Welcome

Welcome to the latest edition of Heads Up.

Since our last newsletter came out before the half term, Public Health England (PHE) has issued specific guidance to educational settings to help them advise staff, pupils and parents to try and prevent the spread of coronavirus. We will keep you updated via Heads Up on the latest information and all schools should also be receiving the latest updates directly from PHE.

We currently have no school closures in Warwickshire due to coronavirus, although we have had one school take the decision, following government advice, to send some pupils home as a precautionary measure. The general advice from PHE is that schools should not close completely in an attempt to prevent the spread of the virus. However, given the complexity of the situation PHE is available to talk to schools to help them make the right decision based on their specific circumstances. 

Please read the full update on the coronavirus here.

A key date coming up for parents and secondary schools next week is National Offer Day, on 2 March. The following information should equip you with the nuts and bolts of the process around the event, which you can share with your parents and community on your website and social media. 

We will also be using our own communications channels to push this information out and to inform parents of the process, with a dedicated link from the front page of the main WCC website and with messages on our Facebook and Twitter accounts. If you don't already follow @wcc_schools now is a good time to do so and we would encourage you to retweet any content we put out - it could help to reach more families and also saves you having to create your own content. 

Online applications: Parents who have applied online, will be able to log in to their online parent portal account on 2 March 2020 to see which secondary school their child has been offered. They will also receive an email with the name of the school their child has been offered, together with a link to information on what to do next. While it is expected that these emails will be received by 11am, this will depend on the service provider so please allow time for a slight delay before contacting us by phone.

Paper applications: Parents who have submitted a paper application, or via the telephone, will receive an offer which should arrive in the post during the week of Monday 2 March. It will also explain how to accept or decline the offer. Parents should allow four working days for their letter to arrive.

What parents should do if they don't receive an offer: If parents don't receive their child’s offer by noon on Thursday 5 March, they can call School admissions on 01926 414143 (select option 2). Admissions staff will then be able to tell them their child’s offer over the phone.

Acceptance and appeals: We highly recommend that parents accept the primary/infant school place that is offered to their child, even if it is not their preferred school.

If parents applied online, they can log in to their online account to accept the school they have been offered

If a child is not offered a school place they will automatically be placed onto a waiting list. The only exception to this would be if a parent has applied for a grammar school and their child has not achieved the minimum score in the 11+ test needed to be on the waiting list for that school. It is worth remembering that being on a waiting list does not mean that a place will definitely become available. If parents would like appeal the decision, the can do so here: www.warwickshire.gov.uk/schoolappeals

For full information parents can visit the secondary offer day webpage.

I hope this information is useful. Please don't hesitate to contact us if you'd like any further clarification.  

With best wishes, 

Ian Budd

Assistant Director for Education Services