Latest update: Wuhan Coronavirus

Public Health England (PHE) has published guidance for schools and other educational settings about how they should respond to the threat of coronavirus, including a poster that all education settings should display to advise staff, students, parents and carers about how to help prevent the spread of the virus. *A new landscape version of the poster has now been added*

Schools are advised to call 111 if pupils or staff become unwell and believe they have been exposed to the virus (or 999 if they are seriously ill or their life is at risk). Schools should also call 111 if they have pupils or staff who have recently travelled to key infected areas, even if they are well. The full list and advert for returning travellers can be found here.

Anyone who is unwell and believed to have been exposed to the virus should be kept at least two metres away from others – if possible, schools are advised to find a room where the person can be isolated, e.g. a staff office.

The agency confirmed that there is no need for schools to close if they suspect exposure to the virus. If a positive case is confirmed, one of PHE’s health protection teams will help schools conduct a risk assessment to determine whether closure is required.

Department of Education have launched a new helpline to answer questions about COVID-19 related to education. Staff, parents and young people can contact the helpline as follows:

Phone: 0800 046 8687
Email: DfE.coronavirushelpline@education.gov.uk
Opening hours: 8am to 6pm (Monday to Friday)

Free online learning programme

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine has worked with Future Learn to develop a new free to access online learning programme on COVID-19. The training will be available from 23 March.

Key advice for returning travellers

Information for returning travellers is regularly updated to include new countries as appropriate, with specific advice depending on the area/towns in the countries that they may have been to/through. Please note that there has been a change on 6^th March 2020 to include advice for travellers from the whole of Italy, rather than just Northern Italy:

Detailed information and advice for the public can be found on the NHS.uk website (and will be regularly updated): https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/

Further information for the public about the situation can be found here (and will be regularly updated): https://www.gov.uk/guidance/wuhan-novel-coronavirus-information-for-the-public

Current situation

here are currently several cases in the UK where infection hasn’t been linked to travel, or to someone has recently travelled, and so it is thought that there is a small degree of community transmission. We have also had three cases reported in the West Midlands region, but not currently in Coventry or Warwickshire. However, we are preparing for our first cases.

A new national plan has been published, and a scenario where we see much wider community transmission is being planned for:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-action-plan

To date there are 115 patients in England who have tested positive for COVID-19 to date, none of whom are in the West Midlands region. Of the remaining 17968 tests that have been undertaken in the UK, all have been confirmed as negative.

Travel advice

Current advice is against all travel to Hubei province, and all but essential travel to the rest of mainland China (with the exception of Hong Kong and Macao). British nationals are also now advised to leave China if they are able. 

The Foreign & Commonwealth Office also advise against all travel to Daegu and all but essential travel to Cheongdo in South Korea, and ten small towns in the Lombardy region and one in the Veneto region of Italy, due to the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

Updated travel advice can be found here (this is regularly updated): https://www.gov.uk/guidance/travel-advice-novel-coronavirus

Useful blogs from Public Health

Blog - what you need to know 

Blog about contact tracing

Blog about self-isolation

Communications materials, useful guidance & resources

Guidance for professionals advising the public

Guidance for educational settings

Guidance for employers and businesses

Seeking and perusing up to date references for agency staff

Several issues have arisen recently in relation to the employment and conduct of agency staff.

One of the emerging issues is the importance of always obtaining and perusing up to date references for agency staff.  Schools should expect to see at least one reference from another school in which a temporary member of staff has worked for a substantive period, i.e. more than just a few days. 

If temporary staff have had a series of very short placements, schools are encouraged to be curious about that pattern and to request sight of a reference from a school in which the individual worked for a longer period.

The same principles in relation to references, as set out in Keeping Children Safe in Education (DfE 2019), should be applied in the recruitment of temporary staff as for permanent staff, i.e.

144. Employers should always ask for written information about previous employment history and check that information is not contradictory or incomplete. The purpose of seeking references is to allow the school or college to obtain objective and factual information to support appointment decisions. References should always be obtained from the candidate’s current employer. Where a candidate is not currently employed, verification of their most recent period of employment and reasons for leaving should be obtained from the school, college, local authority or organisation at which they were employed.

145. References should be scrutinised and any concerns resolved satisfactorily, before the appointment is confirmed, including for any internal candidate. Employers should not rely on open references, for example in the form of ‘to whom it may concern’ testimonials, nor should they only rely on information provided by the candidate as part of the application process without verifying that the information is correct. Where electronic references are received, employers should ensure they originate from a legitimate source.

146. On receipt, references should be checked to ensure that all specific questions have been answered satisfactorily. The referee should be contacted to provide further clarification as appropriate, for example if the answers are vague or if insufficient information is provided.

147. Any information about past disciplinary action or allegations that are disclosed should be considered carefully when assessing the applicant’s suitability for the post.

As with all guidance in relation to safer recruitment, the emphasis is on schools doing everything possible to ensure they are only giving suitable adults opportunities to have face-to-face contact with children.

Schools are therefore advised to ensure that they DO NOT:

• allow an agency member of staff to start working with children without the proactive supervision of somebody else who is in Regulated Activity before obtaining and scrutinising at least one reference from another school/setting in which the agency member of staff has worked recently and for a substantial period of time.

• take it on trust a statement from a staffing agency that an individual has received positive references.  Always ask to see those references.

• in the event of any concerns/discrepancies in references, allow an agency member of staff to start working with children without the proactive supervision of somebody else who is in Regulated Activity until, and unless, you have resolved the concerns/ discrepancies.
  
  
• take it on trust from a staffing agency that they have resolved any concerns/discrepancies.  Always speak to referees directly to address any issues.
  
  
• allow the agency member of staff to start working with children without discussing any concerns with them; checking how recently and what level of safeguarding training they have received; and providing them with a practicable induction into your safeguarding arrangements (DSLs, recording and reporting concerns, key expectations as set out in your staff behaviour policy).

Have your say on Community Safety in Warwickshire

The Safer Warwickshire Partnership Board - which includes representatives from local councils, fire and rescue, police, probation, health and the third sector - is asking local residents and businesses for their views on community safety in Warwickshire, to help them to better understand how crimes and incidents impact on their feelings of safety, what influences how safe they feel and how they would like to be engaged in the future. 

An online survey has been developed to give people across the county the chance to feedback on a range of topics, including:

• personal experiences of crime and anti-social behaviour in their local area
• what types of incident are most concerning
• views on the effects of hate crime and personal safety
• road safety

The survey will inform the partnership board about what matters to residents and businesses in Warwickshire, both at a neighbourhood and national level.

An additional section on business crime has been included for local firms and employers to voice their views on the types of incident that concern them most, as well as providing feedback on crime prevention initiatives that are already in place across the county to help businesses.

Findings from the survey will assist the partnership board to develop its services with the aim of increasing how safe residents feel and promoting action that can be taken by residents and businesses to help everyone feel safer.

Complete the online survey here - the deadline for responding is 19 April 2020.

Find out more about Community Safety and the Safer Warwickshire Partnership Board here

Please do share this with your staff and families and encourage them to respond.

Support for parents and professionals from Children and Families

There is lots of information and advice to support parents and professionals on warwickshire.gov.uk/childrenandfamilies on a range of issues from childcare, family relationships, finance, housing, health and wellbeing and much more. The council are continuously improving the website with updates, further information and signposting to services.  

The Family Information Service can also be contacted by professionals and members of the public for information and advice about local support services for families. Email fis@warwickshire.gov.uk​ or call ​01926 742274.  

Child abuse concerns

If you have child abuse concerns contact the MASH on 01926 414144.  From 3 March 2020, the MASH telephone lines are open from 9am - 5.30pm Monday to Thursday and 9am - 5pm on a Friday.  

Out of these hours if you have an emergency, please contact the emergency duty team on 01926 886922.

If you think that a child is at immediate risk, contact the police immediately on 999.

All information about services for children and families in Warwickshire is on our website warwickshire.gov.uk/children-families

Updates for PE Coordinators

Reporting of Primary PE and Sport Premium spend

afPE and the YST have collaborated to update the DfE commissioned template that supports schools with reporting of their Primary PE and Sport Premium spend. Click HERE to download the free template.

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afPE Support Document - ‘Questions to Ask When Designing Your Curriculum’

afPE’s new support document can be used to help your thinking around the quality of your curriculum. It includes a series of questions which can be used to help inform the debate within your own planning teams as you design or re-design your own curriculum. Click HERE to download a PDF copy.

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afPE Summary Guidance Document - Education Inspection Framework

afPE has produced a guidance document which highlights outstanding PESSPA provision in 290 words. This free resource captures the Subject Leader’s ambition for Physical Education and the key aspects of best practice. It is a useful self-review tool that can be shared with colleagues. Click HERE to download a PDF copy.

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YST: This Girl Can…Create Change! 

Resources to support teachers and girls to develop and deliver their own This Girl Can campaign are available to download from the Youth Sport Trust website HERE. Further resources and tools are also available by signing up to the This Girl Can supporters’ hub.

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Support for swimming

Swim England National Curriculum Training Plan training courses

Designed for primary school teachers and support staff, these training courses equip those on poolside with the skills and knowledge they need to deliver and assist with high quality school swimming lessons, alongside Level 2 Qualified swimming teachers. Training available:

• National Curriculum Support Teacher of School Swimming
• Teacher of School Swimming
• There are online CPD training and free webinars also available in a range of flexible formats.

Visit the School Swimming website for more details. 

Help get the nation swimming

If you are looking for a great way to reward and help your school pupils document their swimming lesson progress, you can also join the Swim England School Swimming and Water safety Charter. For £36 per year, you’ll gain access to an online hub of information, videos and downloadable certificates and lesson plans. You will also receive pin badges, stickers and a progress card, as well as a splash-proof lesson guidance pack for use on poolside. Visit swimming.org for more details.

Swim England launches a new tool to get more SEND pupils participating in school sport

Swim England has been proud to be involved in Inclusion 2020 – a project funded by DfE and led by Youth Sport Trust that aims to increase participation of SEND pupils in school sport.

Recent work has seen the release of a new School Swimming Assessment Tool. This is a free, downloadable tool designed to help schools and swimming lesson providers across the country work together to identify barriers to participation for SEND pupils and implement changes to improve the SEND provision in their local area. You can use the tool to guide your joint discussions to come up with solutions and then implement those solutions successfully.

There are now lots of instructional videos available to Swim England School Swimming and Water Safety Charter members to help guide you in what to look for in your pupils’ swimming ability (against the three key national curriculum outcomes) and monitor how they are progressing through the learning stages.

Swim England have also updated and refreshed their guidance for teachers, advising on use of the Primary PE and Sport Premium for swimming and water safety and how to report on pupil attainment figures.

Find out more at swimming.org/schools/inclusion-2020.

Thousands of free books for schools up for grabs

World of Books – Sharing the Love of Reading

• Coventry-based World of Books Group are giving away thousands of free books to hundreds of schools throughout the UK, as part of their pledge to donate 1 million books to good causes by end of 2020.
• ~200 UK schools are due to receive 70,000 books in their biggest single giveaway
• Sharing the love of reading and helping to improve literacy skills, in support of the World Book day mission to give every child a book of their own

With the UK’s largest annual celebration of reading for pleasure approaching, it’s a good time to reflect on the importance of books and the part they play in schools, education and literacy.

On March 5th, thousands of children and families will be celebrating books and reading on World Book Day.

This year, the charity behind the biggest celebration of books and reading is calling on everyone in the UK and Ireland to share stories for 10 minutes a day in schools, libraries, bookshops, at home, everywhere and anywhere, to Share a Million Stories together through World Book Day month (27 February-29 March).

In support of this, World of Books’ Big Book Giveaway aims to ensure that even more children are able to share the love of reading. Thousands of used books will be delivered to ~200 schools throughout the UK. This is just one of the initiatives planned to meet their pledge of donating 1 million books to good causes by the end of 2020.

Amy Greenacre, Head of Brand and Impact: ‘Books are more than paper and ink, the stories and knowledge they contain is critical to individual development, economic development, community and emotional well-being. We want to ensure that as many children as possible have the opportunity to experience this, with a book in their hand this World Book Day.’

World of Books donations are being made at a time when schools are under pressure from funding and resource cuts. The National Literacy Trust cites that 1 in 11 disadvantaged children in the UK don’t have a book of their own and the OECD indicates that teenage literacy rates in England are some of the lowest in the developed world. The World Literacy Foundation also report that 25% of British children aged 5 years struggle with basic vocabulary.