New vodcast for senior leaders on assessment and good practice under the new EYFS

Foundation Years is pleased to share with you their latest vodcast on assessment and good practice under the new EYFS, from the perspective of a senior leader, and their latest blog on the crucial role that the early years workforce can play in supporting young children's communication and language skills.

You can find both below and on the Foundation Years website!

Free Training: An introduction to Restorative Practice

Restorative Practice is all about relationships. We understand relationships are crucial to ensuring young people and their families build on their own strengths and find their own, sustainable solutions. 

Children live in families; families create communities and communities make a Warwickshire a great county 

Restorative practice encourages those who work with children and families to focus their time on building quality relationships that inspire positive change. This extends to how we support one another in our teams and how we connect with colleagues across our organisations and beyond.

We want restorative to be ‘who we are’ and ‘how we do things here in Warwickshire’ 

The Restorative Practice Development Team is working with individuals and teams to develop their understanding and application of restorative approaches in all aspects of their work.     

Booking Instructions: 

Please select a date and complete the details

Please contact restorativepractice@warwickshire.gov.uk  with any queries.

Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/scc-cs564-an-introduction-to-restorative-and-relational-practice-registration-162057362935

Health education programme e-bug launches new site.

e-Bug, operated by the UK Health Security Agency, is a health education programme that aims to promote positive behaviour change among children and young people to support infection prevention and control efforts.

Health protection guidance and new free e-Bug resources are now available for educators, community leaders, parents, and caregivers to educate children and support childcare settings to prevent and respond to outbreaks.

Educators and childcare staff are urged to review guidance on how to prevent and control infections, educate students on practicing hand and respiratory hygiene, as well as infection prevention methods – which are most effective when everyone follows them. 

The National Deaf Children's Society's Early Years Networking Groups

Would you like to learn more about phonological awareness for deaf children and how to support tuning into sound?

The National Deaf Children’s Society are running FREE, online information meetings called Early Years Networking Groups.

The next meeting is on Phonological Awareness for Deaf Children:

• 4 October 2022 at 4pm – led by Auditory Verbal UK
• 6 October 2022 at 6:30pm – led by Dr Kate Rowley

Practitioners are invited to attend and join these meeting to discuss practical issues relating to deafness in early years education and care. The meetings are informal, discussion based, and are led by experts in the field.

Webinar to help families with children aged 0-5 with special educational needs or disabilities in Warwickshire

Primary SENDCo Network Meetings

Please check below Primary SENDCo Network Meetings: 

Funding to provide short-term practical solutions to support autistic young people

The Sheila Coates Foundation (SCF) is offering funding to mainstream secondary schools and colleges in the West Midlands to implement quick and practical solutions to address the issues facing autistic young people. This funding is for resources or additional staffing which can be put into place immediately.

This is SCF's fifth rapid response round. The first four rounds of funding, allocated in 2021 and 2022, have helped over 6,000 autistic students in 186 schools and colleges to overcome the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The deadline for applications is 14 October 2022.

More information and application details can be found here.

Fully-funded child exploitation theatre programme for Warwickshire schools

Warwickshire County Council is funding schools across the county to have up to three fully-funded sessions of Working For Marcus, a powerul child exploitation theatre in education programme delivered by Loudmouth. 

The programme teaches about a wide range of child exploitation issues including child sexual exploitation and exploitation into crime, for example county lines and knife crime and is suitable for pupils in Years 8, 9 and 10. The aim is to help young people spot the signs of grooming, raise empathy for victims and develop an understanding of the impact of child exploitation. Sessions consist of drama with relevant engaging content, character Q&A and discussion workshop. Schools will also receive a specially created resource pack that includes lesson plans and information and signposting for parents.

In SEN and other non-mainstream settings, 90-minute sessions for up to 20 students at a time are available. 

This is a first-come, first-served offer, with sessions taking place in September 2022 to March 2023 so book soon to benefit from these fully-funded sessions and help us to education as many young people as possible in Warwickshire about child exploitation.

To book your free sessions contact Loudmouth by phone on 0121 446 4880 or visit the Loudmouth website here. 

Free SEND training to support schools

Headteachers' Conference 'Save the Date'

Save the Date! 

Autumn Term 2022 Headteachers' Conference 

Tuesday 18^th October 2022 (9.30am – 3.00pm) 

Venue: Stareton Hall, Stoneleigh Park (NAEC), Stoneleigh, Kenilworth, CV8 2LZ 

Details of the conference will follow in due course.

Teacher Pay 2022

Please see the LGA website ‘one stop webpage’ for all the information you need to understand the proposed changes for Teachers Pay 2022-23.

The Department for Education (DfE) is currently consulting statutory consultee’s, which includes National Employers Organisation for School Teachers (NEOST), the national employers, on the draft 2022 STPCD. It is anticipated the final STPCD 2022 will be published in November 2022.

The pay award is expected to be implemented in the December payroll run, backdated to 1 September 2022.

HT Wellbeing: Free 40-minute webinar with James Pope of Headsup4HTs

With best wishes

Working together to improve school attendance

Working together to improve school attendance

The following national attendance data was published today by the DfE using attendance data automatically shared by schools. 

Due to the timeliness of the data and that they are based on a subset of schools, the figures are estimates that the DfE expect to change as registers are adjusted. They should be viewed as an early indicator for the more detailed but less regular National Statistics on pupil absence.

Reminders:

1. New guidance in now in place on the role of schools, trusts, governing bodies and local authorities. 
2. DfE Effective practice attendance webinars are available with schools sharing the approaches to attendance that have resulted in improved attendance.  Another webinar is planned on analysing attendance data to identify pupils who need additional support.  This is scheduled for October although no date has been set yet.

3. Attendance resources are available on the Education Huband Teaching Blogs
4. Sign up to share your daily attendance data with the DfE.  65% of schools In England are now sharing.  It will become a requirement at some point this academic year.
5. The code X code can no longer be used in the attendance register to record COVID-19 related absence.

If you wish to discuss any issues relating to school attendance, please feel free to contact the Warwickshire Attendance Service:

was@warwickshire.gov.uk

2022 Autumn Census

There are a number of school census dates throughout the academic year.

Please be aware that the autumn Census date is Thursday 6^th October 2022.

• This is critical to have children registered for Free School Meals (Pupil Premium.  Data is collected by DFE for who is eligible and ON ROLE on 6th)
• Please consider how FSM eligibility can be used to support families in financial crisis. Incentives such as support with uniform, clubs or trips can also encourage parents/carers to sign up.
• Please also remember to register LAC or other children which bring additional funding.
• Funding for NEXT year's budget is based on pupils registered on 6th October.  This includes pupil numbers and EHCP / SEND funding.
• Parents just need basic details as well as their National Insurance number to register online.

Parents and Schools can sign up for Warwickshire Family Information Service updates about help with fuel and other hardship via the FIS website.

DFE CENSUS Information

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/complete-the-school-census

Join our dialogue!

ASH guidance on developing school policies on vaping

Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) is a public health charity set up by the Royal College of Physicians to end the harm caused by tobacco. The charity has created a guidance document for schools specifically to support the development of evidence-based school policies, produced with support and advice from teachers with expertise in safeguarding and health education. 

You can view the document here [link: https://api.warwickshire.gov.uk/documents/WCCC-1350011118-3160] or visit ash.org.uk for more information.

New Solihull Approach online course added to BEAR: 'Understanding your feelings (for teenagers only!)'

Art for Wellbeing August-October

Could you be Warwickshire Libraries’ next Young Poet Laureate?

Warwickshire County Council Libraries are delighted to announce that the competition to become Young Poet Laureate 2022/23 is now open.

Forest school training

The Forest School Practitioners Award is a Qualification accredited by Agored Cymru (formerly OCN Wales) aimed at teachers and other educational professionals who swish to develop and deliver Forest School programmes and gain skills in and knowledge about teaching in outdoor environments. 

A new school year arrives and so does the next Forest school training, If your school would like to improve its SIP, LIP or just wishes to make Forest schools part of your school then this is the course! Designed and run by The Revel Primary School and delivered by our Outdoor Learning Lead this course is specifically tailored to the needs in schools. 

The training  runs every Monday (term time only) from 21st November '22 to 13th February '23. 

Please book here.

CLA Collection of Royalties Data – Spring 2023

The Copyright Licensing Agency is intending to conduct a data collection exercise in selected Warwickshire schools/academies during the spring term 2023.

This will enable CLA to establish what is being photocopied/scanned and/or digitally re-used so that your licence fee can be fairly re-distributed as royalty payments to the authors, artists and publishers of the licensed material you are using. All state-funded schools, including academies, hold a CLA Education Licence through central agreements or regional education bodies.

Your CLA Licence includes enhanced rights; in addition to the existing photocopying and scanning permissions, it now provides all schools with the permission to re-use digital material, such as e-books and certain website content.

In accordance with the current terms and conditions of the Licence, the school and all staff are required, when requested, to participate fully in any such data collection exercise.

If your school is selected, you will receive an explanatory letter from CLA followed by contact from a CLA Royalties Officer who will explain the procedures involved. CLA is aware of teacher workload issues affecting all schools and have refined their procedures accordingly. All data collections are currently being organised remotely.

At the current time, this exercise is expected to be conducted remotely and will begin just after the start of the Spring term, lasting no more than 11 weeks. All schools are required to start and finish the exercise at the same time to ensure robust sampling.

It should be noted that this is not a policing operation (although schools will want to ensure they have the appropriate licences). The re-distribution of licence fees as royalty payments is the reason for the exercise.

The purpose of this note is to give you advance notice of the data collection. Selected schools will be notified in mid-October. Any queries can be directed to myself sophiethompson@warwickshire.gov.uk in the first instance.  

‘Watch Your Words’ - Warwickshire’s Dictionary of Care

Language is an incredibly powerful tool that we use to communicate our ideas and thoughts, and to question the world around us. It is so important that the language we use with children, young people and their families is clear and supportive.

'Watch Your Words' guide has been designed to support us in working with young people to help break down language barriers. The dictionary can also be used by young people themselves. The booklet has been co-produced by our own amazing care experienced apprentices and in conjunction with care experienced young people. It features suggestions of alternative language and words that can be used to replace some of the more traditional or historical terms, which young people have told us are difficult to understand or are disliked by them. 

Please share this guide with colleagues and partner agencies, and introduce it to children or young people in your schools. You can also support the campaign by sharing #ChildFriendlyWarwickshire social media posts about 'Watch Your Words'.

GCHQ National Language Competition, 7th to 11th November 2022

GCHQ are running a National Language Competition (NLC) to encourage language learning in schools and help boost the uptake of languages at GCSE. 

GCHQ’s National Language Competition is aimed at Year 9 students across the UK and involves a variety of fun, immersive, language-themed challenges of varying difficulty levels hosted on a virtual platform. The aim is for students to enjoy using their languages to solve the puzzles, and to be inspired to continue with their language learning at GCSE level. All students will be able to take part, and no prior knowledge is required, only a keenness for languages!

This is the first year they will be running the competition, which is modelled on CyberFirst. Having run a virtual pilot in collaboration with the University of Manchester in the summer of 2021 that was well received, the Schools Outreach team are keen to develop this project on a national scale. It is being advertised to schools nationally, but especially those that are in areas with challenging socioeconomic conditions or that have a high number of heritage speaker pupils.

GCHQ virtual language resources provided to schools during lockdowns were well received by teachers searching for materials to inspire language learning, and fun activities using languages have gone down particularly well. GCHQ want the NLC to inspire language learning in schools across the UK (with a particular focus on schools in sociodiverse areas in line with GCHQ’s sociomobility agenda) by making languages fun, and encouraging language uptake at GCSE. This is in line with GCHQ’s role as the government’s language authority advisor. 

Schools will be able to sign up for the event beforehand and enter teams of up to four Year 9 students to take part. A school will be able to submit as many teams of four as they wish. Teams will then be able to log in to the platform during that week (at lunchtimes under teacher supervision or in their own time in the evening) to have a go at the puzzles on the platform. Students will tackle a range of language-related puzzles, ranging from easy to difficult and from European languages to rarer ones and even made-up languages. 

Over a period of five days, they will capture flags to earn points on their language journey which will total up at the end of the week and affect their ranking on a national leaderboard. During the competition itself, teachers will be able to see how their teams are doing via a scoreboard on the platform. The team with the most points at the end of the week wins! 

The winning team will be announced shortly after the competition and will be invited to GCHQ’s building in Cheltenham at the beginning of December to be presented with their award.

If you are a teacher and are interested in your school taking part in the competition, please email nlc@gchq.gov.uk to be added to the schools list and ensure that you receive all the information about the competition and instructions on how to sign up.

Computer Hub Programme 2022/23

Schools IDSR newsletter - September 2022

Please find below to the Schools Pre-Inspection Data and Insight team’s third inspection data summary report (IDSR) newsletter. It contains important information about the redeveloped IDSR, the upcoming release dates, the new news page on the website and other key information:

Link to newsletter: IDSR Newsletter September 2022

Theatre in education programmes