Securing the Best Start to Life
The Guide to Early Childhood Degrees
There are many routes into and career opportunities surrounding early childhood. It is not always straightforward, which is why Early Years Educator and Nursery World have partnered with the Early Childhood Studies Degrees Network to bring you the Guide to Early Childhood Degrees.
The guide has been put together by members of the ECSDN to give a detailed overview of the opportunities which are available around the study of early childhood.
Please find the guide here.
Domestic Abuse Training for DSLs NEW for 2022
Learn more about the domestic abuse and how you can support the children and families you work with who may be at risk.
This three-part training delivered in half a day offers practitioners the time to consider how to recognise and respond to domestic abuse.
With 1 in 5 children being exposed to domestic abuse, this training offers Designated Safeguarding Leads the additional skills to see the different ways children and families experience abuse.
Informed by the new Domestic Abuse Act 2021, the training focuses on many aspects including coercive and controlling behaviour and how to support and engage with children and families.
- DA1 Monday 9th May 2022 12:30-16:30 £40 Virtual via Microsoft Teams
- DA2 Tuesday 24th May 2022 12:30-16:30 £40 Virtual via Microsoft Teams
- DA3 Thursday 9th June 2022 9:00-13:00 £40 Virtual via Microsoft Teams
- DA4 Saturday 18th June 2022 9:00-13:00 £40 Virtual via Microsoft Teams
- DA5 Tuesday 5th July 2022 9:00-13:00 £40 Virtual via Microsoft Teams
To book click on the link: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx...
Button battery safety campaign by Child Accident Prevention Trust
Child Accident Prevention Trust are launching a UK-wide campaign on button battery safety and, thanks to generous support from the Office for Product Safety and Standards, they're delighted to offer free resources to help you spread the word.
Find out more and order resources here.
Exclusion table
This guidance refers to public health exclusions to indicate the time period an individual should not attend a setting to reduce the risk of transmission during the infectious stage.
This is different to ‘exclusion’ as used in an educational sense.
How do families arriving from Ukraine apply for a school place and childcare?
All school age children and young people arriving in England from Ukraine via the family route or sponsorship route have the right to access education and childcare.
Here is how families can apply for school and childcare places.
This article is available in both English and Ukrainian
Support for multilingual families at home: Time together booklet
National Literacy Trust have added Ukrainian to the 22 languages their Time Together booklet can be accessed in.
This booklet is a colourful and easy-to-read guide ideal to share with families and full of suggestions for supporting children's learning at home.
Find all resources here.
Learn - Explore - Debate
NCB recently worked with the Department for Education (DfE) to deliver the latest round of our Learn - Explore - Debate events. Unlike previous events, these were held specifically for school-based early years practitioners in England.
Over 450 school-based early years practitioners, as well as representatives from local authorities, signed up, over three days, to hear from the DfE and Ofsted and to connect with their colleagues from across the country. These events were planned with feedback from the Foundation Years community at the forefront of our thinking, and they focused on the Early Years Education Recovery Programme, assessment under the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile and Ofsted inspections under the revised framework.
The first session focused on COVID-19 recovery and the EYFS reforms, including presentations from the DfE, a Q&A session and a case study from Whiteknights School in Reading.
Please note, you can find the EYFS profile exemplification videos and information note mentioned by the DfE in their presentations here.
Increase in hepatitis (liver inflammation) cases in children under investigation
Regular UKHSA updates on the ongoing investigation into higher than usual rates of liver inflammation (hepatitis) in children across the UK.
UKHSA, working with Public Health Scotland, Public Health Wales and the Public Health Agency, are continuing to investigate the cases in children aged 10 and under that have occurred since January 2022. The usual viruses that cause infectious hepatitis (hepatitis A to E) have not been detected.
The cases are predominantly in children under 5 years old who showed initial symptoms of gastroenteritis illness (diarrhoea and nausea) followed by the onset of jaundice.
Read more here.
The West Midlands Ofsted Big Conversation
The West Midlands Ofsted Big Conversation is holding a Virtual Open Meeting for all providers on Tuesday 10th May 2022 from 6.30-8.30pm. This provides everyone with an opportunity to hear the latest news from Ofsted and to ask Open Questions of them, either beforehand or at the event itself.
They have also been able to secure Kate Moxley to talk to about how the sector can be fully inclusive with their wellbeing approaches. You can book direct through Eventbrite.
You will then get all the information about submitting questions and to join on the evening.
The cost is £7 per person.
https://theofstedbigconversation.co.uk/
Supporting Inclusion for SEND and Vulnerable Groups
SEND and Inclusion Change Programme – SEND Top-up Funding Trial Update
The SEND Top-up Funding Trial which launched in January 2022 is piloting two systems to make the process of applying for top-up funding simpler and more transparent.
23 schools and settings are participating in the trial, testing a Provision Calculator (matrix) and a new Costed IEP. The aim is to identify a fair and accessible system which ensures that funding is allocated fairly and at the right time. In addition, it is hoped that the trial will identify a system which can be used across all Early Years settings, mainstream schools, maintained specialist settings and Post 16 settings.
Feedback to date has been positive, with SENDCos finding the Provision Calculator particularly straightforward to complete and much quicker than the existing systems used in mainstream settings.
Warwickshire County Council is currently collating data to ensure that any potential changes are beneficial and sustainable and hope to share outcomes in the coming months.
Celebrating Warwickshire’s Family of Schools
Schools Forum Elections
Schools Forum elections for headteachers (or senior leadership representatives) and Governors opened on Friday 25 March 2022. The deadline for submitting the nomination form is on 13 May 2022. There are still several vacancies for representatives, which are comprised of the following:
- 4 vacancies for maintained primary schools
- 1 vacancy for maintained secondary schools
- 1 vacancy for maintained special schools
- 2 vacancies for primary academies
- 6 vacancies for secondary academies.
- 1 vacancy for special academies
School members should be broadly a 50:50 split between Headteachers (or their representatives) and Governors where this is possible. As a minimum, there must be at least one representative of headteachers and one representative of governors among the schools members.
The role of The Schools Forum is to act as a consultative body with regard to a range of funding decisions as listed in the Warwickshire Schools Forum Terms of Reference and the Education and Skills Funding Agency publication 'Schools Forum Powers and Responsibilities'.
This is a great opportunity for you to make a difference in Warwickshire schools.
If you are elected to Schools Forum you will be required to serve for a period of two years with the first meeting being at 2pm on Thursday 23 June, using Microsoft Teams.
Meetings are generally held on Thursdays, usually between 2pm and 4pm. It is likely these meetings will continue to be held virtually for the foreseeable future.
Future meetings dates
- 23 June 2022
- 29 September 2022
- November 2022 Extraordinary meeting (if required)
- 12 January 2023
- 23 March 2023
Further information and nomination papers please find below:
Deadline for nominations to be submitted is Friday 13 May 2022.
For any queries, please email schoolfunding@warwickshire.gov.uk
North Warwickshire Primary Science Curriculum Development Programme
The attached Primary Science Curriculum CPD, from the Science learning Partnership Curriculum Hub, is offered to all Primary Schools in North Warwickshire and Nuneaton & Bedworth (Coventry too).
Schools can access £150 of Teacher Release Payments too, and Park Lane Primary in Nuneaton have kindly offered to host this training for ease of access for local schools.
UPDATE: Summer Term Headteachers' Conference (25th May 2022)
Venue and key speaker now confirmed!
Summer Term 2022 Headteachers' Conference
Wednesday 25th May 2022 (9.30am – 3.00pm)
Venue: Best Western Plus Windmill Village Hotel, Golf Club & Spa, Birmingham Road, Allesley, Coventry, CV5 9AL
Keynote Speaker: Sir Tim Brighouse
An agenda for the conference will follow in due course. Please note that this term’s conference will NOT be held on Microsoft Teams.
School Health UK Letter - Better Lunchtimes Mark
Please find here more details on the Better Lunchtimes Mark project.
Your school can be part of the Better Lunchtimes Mark Project, in a project for schools in Warwickshire and the surrounding counties, as the project's aim is to prioritise the school lunch experience for pupils across the UK.
Here is a video explaining it:
Here is the link to sign-up and find out more:
Little Sutton English Hub newsletter
Please find here the latest edition of the Little Sutton English Hub newsletter.
Your help to gather parental feedback to improve School Admissions in Warwickshire
At Warwickshire County Council, we are reviewing the way parents and carers apply for a school place for their children. We want to ensure every parent and carer has the information and support they need to decide the most suitable education setting for their child to learn in.
We have created the following questionnaire to understand from a parent and carer perspective, their experience of applying for a school place.
Please can you encourage parents to complete this questionnaire as all feedback will be used to improve the process and how the system operates going forward.
Link to Questionnaire
Please note this request has been sent through multiple channels, we apologise if you have received this more than once.
The questionnaire will close on Monday 9th May.
Thrive at Work
We want to congratulate Baginton Fields School on achieving their foundation level Thrive at work award.
There are currently 18 schools working towards thrive across Coventry and Warwickshire 7 of which are in Warwickshire.
Schools working towards thrive can use this as evidence towards their Education staff wellbeing charter
To find out what support is available and how you can get started please contact Jenny Duggan, Thrive at work Lead for Coventry & Warwickshire at jenny.duggan@coventry.gov.uk. Or check out the website www.wmca.org.uk/thriveatwork