Schools Forum Elections

Schools Forum still has several vacancies representatives form the following:

• 2 vacancies for primary maintained schools
• 2 vacancies for primary academies
• 4 vacancies for secondary academies.
• 1 Headteacher or a senior leadership member for a primary academy
• 1 Headteacher or a senior leadership member for a secondary academy

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 terms of reference and the Education and Skills Funding Agency publication Schools Forum Powers and Responsibilities.

Over the next couple of years School Forum will be consulted on a number of important areas which will have a significant impact on Warwickshire schools.

These areas will cover:

1. Proposed changes to the way children with an Education, Health and Care Plan are funded
2. Anticipated government consultation on moving to the full National Funding Formula
3. Different ways to support our smallest primary schools which have not benefited for recent changes to the funding formula as opposed to our larger primary schools
4. Work with Warwickshire in developing a deficit recovery plan for our high needs funding overspend.
5. Ensure money allocated to our early year’s providers is in line with national funding guidelines.

If you are elected to Schools Forum you will be required to serve for a period of two years.

The term of office for successful candidate’s will start in the autumn term 2020. Meetings are on a Thursday starting at 1pm and finishing around 3.30pm. It is likely these meeting for the foreseeable future will be done virtually.

Future meetings dates

• 1 October 2020
• 3 December 2020
• 14 January 2021
• 18 March 2021

You can find the :

School Governor Nomination form here

School Headteacher (or their representative) Nomination form here

Deadline for nominations to be submitted is Friday 18 September.

Please send any enquiries to schoolfunding@warwickshire.gov.uk

OFSTED Operational Note - interim visits for state-funded schools

OFSTED have published an operational note outlining the arrangements for their interim visits in the autumn term. 

Please read here. 

Education during Covid-19

During the pandemic, we regularly need to find out new information, to respond to our individual and local circumstances, and national guidance.  

As part of our ongoing support, we have liaised with subject-matter specialists to produce an online Covid information hub for education leaders: Education during Covid-19. From this page the following Covid-specific information can be accessed: 

• Minimising Covid-19 risks  
• School operations  
• Curriculum and wellbeing  
• Contingency planning for outbreaks  
• Public Health toolkit

In Year Admissions - reminder for schools

The Admissions Service has continued to receive and process applications for school places over the summer holiday period and many schools will have returned to outstanding applications.

Providing school meals during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak - Updated guidance

The updated guidance, produced by the Department of Education, explains what schools should do when providing school meals from September 2020.

According to the guidance, schools should provide meal options for all pupils who are in school and meals should be available free of charge to:

• all infant pupils &
• pupils who meet the benefits-related free school meals eligibility criteria

As school kitchens will be open, normal free school meal provision will resume. Catering providers are expected to support pupils eligible for benefits-related free school meals who have to be at home for reasons relating to coronavirus (COVID-19) by providing food parcels.

Please find the guidance here. 

School meals will be back on the menu thanks to Educaterers, as pupils return to school

School kitchens will be re-opening next week as pupils return to school for the autumn term – and school caterers, Educaterers, will be serving up a delicious selection of hot and cold meal options with well-loved favourites that children can look forward to when they get back to the classroom.

Free school meals and universal infant free school meals will be provided as usual for children that are eligible.

For those children who aren’t eligible but still want a school meal, parents will be able to book and pay for their meals in the usual way, for example, by using ParentPay.

Educaterers are working with individual schools to help them be Covid-19 safe during lunchtimes, so parents and carers can be reassured that delicious nutritious lunches will still be available just as they always have always been.

Some schools will be asking pupils to eat their lunches in their classrooms or specific areas of their school, rather than in the usual dining room or school hall, so hot and cold ‘deli bags’ are on offer to help with these arrangements where appropriate. Please check with your child’s school for more details.

Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, when schools remained open to the children of key workers and vulnerable children, pupils continued to receive a delicious school meal everyday thanks to the dedicated staff of Educaterers and other school caterers around the country.

Educaterers employees worked in around 125 schools a day across the region, at any one time, to serve up meals to those children that continued to attend school and to the staff supporting and caring for them.

They also provided meals to around 60 schools that remained open over the Easter holidays, with staff working on Good Friday and Easter Monday.

Director of Educaterers, Terry Tredget, said: “Our staff are really looking forward to getting back into our school kitchens in fully-opened schools after a well-deserved summer holiday break.

“They worked hard to continue providing a school meals service during the pandemic and it will be wonderful for them to see all school children enjoying our meals when they return next week.

“The school experience will be a bit different, but our staff will do everything they can to help pupils settle into school again by providing them with a good school lunch, including some favourites we know they’ll enjoy.”

Educaterers serve up over 120,000 nutritious tasty meals a week in over 200 schools and colleges in Warwickshire, Leicestershire, Birmingham and Oxfordshire.

For more information on Educaterers, visit www.educaterers.co.uk.

COVID-19 Catch Up Premium Funding for 2020-21

The DfE have announced £650 million COVID-19 Catch Up Premium Funding for 2020-21 for all state funded mainstream (primary and secondary) schools and special schools. This will mean an increase of £80 per pupil in years reception through to year 11. For special schools the amount is £240 per school place.

The funding will be provided in 3 tranches. Part payments will be made in Autumn 2020 with a 2^nd grant early in 2021 and the final payment in the summer term 2021. For a typical primary school of 200 pupils they will receive £16,000 while a typical secondary school of 1,000 pupils will receive £80,000.

Though funding has been calculated on a per pupil or per place basis, it is proposed schools should use the sum available to them as a single total from which to prioritise support for pupils according to their need.

The grant will only be available for the 2020 to 2021 academic year. It will not be added to schools’ baselines in calculating future years’ funding allocations. Governors will be expected to scrutinise the spending of this money. It is recommended that schools have a separate budget code for this funding which is monitored through WES finance. 

National Tutoring Programme

Although all children have had their education disrupted by the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, it is likely that disadvantaged and vulnerable groups will have been hardest hit. That is why, alongside the universal catch-up premium, The DfE are launching a £350 million National Tutoring Programme to provide additional, targeted support for those children and young people who need the most help.

The programme will comprise of at least 3 parts in the 2020 to 2021 academic year, including:

• a 5 to 16 programmethat will make high-quality tuition available to 5 to 16-year olds in state-funded primary and secondary schools from the second half of autumn term 2020
• a 16 to 19 fund for school sixth forms, colleges and all other 16 to 19 providers to provide small group tutoring activity for disadvantaged 16 to 19 students whose studies have been disrupted as a result of coronavirus (COVID-19) - guidance setting out further detail of this element will be issued shortly
• a reception year early language programmethat will make training and resources available at no-cost to schools where additional targeted support for oral language would be particularly beneficial

The 5 to 16 programme

Register your interest on the National Tutoring Programme website.

The 5 to 16 programme will increase access to high-quality tuition for disadvantaged and vulnerable 5 to 16-year olds.

The programme will have 3 parts. Across both parts of the programme, tutors will be a powerful tool to support the delivery of the school’s curriculum plan for the next academic year. Tutoring will begin from the second half of the autumn term and increase through spring term 2021.

Schools will be able to use their catch-up premium to cover the subsidised cost of the programme.

1. Tuition partners

Schools in all regions will be able to access subsidised tuition from an approved list of tuition partners.

These organisations - which will all be subject to quality, safeguarding and evaluation standards - will be given support and funding to reach as many disadvantaged pupils as possible.

We will be working in partnership with the EEF to deliver this part of the programme. Tutoring organisations will be invited to apply from September 2020 and the offer will be available to schools from November 2020.

Read about tuition partners and how to access tutoring from them.

2. Academic mentors

Schools in the most disadvantaged areas will be supported to employ in-house academic mentors to provide small group tuition to their pupils.

Teach First will be supporting the recruitment, training and placement of the first cohort of academic mentors and their salaries will be subsidised by the government.

Some academic mentors will start working in schools from October half-term, with the remainder starting in spring term 2021.

Read about academic mentors including how to express interest in employing a mentor and who is eligible to apply to become one.

Support for Leadership and Management in Schools September 2020 to July 2021

School Improvement in the new academic year is focussed on vulnerable pupils and bridging the gap as children and schools continue to meet the challenges arising from COVID 19.

In Warwickshire we want to build on the stronger relationships and collaborative working developed from March 2020 onwards.

Below is a summary of the ways in which we will be supporting schools over the academic year.  Further detail for some of our actions is provided in today’s edition of Heads Up, with more information to follow in the coming weeks.

We will make available for all schools:

• Regular monthly virtual LA briefings for all Headteachers and primary consortia/secondary area network chairs including provision of links with subject matter experts and services across the council.
• A single point of contact for each primary consortium and secondary area network (Find more information here). 
• Financial resources to support the work of primary consortia and secondary area networks with specific COVID recovery themes. Find out more here. 
• Leadership and Management - themed webinars. Please find dates and how to book here.  
• https://schools.warwickshire.gov.uk/ webpages with latest guidance/resources available, including transition programmes with bridging units
• Headteacher Wellbeing. We are still offering our ‘Listening Ear’ service and next week we’ll give details of some wellbeing webinars we have commissioned specifically for headteachers along with an upcoming coaching course. Please find here a full list of resources
  to support Headteachers with their own mental health and wellbeing: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. 
• Termly LA Headteacher Conferences. 
• Wellbeing Education Return Fund (provides training on mental health support to Mental Health Support leads in all schools, further information to follow)
• Support for governing bodies with recruitment of new headteachers

We will make additional targeted resources available for some schools including:

• Schools who were categorised as Category C or D in 2019 – more information to follow in direct communication with those schools. We will continue to commission headteachers who are System Leaders to support this work and to support System Leader CPD through Warwickshire School Improvement Partnership (WSIP)
• ‘Warwickshire Challenge’ for all Key Stage Three students to encourage young people to engage with opportunities outside of school – more details next week
• Support through Sustainability Action Groups for those schools with deficit budgets or projected deficits.
• Support for maintained schools which find themselves in exceptional circumstances.
• Nuneaton Education Strategy, details for the Coordinator post here
• Inclusion of some schools in EEF Improving Educational Achievement of Disadvantaged CYP in Warwickshire
• Continuation of Warwickshire Improving SEMH and SEND in Schools Project (WISSSP)

Support for Primary Consortia and Secondary Area Networks

Support for Primary Consortia and Secondary Area Networks

• £5000 will be paid into school budgets for primary consortia chairs and to chairs of secondary area networks to support them as they fulfil their role. We ask that consortia and the area networks confirm their 2020/2021 Chairs  with Hilary Honess (hilaryhoness@warwickshire.gov.uk ) by Friday 11^th September to enable payments to be set up.  Secondary colleagues will note that this is a new fund: the LA is keen to maintain and strengthen its relationship with our secondary schools and we hope that this support for area networks will facilitate this.

Two additional funds will be made available:

Fund 1: Recovery

• Fund allocations are being made available to primary consortia and secondary area networks.
• The allocation for each primary consortium is based pro-rata on the number of schools and pupils in each with a minimum payment of £5,000. Secondary area networks will receive £8,000.  Once we know who your chair is for 2020/21, Sophie Thompson will email to confirm the allocation and payment details for your consortium/network.
• This resource is to enable a flexible and local approach so consortia/area networks can identify key priorities closely linked to needs of individual/groups of schools and enable small scale, high impact interventions to take place
• In order to access this funding, each primary consortia and area network will need to complete the attached plan by Friday 2^nd A brief evaluation will be required (details included in action plan) and reported to AAGs by June 2021.
• There is a separate fund for strengthening remote learning allocated to primary consortia (see below).

Fund 2: Remote Learning

• This is an additional allocation to enable schools to strengthen and continue the work they have already started on Remote Learning.
• Each consortium will be asked to nominate an expert lead for remote learning from within one of their schools.  The fund will contribute to management time to release the expert leads for work within their own school, support for other schools and to attend training/expert lead meetings
• This work will be supported by the SAS (Strategic Advice and Support) team within ICT Development Service (ICTDS).
• Further information on this proposal will be published in the coming weeks.

Recovery Curriculum support for schools

AAIA ( The association for Achievement and Improvement through Assessment) has a new page of materials and links on its home page. This is to support schools as their pupils return to school this autumn.  This page is open to all users (members and non-members) and can be accessed from a link on the home page.  You can also access this directly by clicking on the link below:

https://www.aaia.org.uk/returning-to-school-supporting-learning-and-well-being

WCC Education Services School Improvement Team – useful contacts

- Margot Brown, School Improvement Lead Commissioner

margotbrown@warwickshire.gov.uk

07917 505157

- Helen Redican, Senior School Improvement Advisor

helenredican@warwickshire.gov.uk

01926 742534

07765 400375

- Debbie Hibberd, Moderation Manager/Learning Improvement Officer

debbiehibberd@warwickshire.gov.uk

01926 743015

07932007324

- Sophie Thompson, Intervention, Data and Project Management Officer

sophiethompson@warwickshire.gov.uk

01926 746961

- Hilary Honess, Administrator (Education Services)

hilaryhoness@warwickshire.gov.uk

01926 745621

- Sarah Taylor, Admin Assistant(Education Services)

sarahtaylor@warwickshire.gov.uk

01926 742004

New Opportunities within WCC School Improvement Team

Two exciting new roles have arisen within WCC Education Services School Improvement Team. 

• • We are currently advertising for a Nuneaton Strategy Coordinator (please find here more information)

For an informal chat contact Margot Brown: margotbrown@warwickshire.gov.uk &/or Sophie Thompson: sophiethompson@warwickshire.gov.uk. 

• • We are also seeking a School Sustainability Lead Officer (please find here more information).

For an informal chat contact Kim Garcia, Education Strategy and Commissioning Manager: kimgarcia@warwickshire.gov.uk

Test and Trace Information

• The Government Guidance on the full reopening of schools sets out the intended process for how NHS Test and Trace will work with respect to schools.
• Ultimately, NHS Test and Trace, and/or any other health body such as Public Health, should not request specific details of pupils and/or staff members from a school.
• If someone who has attended a school tests positive for COVID-19, NHS Test and Trace will inform the school’s Local Health Protection Team. In turn that Team will contact the school to provide advice on how to deal with the situation after they have undertaken their rapid risk assessment. It is important that the school keeps records of pupils and staff members within each bubble so that they can apply the advice given by the Team to the correct individuals.
• If the school learn of a positive result directly from a pupil/parent/staff member, or otherwise not from their Local Health Protection Team, the onus is then on the school to contact the Team for the advice on how to deal with the situation and implement it accordingly.
• At no point during the process should NHS Test and Trace and/or your local health protection team ask for specific details of individuals.