OSBOX scheme teaches young children to be safe online

Warwickshire ICT Development Service has been working over the last academic year with local teachers from Early Years settings to develop a series of activities to help teach young children how to stay safe online, as they have more exposure to online content at school and at home.

The scheme, called the OSBOX (Online Safety Box), aims to help children:

• consider how others feel
• make positive choices
• understand what to do if they feel unhappy or worried when they are online.

Activities included in the OSBOX have been mapped to the early learning goals, the Education for a Connected World framework, the Protective Behaviours programme and Ofsted guidance for Inspecting safeguarding in early years, and the Early Years inspection handbook.  They are intended to be activities that would easily fit in with current learning, being a substitute rather than an extra area to cover. Support is also provided in the scheme for staff and parents.  

All activities can be delivered as a standalone activity or as part of other activities already being carried out within the setting.  Only a small amount of technology is used, but it is not essential to the scheme.

Case Studies

Case studies have been carried out with two providers, one at Clapham Terrace Primary School and the other with Tracey Smyth,  a childminder in the north of Warwickshire. A further case study is being developed in a nursery setting.

Read the case studies.

Training and support

To support teachers/practitioners with the delivery of the activities, a number of training solutions have been put together. These include a full day course, delivered termly in Leamington, giving people an opportunity to try out the OSBOX activities and discuss approaches to delivery - attendees also have an OSBOX delivered to their setting the very next day! A condensed version of this is also available as a twilight session, as well as a bespoke on-site training option, which enables smaller settings to share the cost of training.

The beauty of the OSBOX is that all resources are provided in the box along with a booklet of activities, as well as an online version of all of the materials which is kept up-to-date with new activities added as necessary. 

A newsletter is also provided termly to keep OSBOX owners up to date, and there is an OSBOX Facebook page and Twitter @EYFSOSBOX for sharing the latest information.

Further information

For further information about future training dates or to discuss a bespoke session, visit the ICTDS webpage or contact Jane Key:

Email: key.j2@welearn365.com 

Tel: 01926 414100

 

Congratulations to the staff at Teddy Bear Corner

Congratulations to the staff at Teddy Bear Corner in Alcester who recently 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:

'They are highly successful in supporting their staff team and in continually improving the service they provide’.

'Strong reflective practice identifies areas they can improve even further.'

'Staff's professional development is given high priority’.

'Children make extremely strong progress in relation to their starting points. The sharply focused planning ensures that gaps in children's learning are identified without delay.'

'Children relish the superb range of experiences on offer that capture their natural curiosity as learners.'

'Children receive a huge amount of support from staff, who appropriately reduce their support as individual children's confidence and abilities build and flourish.'

'Partnerships with parents are exceptionally good. Managers place a huge emphasis on working together with parents to ensure the best outcomes for all children who attend.'

The full report is available to read here.

Free briefing events - Operation Encompass - enhancing the welfare of children affected by domestic abuse

***Invitation to Headteachers and Designated Safeguarding Leads in all Warwickshire schools***

Schools are urged to send a representative - ideally the Headteacher or senior Designated Safeguarding Lead - to one of these short briefing events to learn more about Operation Encompass and opportunities to work with the Police to enhance the welfare of children affected by domestic abuse. 

Operation Encompass is a national operation directly connecting the police with schools and early years settings to secure better outcomes for children who are subject or witness to police-attended incidents of domestic abuse.

Provision of support within the early years and school environment means children are better safeguarded against the short, medium and long-term effects of domestic abuse, and since its inception, Operation Encompass has facilitated effective interventions to thousands of children.

The scheme is available to all schools but proactive sign up is required.

For those who have not heard of Operation Encompass, a full briefing is attached.

Briefing event details

All briefings will run from 4pm - 5.30pm (registration from 3.30pm) 

• Wed 19 June - Bulkington Village Community and Conference Centre

• Mon 24 June - The Warwickshire Golf Club, Leek Wootton

• Wed 3 July - Rugby College

Book your place

Please confirm your attendance using the online booking form.

Important information

Please note that because of the highly sensitive nature of the issues and information to be shared, all notifications will be sent to the Headteacher's email address and one other nominated email address, which must be a senior DSL who is a member of the school's senior leadership team.

NB for those schools in Nuneaton and Bedworth who initially committed to a pilot scheme in 2017, Operation Encompass is largely unchanged except for the removal of the discretionary parental opt-out as a result of GDPR and consultation with Legal Services.  Those schools are welcome to attend a further briefing but if you remain committed to the scheme, the requisite information will be forwarded to you after the briefings if you choose not to attend again.

Exciting opportunity to transform Early Help & Targeted Support in Warwickshire

 

CPD for Primary School RE Subject Leaders and Coordinators

Thu 4 July 2019, 4pm - 6pm at Southam College

Focus of the session: New to RE subject leadership

Religious Education (RE) subject leaders and coordinators from all Warwickshire primary schools are invited to the next twilight meeting on Thursday 4 July  2019, 4pm - 6pm at Southam College, Welsh Road West, Southam, Warwickshire, CV47 0JW.

These sessions are organised by Warwickshire County Council in partnership with the Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education (SACRE) and are completely free to attend. They provide an excellent opportunity for teachers and subject coordinators of RE to:

• seek advice and support from the RE Facilitator
• receive updates on local and national developments in RE
• network with other RE coordinators
• develop subject knowledge

The focus for this particular twilight session will be 'New to RE subject leadership'.

How to book

To book your place, please email your details (name and school) to sacre@warwickshire.gov.uk by Friday 27th June at the very latest.  

Warwickshire SENDIAS Annual Report 2018-2019

The 2018/19 Annual Report for Warwickshire SENDIAS (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Information Advice and Support Service) highlights the work of the service and its impact over the last year. 

The report highlights four individual cases where the service has provided support, including finding additional funding for one-to-one support and providing help to access an apprenticeship.

You can read the full report here. 

 

Free training to address issues of migrant mental health and wellbeing

A series of training sessions are being run for frontline professionals and practitioners working with child migrants and refugees focusing on issues of migrant mental health and wellbeing. 

The sessions are being offered by Coventry & Warwickshire Partnership Trust and The Refugee Council completely free of charge.

Dates available

•  5 July 2019 - book here

• 13 September 2019 - book here 

Both sessions will be held at Swanswell House, Coventry from 10am to 4.30pm

Please do share widely and encourage others to attend who you think may benefit.

Don't miss out on the chance for your pupils to meet an author!

Severn Trent offering free outreach activities for primary schools

Primary schools in Warwickshire can benefit from Severn Trent Water’s free outreach activities, including water assemblies and water workshops.

From learning about good water use, why and how we need to keep hydrated, to looking after your waste water, the team are experts in making sessions both interactive and informative. 

Assemblies are available for both KS1 and KS2 and a follow-up workshop is also offered for KS2, with two options for how this can be delivered: either a standard classroom-based workshop or a session in one of Severn Trent’s interactive buses. Both options contain a host of fun group activities with cross-curricular links to geography, science and maths. The buses park up at the school and are a great space for children to have fun and explore the world of water.

The sessions are completely free and can also help schools to achieve Eco-School status.

Severn Trent will be coming along to our Headteachers’ Conference on 12 June at Stoneleigh Park so don’t miss the opportunity to meet some of the team and find out more.

For further information contact Maxine Smith, Severn Trent Education Officer on 0779 0820150 or email maxine.smith@severntrent.co.uk.

Last chance to book for the Headteachers' Conference - 12 June 2019

There is still time to book a place at Warwickshire's Headteacher Conference taking place next Wednesday 12 June at Stoneleigh Park.

Building on the success of last term's conference, we hope you will join us for another half-day session where we will have a focus on Ethical Leadership. 

We will hear from Carolyn Roberts, Chair of the National Ethical Leadership Commission and James McNeillie HMI, Ofsted Regional Assistant Director about Ethical Leadership and inclusion. During the morning there will also be other important updates and opportunities for networking.

See the full agenda

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

Time: 9am to 12.15pm (registration and refreshments from 8.30am)

Who should attend?

Please note due to venue restrictions this invitation is for headteachers or their senior representatives only.

Cost

This is a free CPD and networking opportunity.

How to register

Please confirm your attendance using the online booking form by midday on Friday 7 June.

Further information

Please email schoolpartnerships@warwickshire.gov.uk with any queries or for further information.

Annual Governor Conference 2019

There is still time to book a place on the Warwickshire Governor Services' Annual Governor Conference 2019.

Speakers include Emma Knights, Chief Executive of the National Governance Association and Ian Budd, Warwickshire County Council's Assistant Director of Education Services.

Date: Thursday 13 June

Time: 9am - 3.30pm

Venue: Citrus Hotel, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, CV8 3DY

Governors from schools that subscribe to Warwickshire Governor Services can attend free of charge and lunch will be provided. Governors from schools that do not subscribe are welcome to attend at a charge of £320 per governor.

Full details including an agenda are available on the WES Governor Services webpage.

To book a place, please email governors@warwickshire.gov.uk or call 01926 745120.

Updated information system provides the latest statistics for the county

Warwickshire Insights is an updated version of the Council’s information system, providing statistical information about local areas in Warwickshire, along with interactive mapping and reporting tools to inform decision making. The tool provides intelligence from across the Business Intelligence service and replaces a number of tools, including the old Warwickshire Observatory website.

Warwickshire Insights allows anyone interested in local data to access information on the population of Warwickshire, and at various geographical levels within Warwickshire including district and borough, ward, electoral division and lower super output area (LSOA). In addition, the tool has been developed with the place-based Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) in mind, allowing users to access data for the 22 JSNA areas via the JSNA tab.

Users can find data on demographics, deprivation, health, social care, education and economic indicators. The content of Warwickshire Insights will continue to be developed, including adding new datasets as they become available.

We would like to hear how the tool is being used, along with suggestions for additional data that would be useful to include. For further information and to provide feedback contact insight@warwickshire.gov.uk. 

Latest update from Warwickshire's Apprenticeship Hub

Apprenticeship Levy Funds are, as ever, available for WCC schools to invest in training through apprenticeships for new or existing staff.

Between April 2018 and March 2019 there were 82 apprenticeship starts across WCC schools, a fantastic return, with a number of schools making use of apprenticeships for the first time.

If your school is yet to make use of apprenticeships or levy funding, but you’re interested in changing that, please don’t hesitate to contact the Apprenticeship Hub for help to get started.

Careers Events

For several years now, the Apprenticeship Hub has been present at secondary school and sixth form careers events and has supported schools across the county when they run these. We want to support any event across the county, so if you are planning one, please let us know and we will be very happy to come along and speak to your students about apprenticeships, work experience and careers within Warwickshire County Council.

Which apprenticeships are available for school employees?

There are numerous types of apprenticeship already available to use for roles in schools, these include:

• Teaching Assistant
• PE in School Sports
• Early Years Educator
• Business Administration
• Leadership and Management
• IT Support
• Property Maintenance
• Customer Service
• Accounting
• Play worker
• School Business Manager
• Teacher
• Learning Mentor
• HR

Who can deliver Apprenticeship Training?

There are many different types of training providers, including FE Colleges, Universities, private training companies, and some employers can even deliver apprenticeship training for themselves and others.

Warwickshire County Council is contracted with several apprenticeship training providers. Please be aware that WCC-maintained schools must only use training providers who are contracted to deliver apprenticeship training for the Council, as it is an ESFA requirement that a contract exists between an employer and a training provider for the delivery of apprenticeships. If you wish to work with a training provider but you are unsure if they are contracted with us, contact the Apprenticeship Hub – we can advise on which training provider may be best suited to deliver for your school and get them to contact you for further support.

Further help, advice and support

The Apprenticeship Hub will support you and your school with advice and information about apprenticeships and the apprenticeship levy. We can help you to choose a training provider, promote your apprenticeship vacancies, and enable you to pay for apprenticeship training via the levy if you are a maintained school.

To contact the Apprenticeship Hub, call 01926 418040 or email apprentice@warwickshire.gov.uk.