Celebrating Warwickshire’s Family of Schools
Secondary school induction and term dates for 2023/24
School term and holiday dates
Thank you to those who responded with feedback on the proposed school term and holiday dates for 2023/24. These have now been approved and are available online here: https://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/schoolholidaydates
School Attendance Update - Warwickshire Attendance Service
School Attendance Update - Warwickshire Attendance Service
The impact of COVID-19 has brought a sharp focus on to school attendance. Following Nadhim Zahawi’s appointment as Secretary of State for Education, he announced that school attendance will be a priority.
New measures to increase school attendance
The DfE announced on 25th January 2022:
- As part of the plans to tackle avoidable absence, local authorities and academy trusts will be expected to have plans for how they will provide targeted support for pupils who need it and work with schools to help spread best practice across the school system in driving good attendance.
- The Children’s Commissioner is also working with a number of local authorities to review their data and step up efforts to support children that are persistently absent from school.
New measures to increase school attendance - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
School attendance: Improving consistency of support
The DfE has opened a consultation seeking views on what should be included in measures to improve the consistency of school attendance support and management. The details can be found at the link below:
https://consult.education.gov.uk/school-attendance-policy-and-strategy-team/school-attendance-improving-consistency-of-support/
Data Collection
The DfE have acknowledged that access to better data at a national, regional and local level will both help highlight particular challenges and identify solutions that are currently working well and can be shared. They are therefore trialling the automated collection of attendance data. Schools will be contacted by a company a company named Wonde, who will ask for agreement to share daily pupil level and attendance data.
It was emphasised that this voluntary data will not be used for:
- Ofsted or Regional Schools Commissioner (RSC) decision
- making for judgements around what constitutes a school causing concern
- for inspection, academisation or decisions to place or remove a school in a Trust.
COVID-19 Attendance Advice
If you have any specific questions about COVID-19 related absence, please feel free to email the Warwickshire Attendance Service:
was@warwickshire.gov.uk
Useful links:
School attendance: guidance for schools - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Chimp Management: Extra FUNDED training opportunity available due to popular demand
Due to popular demand, 2 more cohorts of the Chimp Management: Mind Management Skills for Life programme will be FULLY FUNDED by Warwickshire County Council for Warwickshire school staff.
The programme is a tailor-made ‘CPD accredited’ online course that enables you to enhance your resilience, improve your communication skills, establish more productive relationships and gain insight into your mind, using ‘The Chimp Model’.
The programme, developed by Professor Steve Peters (author of The Chimp Paradox), encompasses eight workshops exploring the neuroscience of the mind in an accessible, relatable and practical way. Participants will develop an in-depth understanding of their own unique mind, along with skills to manage and optimise thinking, emotions and behaviour.
There will be a cohort for staff from maintained schools and another specifically for colleagues from our special schools. Both cohorts will commence in March 2022 and will be FULLY FUNDED by Warwickshire LA (RRP £400pp) for Warwickshire school staff.
All participants will also receive a complimentary copy of Prof. Steve Peters latest book ‘A PATH THROUGH THE JUNGLE’.
For more information please see the programme flyer or watch this short video from Professor Steve Peters.
SUMMARY
What?
8 online workshops, delivered via Zoom.
When?
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Mainstream cohort 2
(3:30-5:30)
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Special schools’ cohort
(3:45-5:45)
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Tues 8th March
Weds 23rd March
Thurs 7th April
Weds 11th May
Weds 25th May
Weds 15th June
Tues 28th June
Tues 12th July
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Thurs 17th March
Thurs 31st March
Mon 25th April
Thurs 12th May
Thurs 26th May
Mon 6th June
Thurs 23rd June
Thurs 7th July
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Sessions will NOT be recorded and we would ask that participants are able to commit to all 8 sessions.
Who?
This programme is for teachers or support staff working in all Warwickshire schools. We would recommend that 2 members of staff from a school should attend. Places will initially be limited to a maximum of 2 people per school (up to 3 for special schools).
Cost?
FREE for Warwickshire schools.
This programme is being organised by the Gateway Alliance. For more information, please contact Helen Martin on martin.h@welearn365.com.
ACTION: To apply to join the programme please COMPLETE THIS GOOGLE FORM. Places are limited and will be offered on a first come first served basis.
Senior Mental Health Lead Training
Find out how to apply for a grant and access DFE equality assured training to help develop a whole school or college approach to mental health and wellbeing. Grants are available to enable schools to allow an identified senior leader to complete training courses that will help them develop a whole school approach.
This can be a newly identified person on the SLT or someone who already works in this area in your school, doing other mental health related work. The funding for the current academic year is fixed, but from March 2022, funding will be identified for more schools to join this training and receive the grant, and it may be possible to begin the training from March 2022.
Please click the link below to find out more details and get on the waiting list for the next batch of grants.
Warwickshire’s Children’s Services have made great improvements according to Ofsted inspection
Warwickshire County Council (WCC) is delighted to be judged as good in all areas for its children’s services according to a recent Ofsted inspection.
The latest inspection, published in a report on 1 February 2022, by Ofsted found that children and families in Warwickshire benefit from consistently good quality services at an early stage, making a real difference to their lives. Ofsted found that WCC social workers listen carefully to children and make sure that children’s views inform decision-making. Social workers were found to be building stronger, more trusting relationships with families, giving parents confidence to develop their parenting skills.
The overall rating for Warwickshire has improved since the last inspection in May 2017, when Children’s Services were rated as requires improvement. Following the last inspection, WCC and partners have implemented a wide range of measures to ensure that children’s needs are met well.
Ofsted also found when children come into care, they are placed within their wider family if this is possible and in their best interests. Most children in care live in long-term homes and make good progress. When they’re ready to leave care, they receive ‘committed, consistent and purposeful support’ and are supported well to live independently, developing confidence and skills to assist them into adulthood.
The investment into the development of early help services means better support is now available for families and parents are more confident to seek their own solutions before a problem escalates. Over the last five years, the council has also invested in its workforce, introducing the Warwickshire Family Safeguarding programme, which has seen the recruitment of specialist mental health, domestic abuse and substance misuse practitioners to better support families. The county council and partner agencies have also introduced a whole family approach and established Warwickshire Family Values, which ensures children are supported to remain within their families where it is safe for them to do so, by providing parents with the right support at the right time.
Ofsted inspectors found leadership was good and children’s needs were met. Since the last full inspection of services for children in need of safeguarding and those in the care of Warwickshire, inspectors noted that council leaders are determined to continue the trajectory of improvement.
The report stated that: “Senior leaders have developed a culture and an organisational ethos that value children and families and they aspire to do the very best for them. The strengths and relationship-based social work model is embedded, with actions taken to improve services and practice having a tangible impact for many vulnerable children in Warwickshire.
The report also referenced that: “Leaders have implemented a wide range of measures to ensure that children’s needs are met well. They have a sound understanding of the quality of frontline practice and, despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, they have been tenacious in securing resources and ensuring that services continue to improve. As a result, social workers have continued to support vulnerable children well.”
Warwickshire places children’s needs at the heart of all it does and works hard to ensure their voices are heard. Inspectors recognised this and said: “Senior leaders, including the director of children’s services, the chief executive, leader and lead member, listen and learn from children, staff and carers when planning service development. The corporate parenting panel challenges senior managers and partners, and enables the voices of children to be heard. The children in care council and care leaver forum are influential groups that have contributed to the development of many services and policies, including the service structure.”
Continue reading here.
Compass Newsletter
Compass is a charity providing health and wellbeing services for children, young people, adults, families and communities. In the February edition of Compass Family health & wellbeing newsletter, the focus is on acts of kindness, Time to Talk day and Safer Internet day.
Download the newsletter here.
Connect for Health
Connect for Health, formerly known as Warwickshire School Health & Wellbeing Service, is the local school nurse-led service that supports school-age children, young people and their families. You can find out more about our service, the support we offer, and how to make a referral into the service here: https://www.compass-uk.org/c4h-explained-professionals
Our service regularly promotes public health campaigns on key topics for children and young people. Safer Internet Day takes place on Tuesday 8th February, and we have put together a school information pack containing links to educational materials, useful websites, and details of where pupils and parents/carers can get help when they need it. This can be downloaded here.
We also send out a monthly family health & wellbeing newsletter. This includes fun wellbeing activities, public health campaign promotions, useful health information and details of local support services. We would encourage schools to share this with families via any regular email updates, social media channels or website news and events pages.
For any enquiries, please call our main admin hub on 03300 245 204 or email connectforhealth@welearn365.com.
Thrive at Work - MSK in the Workplace with Core Clinics
Thrive at work are running a free webinar on 24 February with Core Clinics to help attendees to significantly improve their awareness and understanding of musculoskeletal conditions:
The webinar will be covering:
- Prevalence: how many and what type of people are affected by these complaints, with what types of personal and business impacts
- Symptoms and presentations: what kind of symptoms (in addition to pain) might someone experience including 'early warning signs' have, and what symptoms are more concerning e.g. when should you seek professional help. How do these symptoms / conditions impact people in their work and personal lives?
- Risk factors and causes: what factors predispose people to developing these kinds of problems e.g. demographics, job roles, lifestyle
- Prevention: what can you do or how can you get help to reduce your likelihood of developing problems in these areas, and to prevent minor problems becoming severe or chronic. Including self care, how your employer can / should help.
- Treatment options and approaches: if you or your employee(s) already have these problems, what can you do? Including self care advice, what can / should employers do, how to get expert help / treatment options
To book onto this session, please click here
Household Support Fund
Warwickshire County Council is responsible for the administration of the Household Support Fund for the county and is continuing to use a proportion of the funding to proactively support those families who are eligible for benefits related free school meals with the cost of food for their children over February half term as well as a voucher towards energy costs. This does not apply to children on the universal free school meal offer.
Warwickshire's Local Welfare Scheme is offering the following support to children eligible for benefits related FSM, which is detailed in the attached letter:
- Between 11th and 21st February 2022 - an automatic PayPoint cash voucher for £60 per household to be used towards energy costs
- Between 14th and 23rd February 2022 - an automatic Huggg supermarket voucher for food support equivalent to £3 per day, £21 in total for the 7 day period covering the February half term holiday period inclusive of the weekend (21st to 27th February 2022).
Distribute the letter to parents/carers of children in your school/setting who are eligible for benefits related FSM (refer to your list of eligible pupils on SAM), to inform them that they will be receiving financial support for energy and food this month.
In addition, the Local Welfare Scheme is also running a countywide fuel campaign from 14th February to the 10th March 2022. You will find also, attached leaflets on the fuel campaign and other financial hardship support that is available that can be shared with all parents/carers.
Young Green Shoot competition
Could one of your pupils win £2,500 for your school to spend on climate change projects?
Warwickshire County Council is inviting school pupils in Coventry and Warwickshire aged between 4 and 19 to submit their ideas on what it means to be a climate change hero as part of the Young Green Shoots competition.
To apply, pupils must answer the following question:
What does being a climate hero mean to you?
Climate heroes do both big and small things, from planting a huge forest to turning off the lights when they aren’t needed. And anyone can be a climate hero – it could be somebody famous, a government, a business leader, a local council, or it could even be you! Show or tell us how your hero will protect the environment and fight climate change.
Submissions can either be a short piece of writing or a drawing by the deadline of 27 February. Please submit the work by emailing childfriendly@warwickshire.gov.uk with name, age, school’s name and address.
This will not need to be part of the curriculum; however, this is an opportunity to have fun and engaging conversations for all age groups about climate change and how we can all get creative and take action to fight the climate crisis.
As part of our commitment to creating a Child Friendly Warwickshire, we want to inspire children and young people, supported by their schools, parents, carers and communities, of course, and create lasting and positive change for their futures. Therefore, if you think you might know the next budding Greta Thunberg, please talk about the about Young Green Shoots in tutor groups and assemblies, as well as putting the information in newsletters so parents and carers are also aware.
Prizes
One winner from each of four age categories will receive £2,500 in funding from Warwickshire County Council’s Green Shoots Community Fund for their school or college to spend on climate change related projects. These could be planting trees or establishing wildflower gardens to increase biodiversity, encouraging pupils to switch to walking or cycling to school, installing renewable energy options in your buildings or even installing electrical vehicle charging points.
The winners and runners-up in each category will also have their work showcased at the forthcoming Coventry & Warwickshire Climate Change Summit, to be held at the University of Warwick in March. This event will bring together the key public sector organisations from across Coventry & Warwickshire, alongside representatives from the private, voluntary and community sectors, to declare a united commitment to fight climate change and to further develop and align the plans to reach net zero by 2050 or sooner.
For all details including terms and conditions and privacy notice, please visit https://www.childfriendlywarwickshire.co.uk/.
National Tutoring Programme (NTP) webinars and quality assured Tuition Partners
The NTP webinar series continues and will focus on region specific information. They provide a great opportunity for shared learning from experiences of schools in your region.
You can join at one of the events taking place over the next week, including:
- East of England – Tuesday 8 February at 4pm
- West Midlands – Thursday 10 February at 4pm
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For further information about these events, upcoming events in other regions and to register your interest, please visit the NTP events website.
You can use your funding to source your own tutoring provision using either existing staff or local resource. If you are unable to secure the resource you need, you can contact the NTP approved and quality assured Tuition Partners network. Tuition Partners can be contracted directly by schools, however you will not receive the NTP discounted rates. A list of NTP approved Tuition Partners is available.
Extension of the trust and school improvement offer
DfE is extending the focus of the department’s current trust and school improvement offer to any school or trust that would benefit from it due to disruption caused by COVID-19. Support will be provided by an experienced system leader and will reflect the specific challenges of the school or trust. This might include (but will not be limited to) supporting them to overcome:
- difficulties delivering remote education for those pupils who are out of school
- low pupil attendance rates
- significant staff shortages, including leadership
- any other factors which would put schools or trusts at risk of disruption caused by COVID-19
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If you feel your school or trust would benefit from the support of a system leader, please contact the school improvement team.
DfE has also been working with school leaders to share case studies on developing and adopting flexible learning approaches. More case studies have been added and illustrate ways in which some schools have operated when faced with staff shortages.
Get help with technology internet access and device claim form
The get help with technology internet access and device claim form is now live. The deadline to submit your claim is 11:59pm on Sunday 27 February.
DfE has published guidance to help you complete the form. Further information is also available in the guidance on get help with technology: conditions of internet access and device grants.
Sustainability and climate change strategy
As part of the recovery from COVID-19, DfE is committed to Building Back Greener.
DfE has launched an anonymous survey to gather feedback on our draft sustainability and climate change strategy. The service will use the results from this survey, alongside feedback from focus groups and working groups, to inform the final developments of the strategy before publication in Spring 2022.
Please read the draft strategy and then take part in DfE's anonymous survey. Responses must be submitted by 11:59pm on Sunday 20 February. This invitation is open to all education and childcare settings, children’s social care services and associated organisations.
By submitting your response, you are consenting for DfE to use your answers as part of their analysis of the public’s opinion on the draft strategy.
Please share the survey amongst your networks, in line with your own data privacy notices, as well as through social media.
Preparation for adulthood strategy - Young People and parent Carers' opportunity to shape this
Warwickshire Local Authority are committed to developing a strategy that is led by the views, aspirations and lived experiences of Warwickshire's young people and their families.
Alongside the involvement of the National Development Team for Inclusion leading some sessions with young people and stakeholders, we need a broader range of views to inform the shape of the strategy. Young people have coproduced a survey for young people, which was adapted for parent carers with the support of Warwickshire Parent Carer Voice.
Can we encourage as many young people as possible who are year 9 and upwards, along with their parents and careers to complete the surveys.
The surveys will be open until Monday 28th February.
For Parent Carers - www.warwickshire.gov.uk/parentviewspfa
For Young People -
www.warwickshire.gov.uk/ypviewspfa
Any questions, please contact Dr Sam Craven
Mobile: 07425 808070
Email: samcraven@warwickshire.gov.uk