EEF commissions new research on the impact of Covid-19 school and nursery closures

The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) has  announced three new research studies designed to provide greater understanding of the strategies schools put in place to support pupils throughout Covid-19 closures, and the impact of these approaches on the disadvantage gap. 

In June, the EEF published a rapid evidence assessment which concluded starkly that school closures will have reversed a decade’s progress in closing the disadvantage gap. However, the unprecedented circumstances of Covid-19 mean the evidence base remains limited.

Three new studies have been commissioned to help address that evidence gap, providing robust estimates of the changes to the disadvantage gap among primary-age children, as well as uniquely detailed information on how schools are supporting pupils’ wellbeing and learning this academic year.

The Early Years focussed work will be led by the University of York, NIESR and EPI will assess the impact of lockdown on the school readiness of new Reception children across England and their educational attainment and socio-emotional wellbeing over their first year of education.

Find more information here

The Best Start: Ready to learn, ready for life

Download the Warwickshire Early Years Transitions Tool Kit

They include:

• A trifold leaflet for families and professionals
• A policy document
• A summary policy for parents and carers
• A range of supportive resources
• A partnership agreement for all partners, schools, and early years providers

The purpose of the partnership agreement is for all organisations delivering early years services to agree a use a consistent approach across Warwickshire. 

Whilst this is guidance, Amanda King, Strategic Lead for early years in Warwickshire is hoping for a large number of early education and childcare organisations to join the many partners who have pledged to support and implement the partnership agreement. 

Amanda would also like to thank everyone who participated in the task group for their time and commitment.

Please click on the link below to complete the partnership agreement.

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=BqqwiCdZu0uok4nMJxOsggjUA7ZmcSRChb3NAVWVMIxUQllHWDJWTTZGUDVRVlA4WUU4Vkk5T0tLSS4u

Once we have received the partnership agreement you will receive an electronic logo and certificate to use within your educational provision.

Early Years Wellbeing and Mental Heath

Warwickshire Educational Psychology Service has developed a webinar that will focus on principles that promote resilience, well-being and mental health for staff, parents/carers and children in the early years.

The webinar will aim to:
• Consider the impact on the pandemic on well-being and mental health
• Identify how we can continue to promote children’s well-being and readiness for learning and growth
• Consider how we can continue to promote staff/parent/carer wellbeing and resilience
• Identify and manage mental health needs affecting children through COVID-19

The Webinars will be delivered over 3 dates via Microsoft Teams:

• Wednesday 9th December 2020 – 6.30pm-8.30pm
• Wednesday 6th January 2021 – 6.30pm-8.30pm
• Monday 18th January 2021 – 1.00-3.00pm

This training is FREE— Places are limited and you may book up to two members of staff only for these Webinars, additional delegates on request.

Dates and times are available to book on the website. 

if you have any queries please contact: admin.wey@welearn365.com.

Find here more. 

Child Well-being Survey

Anna Freud Centre is asking early years staff to share experiences of children's wellbeing. Early years practitioners are being asked to participate in a survey to explore the mental health and wellbeing needs of children attending nurseries across the UK. 

The survey can be accessed here.

The Black and Asian family Covid-19 Helpline

Barnardo’s has launched a vital new support service which we believe will make a positive difference to the lives of many Black, Asian and minority ethnic children, young people and their families impacted by Covid-19.

This is a UK-wide helpline, funded by the National Emergenices Trust which will focus on issues specifically affecting children, young people and families from Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities. The new service is a free telephone helpline and web chat facility for children, young people and families from these communities who are experiencing the long-lasting and wide-ranging impact of Covid-19. It will provide on-going support on a complex range of issues including mental health, bereavement, family break-down, neglect, back to school, parenting advice, counselling, family stress, discrimination, barriers to services and more.

Designated Lead Refresher Training

We have added an extra date for the Designated Lead Refresher - Saturday 27th February 2021.

Autumn term sold out very quickly and we now have very limited spaces left for Spring term, if you would like to book this date please click the link below:

https://www.warwickshireearlyyears.co.uk/…/designated-safeg…

Attachment Research Community (ARC) Award

The Alex Timpson ARC Attachment Award recognises and celebrates best practice in attachment and trauma aware schools and settings.

Our very own St Giles Junior, Bedworth, has been shortlisted for the 2020 award!

Their work will be featured on the ARC website and will be put forward for the final stage where they could be in with a chance of receiving a cash prize.

The award, usually presented in person by Sir John Timpson, will be made to the school or setting in each category who, in the opinion of the ARC Judging Panel, has made a profound and lasting contribution to attachment and trauma aware practices.

This year Warwickshire Virtual School is taking 30 representatives from our schools to the, albeit this year, a virtual conference in a few weeks. We will all be rooting for St Giles!

St Giles staff, skilfully and passionately led by Robert Mann (HT) and Bethan Davies, have fully embraced the Virtual School Attachment Aware and Trauma Informed School project. From the beginning, their Chair of Governors described the training and development as “brilliant”.

Experienced staff noted that training delivered by Warwickshire Educational Psychology Service helped them to make even more connections with their previous knowledge and understanding. Rob and Beth noticed a change in staff attitude and values, highlighted in their understanding of why some children needed to be treated differently in order to enable them to access learning and develop positive relationships.

Very early in the project, a staff wellbeing box, which included pamper items, was set up, acknowledging the need to support each other in order to be able to support children. The training and development was a big part of the SIP and the SLT proactively focussed on problem solving linked to their assessment, evaluation and feedback.

St Giles Junior School fully embraced the spirit of the project, both at a whole school and strategic level. Their journey is still at the beginning. They are working hard to further develop their practice as a learning organisation and evaluate the efficacy of changes implemented, following training and facilitated support. 

Congratulations to everyone at St Giles

For information about the Attachment Aware and Trauma Informed School Project, please contact Deena Moorey, Headteacher, Warwickshire Virtual School,  deenamoorey@warwickshire.gov.uk

Fair Workload Charter Survey

Warwickshire schools were invited last year to participate in the Fair Workload Charter Survey which recognises the positive work undertaken in managing teacher workload.

We are pleased to let you know that the opportunity for applying for the Fair Workload Charter will re-open in November 2020 and schools interested in participating are invited to email at the earliest opportunity:  fairworkloadcharter@warwickshire.gov.uk 

The charter status will last for 24 months from the date awarded.

This initiative was developed by a working party in partnership with headteachers, WCC and the teacher trade unions to allow schools to enable their teaching staff to comment on the following workload areas:

• general working conditions
• planning and marking expectations
• data collection and communications
• school policies and access to training

Based on the results of the above survey, schools reaching a 90% threshold will be awarded the Fair Workload Charter status. This is a kite mark that can be used in recruitment materials and general communication and promotion of the school.

The Fair Workload Charter was originally introduced to address the continuing national focus on the effects the management of workload is having on schools and staff sickness absence and turnover.  There is now the further challenge of Covid related workload and many schools are additionally focussing on the impact of this on staff wellbeing.  In these circumstances, the Fair Workload Charter continues to be a very powerful recruitment and retention tool for your school or academy trust to use to tackle these challenging issues.

You will receive detailed feedback after submitting your survey results in order to allow you to action plan accordingly to address those areas which may have prevented you receiving the award upon first attempt.

More information is available (including the survey questions used) at the following link to Frequently Asked Questions

Teaching RE Vocabulary CPD January 28th 2021

This online session will focus on ‘Teaching RE Vocabulary’ and is one of the ongoing CPD sessions focusing on RE Curriculum. This session will
be led by Jennifer Jenkins, RE Facilitator for Coventry and Warwickshire. The CPD will take place on Microsoft Teams.

The date of the online CPD has now changed to Thursday 28th January 2021 4.00-5.30pm (previously scheduled for Thursday 21st January
2021).

For more information download here the poster. 

A creative response to climate change

Warwickshire Climate Alliance and Warwickshire Open studios invite you and your school to take part in a creative response to climate change competition for schools in Warwick District, to draw, paint, photograph or write something that expresses your views and feelings about Climate Change. 

Find here more details about the competition. 

And here you can download the competition's rule.

Remote Learning

The Department for Education (DfE) is working with schools to understand how they are adapting their teaching practice for remote education. Schools have shared a range of lesson plans annotated with tips and ideas they have found useful when teaching remotely.

The purpose of the lesson plans is to help teachers consider how they might adapt their teaching practice for the remote context.

This week further guidance was published by DFE:

Example lessons for remote teaching 

Lesson plans shared by schools to help teachers adapt their practice for remote education following the outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19).

Remote Learning: Support for Primary Consortia

Consortia Expert Users

All consortia now have named expert users.  Names and contact details were shared in the chat at the Thursday lunchtime Chairs Consortia 5.11.20 and will be shared in the chat for Tuesday lunchtime’s headteacher meeting 10.11.20.   The subject users will be available for half a day per week to support schools in their consortia.  Their work is coordinated by sarahfitzgerald@warwickshire.gov.uk and harveywoodall@warwickshire.gov.uk.  Schools are invited to contact their subject user, Sarah or Harvey to organise the support they require.

Four training sessions have been made available for expert users and all are signed up. 

Training open to all schools:

SAS are also offering four training sessions open to all.  If you have missed them, recordings are available at https://sites.google.com/welearn365.com/wccblendedlearning/further-support

Peer Coaching Training for Headteachers

There are two elements to this training. 

1. We have commissioned Gateway Allianceto provide 3 webinars led by expert leadership coaches (see below). These webinars are for Headteachers and are FREE to Warwickshire schools. The webinars will explore different aspects of leadership coaching and will provide excellent CPD for headteachers who are interested in finding out more about this approach, whether they wish to become a peer coach themselves or not. 

You can book your place at these webinars through the Gateway Alliance website: www.gatewayalliance.co.uk/finder/ just search subject ‘Coaching’.

NB All heads are welcome to attend the webinars – this does not commit you to become a peer coach, however if you wish to become a peer coach and join the Warwickshire register, we ask that you attend the webinars AND the training below.

2. We would like to develop a register of Warwickshire headteacher peer coaches which could be shared with schools for an individual arrangement, or may be brokered by the LA school improvement team.  In view of the current situation for all heads, we would not expect to draw from this register until summer 2021 at the earliest.

If you are interested in joining this team, we would like you to attend the webinars above and three sessions to be delivered by Catherine Nyman, an experienced professional coach, who many primary colleagues will know through her school improvement and coaching work.

Most headteachers who would like to undertake the training would be those from schools in categories A and B (from 2019 categorisation) and with good senior leadership capacity in their own schools, but we know that there will be colleagues in category C schools who will also feel in a secure position and would be happy to discuss this further.

Session One: 25.11.20

What is coaching and its place at work and at play

The richness of our landscape and effective leadership using coaching

Coaching tools and coaching models (Part i)

Session Two 13.1.21

Coaching tools and coaching models (Part ii)

Coaching for performance – long term leadership

Making a difference at a critical moment!

Session Three 28.4.21

Coaching tools and coaching models ( Part iii)

Using coaching with all our stakeholders

Coaching for resolution

Catherine is hoping to hold the later two sessions as face to face opportunities at Pound Lane Learning Centre in Leamington but this will be kept under review.

To express an interest or for further discussion, please contact:

margotbrown@warwickshire.gov.uk         07917 505157  or catherinenyman@warwickshire.gov.uk    07980 552963  

Free Training for Mental Health Leads

Teacher pay policy for 2020

The Teacher pay policy for 2020 is available and posted on the WES website, along with the accompanying guidance document which includes updated pay scales reflecting the 2020 pay award. The pay award is due to be implemented in the November payroll run and backdated to 1 September 2020.  

School Teachers Review Body pay remit 2021

In past years the government has issued the pay remit to the STRB in September. We therefore wanted to confirm that the pay remit for 2021 has not been issued yet. We will provide updates as they become available.

Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme has been extended to March 2021

The Job Support Scheme, (JSS) which was scheduled to come in on 1 November 2020, has been postponed. The Government has announced that the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (also known as the furlough scheme) will remain open until 31 March 2021. For claim periods running to January 2021, employees will receive 80% of their usual salary for hours not worked, up to a maximum of £2,500 per month, therefore the scheme is more generous than the scheme running in September and October. The percentage may be reviewed for February and March.

Full guidance is due to be published next week, on 10 November 2020 and we will provide further updates on receipt of this guidance. In the meantime, if you would like any advice please use the following contact details: 

For queries on the scheme and to register your interest in the scheme: WES HR Advice 01926 418614 or weshrandpayroll@warwickshire.gov.uk  

For queries around school run provision, early education funding payment impact or any wider early years and childcare business information that may impact the delivery of services please contact: earlyyears@warwickshire.gov.uk   

Education Finance will issue separate guidance and instructions on how to process and record any income transactions on your financial system and the contact details for Education Finance will be issued at that time. 

Encouraging EU workers to apply for the EU Settlement Scheme

As part of the changes resulting from the UK’s decision to leave the European Union, EU, EEA or Swiss citizens and their family members who are living on the UK before 1 January 2021 need to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme to continue living in the UK after 30 June 2021.

If you have any staff within your school who are EU nationals, then they will need to apply to the Scheme before the deadline of 30 June 2021.

At this stage we recommend schools engage with any EU staff to promote their ongoing commitment and support, whilst encouraging them to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme as soon as possible. This should be handled in a sensitive and positive manner.  There is no requirement for employers to do retrospective checks so please be careful not to demand to see evidence or to require staff who are EU citizens to inform you if they have applied yet.

A range of support is available online, by email and over the telephone to help EU, EEA and Swiss citizens and their family members to apply:

• The EUSettlement Resolution Centre continues to provide support seven days a week by telephone and by email.
• People can use the EUExit: ID Document Check app available on iPhone and on Android to complete the identity stage of their application. A postal route is also available.
• Assisted Digitaloffers additional support for those who do not have the appropriate access, skills or confidence to apply online.
• Communication materialsare also available in 26 EU languages.

A toolkit for employers is available on the Government's EU Settlement Scheme: employer toolkit web page.

Prepare for the new immigration system – recruiting teachers and other skilled workers from overseas

The new points-based immigration system will apply to all overseas nationals who arrive in the United Kingdom on or after 1 January 2021. These overseas nationals, including those from the European Economic Area and Switzerland, will need to apply for a visa.

Schools and other employers may need to prepare for this change by becoming visa sponsors if they want to recruit teachers or other skilled workers who are not UK or Irish nationals. If you’re already a licensed Tier 2 (General) visa sponsor, you’ll be automatically granted a new Skilled Worker licence.

To help schools prepare for the new immigration system, the Department for Education have published guidance about recruiting teachers from overseas.

Further information on the points-based immigration system can be found in the guidance on the new immigration system: what you need to know

Public Sector Exit Payments Cap

You may be aware that for the last few years, the Government has been discussing capping the level of payments made to people leaving employment in the Public Sector. You may have heard this referred to as the “exit cap”.

We can confirm that the Government has now passed the legislation which caps certain exit payments to public sector employees and this is effective from 4 November 2020. 

These payments include redundancy payments and pension strain costs (i.e. the cost paid by the employer to the pension fund to allow early release of an employee’s pension).  Going forward this is most likely to be a consideration in restructuring programmes where people over 55 leave on the grounds of redundancy and a pension strain cost (i.e. the cost paid by the employer to the pension fund to allow early release of an employee’s pension) to the employer is incurred, as is most likely to incur for those employees in the Local Government Pension Scheme.

It’s important to note that pension strain costs arising from death in service, flexible retirement and ill health retirement payments are excluded from the cap.

As you can imagine this is quite a complicated area and we are still waiting for further advice and guidance, particularly in relation to how pensions will be affected by the cap and any possible impact in the event of restructuring programmes. As a result of this Pensions Services are currently unable to provide any estimates for ‘pension strain cost’ relating to employees leaving on the grounds of redundancy. We will keep you updated on any future developments.

If you have any questions, please contact your WES HR Advisor via weshradvice@warwickshire.gov.uk

#Notalone- National Children's Grief Awareness week (19th-26th November)

The Coventry and Warwickshire Children's Bereavement network are offering a range of activities to recognise National Children's Grief Awareness week (19th-26th November). The theme this year is 'Isolation' and it has never been more critical that we reach out to children so that they don't feel alone in their grief, particularly when their normal support networks may not be available to them. 

It is estimated that 1 child in every UK classroom under the age of 16 has been bereaved of a parent or a sibling. 44,000 children are bereaved of a parent annually in the UK. These numbers sadly have the potential to be significantly higher this year. 

For 2020’s Child Grief Awareness Week, The Laura Centre is hosting an event for teachers and schools to help guide them in best practices when supporting grieving children on Nov 25th 4-5pm. Join our 1-hour seminar to learn how to help ensure children are not isolated in their grief.  Please register for this seminar via eventbrite.co.uk 'You're #Notalone: Supporting Grieving Children'  

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/youre-notalone-supporting-grieving-children-tickets-126851902455?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch&keep_tld=1

Evaluation Form - Autumn Term 2020 Headteachers' Conference

Warwickshire Skills Hub : Future Careers Fund - Third and Final Round

Future Careers Fund - Third and Final Round

The Warwickshire Skills Hub team has received a high number of great applications for the Future Careers Fund.

"It's been wonderful to see some of the creativity of projects and additional provision to support students in receiving careers support and guidance. The team are really looking forward to sharing some of this work soon! Further to feedback from yourselves, we understand a further opportunity for schools who have not yet made an application would be really useful. To support this, we can confirm a third and final round of funding will be available as set out below: 

Please note, outcomes will still need to be reported by July 2021, please contact emmaneale@warwickshire.gov.uk for an application form or if you have any questions "

 Thank you,

The Warwickshire Skills Hub team

Skills for Employment Update

The Warwickshire Skills Hub team invite you to attend a Skills for Employment update session. They have a series of catch ups booked to provide an update on some of their work and discuss the future investment of Skills for Employment.

Meetings will be held virtually using Microsoft Teams on Thursday 12th November, Friday 13th November and Monday 16th November. If you can join, please register using the link below:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/warwickshire-skills-hub-17242373612

Agenda: 

• Welcome - Fay Winterburn - Lead Commissioner - Employability & Skills
• Introduction to Natalie Williams - Employability and Post 16 Technical Instructor
• Update on Skills for Employment 2020
• Virtual round table discussion - Future Support
• Next actions