News from Government: Impact of COVID-19

The Department for Education (DfE) has produced three new reports which outline how childcare settings across the country have been impacted by the pandemic. The reports can be accessed by clicking below:

• Early Years Workforce and Business Planning During the Pandemic
• Survey of Childcare and Early Years Providers and Coronavirus Wave 4
• Providers' finances: Survey of Childcare and Early Years Providers 2021 

The ShREC approach

The EEF’s Early Years Specialist Fliss James explains how practitioners can use the ​‘ShREC’ approach to engage young pupils in high quality interactions.

Every child deserves the best start in life

Ofsted has today published a new strategy for the next 5 years (2022 to 2027).

The strategy sets out how Ofsted will continue its work to improve the lives of children and young people, which is more important than ever following the disruption and distress of the past 2 years.

Read Ofsted’s strategy for 2022 to 2027.

Deaf Awareness Week

Deaf Awareness Week is taking place from 2 to 8 May 2022.

Throughout Deaf Awareness Week, the deaf children society will share lots about deafness, including information on:

• the different levels of deafness
• deaf culture and history
• the different communication methods
• "Deaf Works Everywhere" campaign

They will also share more inspiring stories from deaf role models across the UK. 

Find more here.

Early years picture books to help celebrate the Queen's Platinum Jubilee

Discover some great picture books with royal characters to help mark the occasion of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. The characters in the books include a fussy king, a rapping princess, a prince who loves wearing brightly coloured pants, a princess aspiring to be a doctor and of course the Queen herself, who is busy looking for her hat in an adventure around London!

Try out our quiz Which royal picture book character are you most like? and then download the book list with details of all the books featured in the quiz..

For more information on the Platinum Jubilee and Her Majesty the Queen, visit the Royal website here: https://www.royal.uk/

Latest Warwickshire SEND published

Catch up with special educational needs and disability (SEND) news in Warwickshire with the latest edition of Warwickshire SEND, a monthly newsletter from Warwickshire County Council.

Read the May edition here: https://mailchi.mp/warwickshire/warwickshire-send-may-07052022?e=[UNIQID]

Sign-up here: http://eepurl.com/gUkLyD

Early Years SENDCo Information

nasen offers a range of free Early Years training opportunities and resources specifically for leaders and practitioners.

They are currently working alongside, The Council for Disabled Children, I CAN, The Communication Trust, Contact, School Improvement Liverpool and Dingley's Promise, as part of the DfE-funded EY SEND Partnership.

Early Years Training and Resources by nasen

I Can is the children’s communication charity. It offers practical help for parents who are concerned about their child, runs out-reach programmes in the community and aims to empower early years and school professionals through training, support and information.

Council for Disabled Children

Council for Disabled Children provide up to date news, policy updates, training and events from across the children's disability and SEN sector.

They describe themselves as an ‘umbrella body for the disabled children's sector with a membership of over 300 voluntary and community organisations and an active network of practitioners that spans education, health and social care’

Find more information here. 

Schools Forum Elections

The Schools Forum still has several vacancies for representatives, which are comprised of the following:  

• 1 vacancy for maintained secondary schools  
• 1 vacancy for maintained special schools 
• 2 vacancies for primary academies  
• 4 vacancies for secondary academies.  
• 1 vacancy for special academies 

School members should be broadly a 50:50 split between Headteachers (or their representatives) and Governors where this is possible.  As a minimum, there must be at least one representative of headteachers and one representative of governors among the schools members.  

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 Warwickshire Schools Forum Terms of Reference and the Education and Skills Funding Agency publication 'Schools Forum Powers and Responsibilities'.  

This is a great opportunity for you to make a difference in Warwickshire schools.  

If you are elected to Schools Forum you will be required to serve for a period of two years with the first meeting being at 2pm on Thursday 23 June, using Microsoft Teams.   

Meetings are generally held on Thursdays, usually between 2pm and 4pm.  It is likely these meetings will continue to be held virtually for the foreseeable future.  

Future meetings dates  

• 23 June 2022  
• 29 September 2022  
• November 2022 Extraordinary meeting (if required)  
• 12 January 2023  
• 23 March 2023
  

Further information and nomination papers please find below:

• Maintained HT self- nomination form
• Academy HT self-nomination form
• Warwickshire Schools Forum Membership 2022-24 Intro for Headteachers
• 2021_Schools_forums_powers_and_responsibilities
• Schools Forum Terms of Reference
• Warwickshire Schools Forum Membership 2022-24 Intro for Governors
• Academy Governor self-nomination form
• Maintained Governor self-nomination form

Deadline for nominations to be submitted is Friday 13 May 2022.  

For any queries, please email schoolfunding@warwickshire.gov.uk  

North Warwickshire Primary Science Curriculum Development Programme

The attached Primary Science Curriculum CPD, from the Science learning Partnership Curriculum Hub, is offered to all Primary Schools in North Warwickshire and Nuneaton & Bedworth (Coventry too).

Schools can access £150 of Teacher Release Payments too, and Park Lane Primary in Nuneaton have kindly offered to host this training for ease of access for local schools. 

Visit of Nadhim Zahawi to Salford Priors CofE Academy

Last week, Nadhim Zahawi, the Secretary of State for Education, visited Salford Priors CofE Academy in response to school's children writing letters to him (pre-pandemic) about their environmental concerns. In preparation for this rescheduled visit, the children completed a unit of work about democracy and law-making in the UK. During his visit, he met with all KS2 pupils, Mrs Mingay, the class teacher who had initiated the letter writing and Mrs Dhugga, Headteacher.

Left to right – Mrs L Mingay (KS2 class teacher), Mr E Smith (PE & Sports Coach), Mrs L Baddeley (Academy Improvement Partner), Mr N Zahawi, Y6 pupil, Y6 pupil, Mrs P Dhugga (Headteacher), Mr M Cowland (CEO Diocese of Coventry MAT), Mrs A Gold (Diocesan Director of Education).

Here is an account of the visit, written by two of Salford Priors CofE Academy Year 5 children:

When Mr. Zahawi came to our school, he told us about parliament and we asked him questions about a variety of issues, including how democracy was created (by the Ancient Greeks). When we asked him more questions, he couldn’t answer one of them. The question was “How old is the Old Bailey?”, but we were able to find the answer - 349 years old! Before that, we asked the question, “How old is the House of Commons?” It is 750 years old, so it is 401 years older than the Old Bailey. The Old Bailey and the House of Commons are very old so they must be very fragile and delicate. But since the House of Commons is older, the building would have had lots of modern repairs.

We were allowed to ask him questions about his job as the Secretary of State for Education. One of the questions was, “How much money do MPs make?” and he said that they make around £80,000 a year. Every time a law is made, it has to be passed by the House of Lords. He also told us about the political party and said, “We are in the blue party.”

He talked to us about how to become a MP. You need good grades in English, Maths and History. Then he talked about what an MP does for a job and what it’s like to be an MP. It’s unbelievable what MPs do - they make sure that schools in the country are suitable and, if schools aren’t safe, they can take action to help the school to be a safe place to learn. MPs do tricky, but fantastic, work although they have a complex routine in the morning and the night-time. They wake up at 5am or 6am to read papers that were given to them and when they have finished reading the paper, they go off to the MP house where they talk about what to do.

After Mr. Zahawi left the classroom, two of my classmates showed him around the school; they told me that he was very interested in the environment and pollution. He was also delighted to meet our academic mentor from the NTP, Miss Cussen, commenting that he thinks academic mentors are a really good resource for schools.

Primary & Early Years Newsletter May 2022

Find here the Primary & Early Years Newsletter. 

Origin Maths Hub - Fully Funded Mathematics Professional Development Opportunities

The Anna Freud Centre

The Anna Freud Centre has created a free online training course designed to improve education staff’s understanding of the impact of racism on mental health.

Black and racially minoritised young people can experience racism in many areas of their lives - including at school. Experiencing racism can have significant mental health consequences for young people. Through this new e-learning course, staff will learn practical strategies for tackling racism in schools, and how to introduce a whole-school approach to anti-racism and mental health.

 Find here more information. 

Free online courses to help parents feel more confident

This programme consists of a range of online courses designed to increase the confidence of parents-to-be, mums, dads, grandparents and carers. They have been developed by NHS experts and parents through an evidence-based model known as the Solihull Approach. 

All of the courses are FREE for Warwickshire residents using the access code BEAR. 

All of the courses can be completed flexibly, at your own pace. Each of the course modules takes around 15 to 20 minutes to complete. Each course contains several modules.

Find here the online courses.

Boosted Warwickshire County Councillor Grant Fund opens to community and voluntary organisations

Organisations or groups can apply online for Councillor Grant Funding. The deadline for applications for the first round of funding is 5pm on Sunday 29 May 2022.  

Free suicide prevention training for education professionals in Warwickshire

Do you feel confident talking to someone who may be at risk of suicide?  

Understanding how to spot the signs of someone who is at risk of suicide and having the confidence to intervene, could save someone’s life.   

If you work or volunteer in an educational setting in Warwickshire you are invited to book your free place on a new training course that aims to equip you with the confidence and skills to respond if faced with this situation. 

Being delivered by Coventry and Warwickshire Mind (CWMind), and funded by Warwickshire County Council, this limited-time training offer will:  

• provide an understanding of the complex nature of suicide  
• dispel myths, misconceptions and varying perceptions around suicide  
• show you how to identify signs of suicide risk 
• explore suicide prevention strategies within the community and wider context  
• provide practical advice on approaching the topic of suicide with someone else  
• highlight the importance of maintaining professional boundaries whilst supporting anyone experiencing high levels of distress  
• highlight the importance of looking after your own wellbeing and understanding the importance of self-reflection and personal impact when working with suicide and people at risk  
• give you access to a community of practice and resources.  

The training takes four hours to complete and is available as an online course or face-to-face at a variety of locations across Coventry and Warwickshire.

Places are currently being limited to two per organisation.  

For further information, available dates and to book your free place visit cwmind.org.uk/suicide-prevention-training/. 

Alternatively, for more information about the training email training@cwmind.org.uk. 

Download here the poster. 

Connect for Health

Hello from Connect for Health!

We would like to share some of our latest health & wellbeing resources for Warwickshire schools and families. We encourage you to share these with colleagues and parents/carers and add the links to things like your social media channels and newsletters. Thank you in advance for your support - if you have any questions or feedback, or would like some support from our school nursing team, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

May newsletter

Our latest update for Warwickshire families covers several important public health campaigns and messages, including Mental Health Awareness Week, Sun Awareness Week, and information about scarlet fever. It also provides details of key local services and events.

Download here 

Sun Awareness Week (2nd-8th May) - information for families

In addition to the information included within our newsletter, we have put together an information pack for families in support of Sun Awareness Week. This contains advice and resources to help protect children's delicate skin during the hotter months and ensure they can enjoy the outdoors safely.

Download here