps children reflect on 2020. The book is called "The Year we Muddled Through". Orders are being taken now. For £150 Schools can receive 100 books (for £1.50 each).
The link to order is available here: