New funding to boost schools facilities and healthy lifestyles
Schools to receive £415 million to transform facilities and help pupils get healthy start to life.
Schools are to receive £415 million to help pupils benefit from healthier, more active lifestyles, Education Secretary Justine Greening announced today (28 February 2017).
Primary, secondary and sixth-form colleges will be able to use the funding to pay for facilities to support physical education (PE), after-school activities and healthy eating.
Schools will also be able to use the new healthy pupils capital programme to improve facilities for children with physical conditions or support young people struggling with mental health issues.
Alongside the funding for the PE and sport premium, breakfast clubs and universal infant free school meals, it represents over £1.3 billion investment in the 2018 to 2019 academic year to help young people live healthier lifestyles. This builds on wider government work such as the recent sports strategy.
Education Secretary Justine Greening said:
Schools can really help our children get a healthy start in life from exercise and sport, and also from knowing what a healthy diet means. It’s not only good for them while they’re in education, but the health and wellbeing benefits can last a lifetime.
That’s why we’re investing £415 million in facilities to support sports, after-school activities and promoting healthy eating, so we can secure the future health of our young people.
Local authorities and larger multi-academy trusts will receive an allocation for schools and will make decisions locally on how this money is invested. Smaller multi-academy trusts (MATs), individual academies and sixth-form centres will be able to bid for grants for specific one-off projects.
The money - from the Soft Drinks Industry Levy - will be available to schools in the 2018 to 2019 financial year and more details on how the fund will be distributed will be published later this year. Government has also pledged to ensure that the amount schools receive will not fall below £415 million regardless of the funds generated by the levy.
The healthy pupils capital programme will build on the government’s plans for schools to provide a longer school day by changing the focus of the scheme to provide new facilities or improve existing ones to make it easier for a range of extra-curricular activities to be provided.
To view the full news release click here
Relationships and Sex Education to be made compulsory in schools
It has been proposed nationally that Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) is made compulsory in all schools in England, the Government has announced. The proposal recommends all children from the age of four are taught about safe and healthy relationships. The proposal is yet to become law, but is certainly a positive step.
Warwickshire County Council, Public Health has developed age appropriate sexual health and relationship education programmes for primary aged children called Spring Fever and for all secondary schools called Doing it! A number of schools have taken advantage of these innovative resources and with the changes publicised yesterday more schools will now be able to join them. This is a free service for all schools in Warwickshire.
Spring Fever
Summary: Spring Fever is tailored to the sexual development phases of children. It offers an age appropriate method of acquiring the knowledge, attitudes and skills needed. As a result, children are better prepared for any subsequent sexual contacts in later life. They also better understand relationships and sexual health. Spring Fever offers fun and responsible support in providing relationships and sexual health education.
Schools that have given senior management support to the programme have noticed the benefits, not only to the children, but also the school itself. Teachers notice that the children become more open both in asking questions about human sexuality and in their interaction with one another.
Doing It!
Summary: Doing It! Is a sex positive Relationship and Sex Education (RSE) programme for Teachers and young people. The package covers work and campaigns suitable for all years groups from 7-13 and is a complete package of training and resources to be used in secondary schools across Warwickshire.
respectyourself.info, is the County Council’s web resource for 13 to 25 year olds in Warwickshire providing advice and education on relationships and sexual health. The site is safe and reliable, where young people can explore issues that are important to them. The site is monitored and supported by professionals who provide answers to encourage young people to take control of their relationships and to move at a pace they are comfortable with
To find out more about about Public Health Warwickshire’s work supporting RSE contact;
Luke Carter , Respect Yourself Programme Manager
lukecarter@warwickshire.gov.uk, 01926 414984
RAISEonline News
In April the Department for Education (DfE) will be launching a new service which will provide schools and other existing user groups with detailed performance analysis to support local school improvement as a replacement to RAISEonline.
The new service
The DfE have worked with users to ensure the service will be easier to navigate and use, whilst retaining familiar tools such as filters. Access will be granted through ‘Secure Access’, in line with other DfE services.
The DfE are also introducing new commercial arrangements to make the data that sits behind RAISEonline available to accredited suppliers who satisfy strict security and usage criteria. This will enable the market to develop innovative services which schools can choose to procure should they wish, in a similar way that many do now.
What’s next?
As the new service is DfE led, the Ofsted Helpdesk will close on 31 March. They are working with Ofsted to ensure as smooth a transition as possible for users.
When the new service is available they will contact you again with the link to the new site as well as information regarding your Secure Access log-in. They will also be providing a couple of short videos to get users familiar with the new service.
In the meantime, watch out for updates on the RAISEonline Latest News page.
Following the initial release the DfE will continue to improve the service based on user feedback, analytics and on-going user research. They will be keen to seek your feedback either through formal testing or through user surveys, which will be built into the new service. As part of those ongoing improvements the DfE are very focused on ensuring RAISEonline data is available earlier, as they know that’s a key area schools want to see addressed.