Ready for Reception multi-agency working party

On Tuesday 20th November, colleagues from across the Early Years sector met in Warwick to contribute to developing a countywide policy/guidance for what is meant by ‘Reception Ready.’ This work is a collaborative project between Education and Public Health and sits under WE1.

The meeting was attended by colleagues from nursery, primary and special schools and representatives from Early Years Speech and Language Therapy, Early Years Integrated Disability Service, Public Health, Early Years Service, COMPASS, Early Help as well as the Clinical Lead from the Health Visiting services in South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust. The group worked together to reach a consistent, shared and agreed understanding of what school readiness looks like in Warwickshire. The policy/guidance will look at what it means to be a ‘ready child’, ‘ready parent’, ‘ready early years setting’, and ‘ready school’ and the aim is for it to be launched across Warwickshire next year.

The next meeting is planned for 24th January 2018 where the work around what a ‘ready child’ and a ‘ready parent’ looks like will be further developed.

If you feel that you would like to contribute as part of the working party please contact:

Sara Haigh, Early Years Adviser - email sarahaigh@warwickshire.gov.uk

Outstanding for nursery and pre-school in Kenilworth

Congratulations to the staff at The Burrow Nursery & Preschool in Kenilworth. The nursery recently had their first inspection since their registration with Ofsted in 2016. They received ‘Outstanding’ judgements across all of the four inspection areas - leadership and management; quality of teaching, learning and assessment; personal development, behaviour and welfare; and outcomes for children.

Ofsted stated: "This nursery and pre-school is truly inspirational. The play and learning environment is rich, varied and imaginative. Staff have exceptional teaching skills. Children are visibly happy. Staff are extremely caring and support children's emotional well-being superbly. Staff are excellent role models to the children. The extremely well qualified and knowledgeable staff and management team have an excellent drive for improvement. Staff establish extraordinarily positive partnerships with parents and keep them extremely well informed about their children's learning."

You can read the full report on the Ofsted website.

Religious Education survey for all schools

FAO. All Warwickshire schools (with the exception of Catholic schools)

Warwickshire Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education (SACRE) has a duty to monitor the provision and quality of Religious Education (RE) taught according to the locally agreed syllabus, together with monitoring the overall effectiveness of the syllabus. SACRE also plays a role in providing advice and support on the teaching of RE to Warwickshire schools.

The current syllabus was launched in 2017 and is available to all schools (except Catholic schools who follow their own syllabus) on the SACRE website.

In order to help SACRE to fulfil its statutory responsibility, we are asking RE coordinators and subject leads to complete an online survey to provide information on the provision and delivery of RE in school. The survey forms part of the overall monitoring process and data from the survey will be used to report back to SACRE on current RE provision and to offer monitoring support visits to schools where these would be helpful. 

Please follow the link below to complete the online form by Friday 21st December:

For any queries please contact sacre@warwickshire.gov.uk

Have your say! SEND and Inclusion Strategy Consultation

We launched a public consultation on 12 November on the new Warwickshire Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Inclusion Strategy.

The strategy sets out a new vision for learners with SEND and aims to turn high aspirations for our learners with SEND into a reality. All children and young people need to be equipped to live as adults in a diverse and challenging society. Whatever their ability, they need to have the opportunity of employment, to be able to take part in their local community, to assess and take appropriate risks and to live as independently as possible.

Feedback from the consultation will inform the final vision and key targets in the strategy, and if approved it will be implemented from 1st April 2019.

The consultation will run between 12 November and 21 December 2018. 

There are various ways to respond including an online questionnaire and face-to-face consultation meetings. There is also a children and young person's survey and a widget symbol version.

The full draft strategy, online questionnaire and other documents are available on the Consultation Hub.

Contact Details

For further information on this consultation:
Email: educationstrategy@warwickshire.gov.uk
Tel: 01926 745105

Warwickshire Music Annual Schools' Conference 2019

FAO. Head teachers, Music Co-ordinators and Heads of Music

Warwickshire Music Annual Schools’ Conference
Thursday March 7th 2019 – Bulkington Village Centre, School Road, Bulkington CV12 9JB
9.30am – 3.30pm

Last year Warwickshire Music ran its first Schools’ Conference for colleagues from all key stages and it was a remarkable success with increased delegate numbers – so we are doing it again.

Why should you allow your music specialist to attend?

• Free attendance
• £200 to pay for a cover teacher
• Free gift for all delegates
• The priceless opportunity to meet, to play, to talk and to learn with musically minded colleagues

The Warwickshire Music Annual Schools’ Conference is for everyone working in education who values music: classroom teachers; music teachers; music co-ordinators; secondary music teachers and head teachers.

There was a strong request from last year’s delegates for more practical workshops and more information about the amazing range of music opportunities that Warwickshire Music supports.

This year we will also focus on supporting schools for the Music Mark Award and Artsmark awards.

There are limited spaces so book now using the online form to guarantee your place:

Book my place at the Warwickshire Music Annual Schools' Conference

Please feel free to forward this invitation to colleagues in your school or setting. Come along and find out how Warwickshire Music can contribute to a broad and balanced curriculum for your school.

Jeremy Dibb
Director
Warwickshire Music

Free Maths, Physics and MFL training

Provided by the Community Academies Trust Teaching School

The purpose of this accredited training is twofold: to improve subject knowledge and to demonstrate teaching methods

Who should do this course?

• Existing teachers
• Non-subject specialist teacher
• NQTs
• Ex teachers who want to return to the teaching profession
• Unqualified teachers working in an academy
• Y6 primary school teachers involved with transition of KS2/3

Examples of how training might support you are:

• a PE teacher who has been timetabled with KS3 maths from September 2017
• a biology teacher wants to brush up on their KS4 physics knowledge 
• a maths teacher looking to return to the profession following a career break
• German teacher needs to offer KS3 French
• a music teacher with A Level French needs to cover a Y7 French group
• existing teachers want to refresh knowledge because the school is now offering A Level courses in these subjects

The training is delivered free of cost to participants and is aimed at:

• teachers with Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) who are already teaching or would like to be able to teach these subjects
• teachers whose initial training was not in maths, physics or languages who spend a considerable time teaching these subjects
• teachers who are returning to teaching after a career break
• teachers from a different phase of education

Schools will receive a bursary of £400 per candidate who successfully attends and completes these courses.

Click the links below for more details including how to book:

FREE TSST Modern Languages Subject Knowledge Enhancement Courses for Qualified Teachers

FREE TSST STEM Subject Knowledge Enhancement Courses for Qualified Teachers

School admissions arrangements for September 2020

We are required annually to consult on our admissions arrangements for children due to start school in Reception, children due to transfer from Year 2 at an infant school, and children due to start Year 7 in a secondary school.  This applies to all community and voluntary controlled schools.

For September 2020 we are consulting on making changes to the admissions over-subscription criteria.  In line with the Education Strategy and narrowing the gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers, we are proposing to amend the over-subscription criteria to weight in favour of disadvantaged pupils.

The consultation opened on 23rd November 2018 and will close on Friday 11 January 2019.

We would like to gain the opinion of as many schools as possible so would like to encourage you to look at the proposed changes and let us know what you think. The proposals are published on the admissions policies webpage. (The consultations are listed in chronological order so please refer to the documents listed with 2020-2021 entry).

All Warwickshire schools and surrounding local authorities should also have received a copy of the proposals by email. 

Responses and queries should be sent to: 

Post: Amy Taylor, School Admissions, Pupil and Student Services, Saltisford Office Park, Ansell Way, Warwick CV34 4UL

Email: schooladmissionsconsultation@warwickshire.gov.uk

Grant for Warwickshire students studying Chemistry degree course

To all Secondary Schools with Sixth Forms and FE Colleges

The Watson Scholarship for Chemistry 2018/19

Each year Warwickshire County Council offers students studying a Chemistry degree course an opportunity to apply for a grant of up to £200 to help towards the cost of their studies.

The grant is paid for by the Watson Scholarship, established in 1918 when Councillor J.A. Watson placed money in trust with the Education Committee. He specified that the income from the trust was to fund a scholarship or scholarships in Chemistry tenable at a university or similar institution.

To be eligible for consideration to receive the grant students must have the following:

• a home address within the administrative county of Warwickshire
• a Grade A Pass in A Level Chemistry
• a confirmed place on a first-degree course in Chemistry or one in which Chemistry forms a major part

The value of the scholarship is determined by the interest available from the Trust fund and the number of applicants. The maximum award payable to each student is set at £200. A single payment is made in the second term/semester of the first year of the course, after the university has confirmed the satisfactory progress of the student. If a student is successful in qualifying for the award, another letter will be sent requesting their bank details so that the payment can be made directly into their account via BACS.

If you know of any students who may qualify for this scholarship please could we ask you to inform them by forwarding a link to this page. You are also welcome to print and send copies of the application form below to any students who you think may qualify for the award.

The closing date for applications is Thursday 17th January 2019.

Prince Edward sees Skills for Employment in action

A Skills for Employment project at Campion School in Leamington Spa came under the approving eye of Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, when he visited as part of his role in support of the Duke of Edinburgh Award programme.

Year 10 pupils on the programme at the school spoke very enthusiastically to the royal visitor about the experiences and life skills they are gaining.

The prince then visited a workshop where a group of 15 Year Nine boys and girls were laying bricks and skimming plasterboard as part of a £40,000 project funded by Warwickshire County Council's Skills for Employment programme.

Delivered in partnership with Deeley Construction, the project provides hands-on experience of various skills required in the construction industry, including carpentry and drawing up plans. The prince spoke to the council's Skills for Employment manager Glenn Robinson and was very interested to hear that the project was one of 40 funded by the council in the last three years as part of its aim to ensure that every school-leaving pupil moves on to a positive destination in education, training or employment.

"The Skills for Employment project at Campion School is proving a great success thanks to the commitment of the school, the support of Deeley Construction and, of course, the excellent efforts of the boys and girls themselves," said Mr Robinson.

"It was fantastic that the prince paid a visit. He is a great advocate and supporter of the Duke of Edinburgh Award programme and it was clear that he really engaged with, and was impressed by, what is going on at Campion."

The prince's visit started at the Real Tennis Club in Leamington Spa where he played a game as part of his year-long tour of all Real Tennis venues to inspire young people to participate in the Duke of Edinburgh scheme.

The grant which funded this particular project is no longer available however for more information on the Skills for Employment programme and other funding opportunities please contact glennrobinson@warwickshire.gov.uk.