HEADS UP

WE1 Early Years

Outstanding result for Weddington Pre-School

Congratulations to all the staff at Weddington Pre-School who recently received ‘Outstanding’ judgements across all the four inspection areas - quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development and leadership and management.

Ofsted stated:

The exciting and captivating environment spurs children's thirst to learn.

Children are highly motivated, and their levels of confidence are exceptional. They have a can-do attitude to learning.

The excellent support of staff encourages children to make their own decisions based on what they know about each situation. As such, children form their own conclusions and begin to problem solve.

Children become highly skilled at regulating their own behaviour, which is commendable. They know how many children can play at an activity and understand that they need to wear a 'red band' to play.

Children independently use a sand timer to measure how long it is before their turn, waiting patiently for others to finish.

Staff know the children very well. They are passionate and hold a shared vision that all children achieve the very best they can.

Support for children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is a strong feature at the pre-school.

Parents express how 'fabulous' the pre-school is and how their children are happy and settle quickly. They form warm, close bonds with staff who care for them.

A precise focus on children's emotional well-being allows them to think about how they feel. They learn that it is okay to be happy and sad, and how to make simple changes that will affect how they feel.

You can read the full report on Ofsted's website.

WE2 An empowering curriculum

Locality events: the future of early help delivery

Children and Family Support logoFollowing on from five successful Early Help locality events in June 2019, professionals from all agencies that deliver early help are invited to attend one of these events running early in 2020.

Head Teachers, DSLs, Learning Mentors, Family Support, Pastoral Staff and anyone who runs early help/family support meetings will find these sessions beneficial.

Building on the messages delivered in June, the sessions will highlight developments for Warwickshire Children and Families and focus on the future of early help delivery through the early help ecosystem. They will also enable you to get together with professionals in your area and continue to strengthen links between your services.

Please follow the links below to book on to one of the sessions:

Warwick - Thursday 9 January 2020 9.30 - 12.30

Stratford - Friday 10 January 2020 9.30 - 12.30

Nuneaton and Bedworth - Monday 13 January 2020 9.30 - 12.30

North Warwickshire - Tuesday 14 January 2020 9.30 - 12.30

Rugby - Wednesday 15 January 2020 9.30 - 12.30

NB It will be most beneficial for you to attend the session in the locality you work in, however, if you are unable to make the session in your area you may want to attend one of the other sessions available.

 

Does your school currently arrange residential trips for outdoor education/learning?

Did you know Warwickshire has its own residential centre for Outdoor Learning, Marle Hall, located on the edge of the Snowdonia National Park in North Wales?

Marle Hall offers a range of residential outdoor learning programmes to primary and secondary schools in Warwickshire. All the courses are tailor-made in partnership with schools and are designed to meet each school’s specific learning outcomes.

We are conducting a survey of all Warwickshire schools to find out about current provision for residential outdoor educational trips, with a focus on how we can further develop the service at Marle Hall. We would be really grateful if you would answer this short survey, which will take no more than 10 minutes of your time. 

Complete the survey now

Please complete the survey until the 29th November and if you have any question please contact: Sarah Tregaskis - Service Manager - Education Service Delivery via email: sarahtregaskis@warwickshire.gov.uk

Thank you!

Free CPD opportunities for teachers of Religious Education

Warwickshire SACRE (Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education) is providing a number of free professional development opportunities for teachers of Religious Education to help them develop their subject knowledge and provide resources and ideas to support the delivery of the RE curriculum within their school. 

RE Subject Knowledge Enhancement Project

Thanks to funding from Westhill, SACRE is offering sessions to support local RE teachers and RE leaders to develop their subject knowledge.

Two sessions will be taking place next year on Islam and Judaism, held in their respective places of worship. These will be excellent CPD opportunities for anyone teaching or leading RE locally.

Please see the attached flyer for more details


Spring Term 2020 RE Subject Leader Twilights

Two new twilight sessions for RE leaders in Coventry and Warwickshire will be taking place in 2020, the first in March and second in June. If your curriculum intent involves developing critical thinkers and/or ensuring all pupils are readers then these sessions could be just what you're looking for.

Please see attached flyer for details

FREE pdnet L2 training course for SENCOs and teachers

pdnet Level 2 Training: Understanding the needs of learners with a physical disability and ways to successfully support them in school

Date: Thursday 27 February, 10am - 4pm

Venue: St Michael's Centre, Church Lane, Budbrooke, Warwick, CV35 8QL

Suitable for: SENCOs and Teachers (including NQTs)

Cost: Free to attend, lunch and refreshments provided

We are delighted to be able to offer your school two free places for the pdnet L2 training course. We suggest that one of the places is taken up by your school SENCO, with the other for a teacher or NQT.

Further details are in the flyer which also includes the booking link:

pdnet Level 2 training flyer

Please note places are limited and will be offered on a first-come, first-served basis – so don’t delay booking your place!

Training to support pupils with additional needs

A number of Warwickshire's traded education services provide training and development to help schools to build capacity and skills to better support pupils with additional needs.

Please see a list below of upcoming courses provided by the Specialist Teaching Service (STS) and Ethnic Minority and Traveller Achievement Service (EMTAS).

For details of all training provided by WES traded services you can visit their website: https://apps.warwickshire.gov.uk/Wes/

Course title / Description Date Venue Booking Link

Maths Learning Difficulties - Exploring successful strategies to support

Explore the different factors that can affect a child’s maths development and understand the importance of concrete apparatus and visual approaches. Refresh your knowledge of the use of Numicon and other resources.

14 Jan 2020 Pound Lane Learning Centre, Leamington Spa Book this course

Pathway to success: meeting the challenges and expectations of the 2014 national curriculum for English

Sponsored by Oxford University Press and led by James Clements.

21 Jan 2020 Wolston Leisure Centre, Coventry Book this course

Inference Training

A group intervention for pupils in KS2 and KS3 who decode adequately but fail to get full meaning and enjoyment from their reading. 

6 Feb 2020 Pound Lane Learning Centre, Leamington Spa Book this course

CyberFirst Girls Competition returns for 2020!

Cyber First Competition The National Cyber Security Centre is on the lookout for the next female code-breaking champions!

The CyberFirst Girls Competition 2020, run by the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), launches 2 December 2019.

It's free to enter and is open to girls aged 12-13 years old (Year 8) who are interested in finding out more about cyber security.

Teams of up to four students will take on an online round of codebreaking challenges with the highest scoring going through to the semi-finals which will take place in locations across the UK next February. The competition will culminate with an exciting Grand Final event in March 2020, where teams will compete in a simulated real-world cyber incident and the champions crowned.

As well as gaining skills in computing, teamwork and problem-solving, the girls will have the opportunity to take part in some unique experiences - attending exciting venues, meeting senior public figures, hearing from female leaders in tech and finding out what their future in this field could look like. Previous winners met the Queen as part of GCHQ centenary celebrations!

Last year, nearly 12,000 girls took part, 98% of whom said they would now like to learn more about cyber security.

There is a downloadable information pack available with further information, as well as other resources on the National Cyber Security Centre website

Watch the video below for highlights of the 2019 competition:

WE3 Family of schools

2019 secondary inspection data summary report (IDSR)

For all secondary/all-through schools/MATs

The new 2019 inspection data summary report (IDSR) for secondary data, is now available through the new Ofsted IDSR service linked to in DfE’s Analyse School Performance (ASP). When logged into ASP, click on ‘All reports’ and then ‘Ofsted inspection data summary reports’: 

The secondary IDSRs hold provisional data for key stage 4, two term absence, and where applicable, key stage 2, key stage 1 and phonics, and context data. (Primary IDSRs will be updated soon to include two term absence. Another communication will announce this.)

If you have access rights to more than one school, you may wish to go direct to the Ofsted IDSR service.

Please note: The ability to view an IDSR for a given school is based upon your DfE Sign-in Account. If your DfE Sign-in account is associated with a MAT, local authority or diocese, you will be able to view the IDSRs for all schools governed by that organisation. The relationship between schools and these governing organisations is taken from GIAS. The data on these relationships are refreshed overnight. Each organisation has one or more approvers, who can check your DfE Sign-in account and grant you appropriate access.

This year, the children looked after collection closure date, was delayed. Therefore, the children looked after data and data for disadvantaged pupils will not be included until the revised data releases. These will be in early 2020. 

A new guidance document has been published for the IDSR. This includes example reports and supporting data tables used for the 2019 IDSR which show national figures and quintile boundaries used to determine whether areas of interest sentences are triggered. Newly added links are now located throughout the IDSR, which take you directly to the relevant section of the full guidance.

Should you have any IDSR or Ofsted IDSR service queries, you can contact the Schools Pre-Inspection Data & Insight team at: School.Performance.Data@ofsted.gov.uk 

Guidance to help promote your school to prospective families

For: Headteachers of Warwickshire primary schools

WCC Education Services has produced a new guidance document which aims to assist you in promoting your school to prospective families. 

If you're looking for some simple ideas, that don't cost the earth, to help boost your profile in the local community and position your school more positively then this guidance could be just what you need to set you on the right path. 

The guidance sets out some key things to consider, including the reasons why parents choose a certain school and how to use these along with your school's identified strengths to frame your communications.  A '5 step plan' provides you with some straightforward actions that you can take now, before undertaking a full communications planning exercise. 

With the deadline for primary and infant admissions on the horizon (15 January 2020), then this guidance might be particularly useful for any primary schools concerned about their number of first preferences  - if this is you, then we would recommend at the least actioning the '5 step plan' as soon as possible.

Marketing your primary school: guidance for school leaders

An editable template has also been produced to be used in conjunction with the guidance to capture your school’s individual, ongoing communications plan.

Communications Plan Template

WE4 Employability

Latest Quarterly Labour Market Bulletin

The latest Quarterly Labour Market Bulletin, produced by Warwickshire Economics, Warwickshire County Council's economic research and analysis team, is now available: 

Quarterly Labour Market Bulletin - November 2019 

This bulletin gives insights and analysis into employment and unemployment; economic activity; and real-time demand in the current labour market (based on advertised job vacancies) using the latest data at district/borough level as well as regional and national levels. 

This issue also includes analysis on the risk of automation.  

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