Securing the Best Start to Life
New module added to DfE's Early Years child development training
Supporting physical development in the early years:
The Early years child development training is an online programme that is free to access. It has been designed by early years professionals to help early years practitioners working with children 0-4 years strengthen their knowledge and understanding of child development.
Module 5: Supporting physical development in the early years is now available, along with 4 other modules on child and brain development, personal, social and emotional development (PSED) and communication and language.
This new module covers:
- the typical stages of physical development in the early years
- potential factors that can affect physical development
- how physical skills impact on learning, development and behaviour
- the importance of curriculum, environment and relationships for promoting physical development
To access this module, you will need to complete modules 1-3 of the training. If you are already signed up to the training and have completed modules 1-3, this module is available to start now. You can access it from your My modules page in the training.
Further modules will be added during 2023. If you haven’t yet accessed the training, and would like to learn more and register, please visit Early years child development
Foundation Years live event in Birmingham
Book places now and hear from the DfE and Ofsted amongst others……..
Foundation Years are running another event for practitioners working within the EYFS.
Chaired by James Hempsall, they will be joined by a fantastic range of speakers, including:
- DfE on the EYFS consultation,
- Coram Family and Childcare,
- NCB EYSEND,
- Education Development Trust – EYPDP,
- Astrea MAT,
- Ofsted.
Places are FREE and limited so register today! The agenda is available on the booking site: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/foundation-years-live-engage-connect-and-share-best-practice-tickets-635412384547
Professional Qualification in Early Years Leaders
Registration open for October 2023
The NPQEYL is a professional development course which has been specifically designed by early years experts to address the challenges faced by early years leaders.
The NPQEYL will help you develop essential knowledge and skills that underpin successful leadership of a high-quality nursery, including how to:
- Establish an effective culture across the nursery
- Deliver a high-quality and ambitious curriculum that meets the needs of all your learners and ensures all children experience success
- Support staff to engage in effective professional development
- Manage resources effectively
- Work successfully with parents, services and other early years settings
Find out more and register for this fully-funded course by visiting Early years leadership NPQ (education.gov.uk).
Launch of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Consultation is now live on Citizen Space
The Department for Education has launched a consultation on the EYFS to offer providers increased flexibility and alleviate known burdens, exploring giving providers more choice over how they operate and making it easier for them to deliver the EYFS. It is their intention that these changes will support settings to deliver the new entitlements announced at the Spring Budget.
They hope to hear from many people and organisations before the deadline on 26 July, so they can gather a broad range of views to help them reach well-informed decisions. The Department for Education and Foundation Years are also planning some engagement events for stakeholders, so please look out for this.
To note, this consultation builds on the measures consulted on in Summer 2022. The changes to 2 year old staff to child ratios and supervision whilst eating are due to come into force in September 2023, subject to parliamentary procedure.
Please see attachments with your briefing.
For more information click here
Supporting young children with SEND
The importance of early intervention and partnership working
In a new blog on the Foundation Years website, Christina Welsh and Adi Soni from the EYSEND Partnership share the important work they have been doing to support the educational experiences of young people with SEN and disabilities in England.
Members of the EYSEND Partnership work at a strategic level by bringing together local authorities, parents/carers, setting and school staff, health colleagues, and other representatives from across the sector. The aim is to gather all stakeholders in the same space to develop more coherent and robust systems for young children to access the support and care they need.
Their latest report shows how the early identification of SEND, including through formal diagnosis and obtaining a support plan in the early years, paves the way towards a positive experience at school in later years.
Read the blog on the Foundation Years website here.
Professional Development Guide
Are you thinking about how to support your staff’s professional development?
If so, the EEF have published a new guide to understand components of effective professional development in the early years. It focuses on four key areas:
- Building knowledge
- Motivating staff to adopt and maintain changes to their practice
- Developing specific techniques
- Embedding new approaches.
The guide also includes insights from early years professionals who share how they’ve refined their professional development provision.
The EEF, in collaboration with DfE and Stronger Practice Hubs, is also offering early years settings access to several funded professional development programmes. Taking part gives you the opportunity to receive promising professional development free of charge. There’s also a contribution to the costs for staff to engage in training too.
Search your setting to explore opportunities.
Free Children's Wellbeing Resources
National Day Nurseries Association
Increasing levels of well-being in the first five years of a child’s life is key to their future mental health. The National Day Nurseries Association have created a range of free well-being resources that early years practitioners can read, download and use at their settings for the benefit of their children.
Visit the website to access:
- Free children’s well-being policy template
- Free factsheet with top tips on supporting children’s emotional well-being
- Free well-being training course
- Free children’s well-being guide e-book
National Week of Play
The Early Years Alliance will be running its third annual National Week of Play from Monday 19 to Sunday 25 June.
This year's event will focus on how we can ensure that play in the early years fosters and supports a sense of positivity and inclusivity, regardless of age, gender, or background.
The National Week of Play will celebrate play through a range of activities, including:
- Free virtual events exploring the importance of connecting through play
- A range of tips, ideas and activities for early years professionals to try throughout the week
- Ideas and resources to encourage parents and carers to get involved.
Parents, carers and early years professionals can register to take part in this year's National Week of Play, and to receive a free resource pack here.
Pyjamarama is back for 2023!
Spend a day in your pyjamas to raise money for BookTrust and be part of something amazing.
On Friday 16 June, children all around the country – in schools, nurseries, and at home – will spend the day reading, enjoying, and sharing stories all in the comfort of their pyjamas to raise vital funds to help every child get a bedtime story.
Five great reasons for getting involved:
- Taking part in Pyjamarama gives schools, nurseries, libraries, clubs, parents and carers a great way to encourage children to read for pleasure.
- By getting involved, you can raise vital funds to help make sure that no child misses out on their bedtime story.
- Pyjamarama is easy and fun to organise: all you need to do is to ask parents to keep children in their pyjamas on 16 June and bring in £1 to support our work getting more children reading.
- New for 2023! Exclusive video content from your favourite authors
- You can wear your pyjamas all day!
To find out more click here
Sign up to take part here
50 Things to do website
Did you know that our 50 things website has a Google Translate feature? This is a fast and simple way to translate our website into a different language. This can be a good tool for language learning or for people whose second language is English.
Website: https://warwickshire.50thingstodo.org/app/os#!/welcome
Supporting Inclusion for SEND and Vulnerable Groups
New Community Autism Support Service launches to support people across Coventry and Warwickshire
Residents in Coventry and Warwickshire who may self-identify as autistic, those awaiting an autism assessment and those with an autism diagnosis are now able to access improved support through the all-age autism support service.
Top-up funding awareness sessions for SENCos
As shared in Heads Up before May half term, Warwickshire County Council will begin the phased implementation of the new Top Up Funding allocation model from June 2023.
The new funding matrix aims to determine the right level of top-up funding at the right time to enable education settings to make appropriate provision for pupils with a special educational need and/or disability (SEND), as outlined in the SEND Code of Practice.
The 6x4 matrix will provide a simplified funding process, giving increased transparency and offering greater financial sustainability to education settings, therefore improving placement stability and supporting recruitment and retention.
If you missed this update, you can read more about the new matrix and plans for implementation here.
To enable the successful roll out and to support settings in understanding the new process, further information will be shared at the summer term SENCo Network Meetings. The dates for these are as follows:
Secondary SENCo Network Meeting:
- Tuesday 13 June, 2-4pm - virtual meeting
Primary SENCo Network Meeting:
- Thursday 22 June, 1.30-4pm at Pound Lane, Leamington
- Tuesday 27 June, 2-4pm - virtual meeting
All SENCos are encouraged to attend, however, if you are unable to attend either of these dates, there will be additional virtual awareness sessions organised for September. Details of these will be shared via Heads Up.
It is important to highlight that we will be carrying out in-depth reviews every half term to evaluate progress during the implementation phase of this project, and it may be important for us to pause implementation, if necessary, to ensure its success and sustainability. We are committed to working in partnership with you to deliver the best possible outcomes for our children and young people and will be keeping you updated throughout the duration of the project.
If you have any queries, please email sendchange@warwickshire.gov.uk.
Celebrating Warwickshire’s Family of Schools
Early Career Teachers
Dear colleagues,
As you know the role of the Appropriate Body (AB) moves to the Teaching School Hubs from September 2023 for all new ECTs.
Warwickshire will continue to offer AB services for those ECTs who are already signed up with us until 31st August 2024, allowing the ECTs to compete their 2-year induction programme with the same AB that they start with.
All new ECTS from now onwards must be registered with one of the national Teaching School Hubs to act as their AB. For Warwickshire, these are:
If you are part of a MAT or Trust, then this may be with another Teaching School Hub as advised by your team.
It is not a requirement to transfer any ECTs midway through their induction.
Teaching School Hub Appropriate Body Services on offer to Warwickshire Schools
The DfE intend to reform the AB sector so that Teaching School Hubs (TSHs) will become the main providers of AB services and Local Authorities will no longer carry out this role. This will bring clearer accountability, and greater consistency and quality of service for schools through a smaller, more regulated AB sector. This reform is expected to commence for ECTs starting in September 2023.
Three Teaching school Hubs service Warwickshire and we work in collaboration to support schools across the county to access high quality provision and services. We hope this information supports schools to access Appropriate Body services, particularly where they already engage with the Early Career Framework services from the Teaching School Hubs.
When schools access both ECF and AB services, schools report a simpler and more efficient process for supporting their ECTs and within the Teaching School Hubs our staff can understand both the professional development and assessment offers ECTs experience, with the same Hub team personnel supporting both the ECT and leaders in schools – essentially having one port of call makes our services more streamlined for schools and ECTs.
Please read more here.
Appropriate body reforms; Briefing Pack for ABs to share information with schools
This information pack is to help ABs provide schools with the information they need about what is changing with local AB services, and any choices school leaders and induction tutors may need to make about how they access AB services in the future to support the induction of ECTs.
Download the pack here.
Have you employed an Early Career Teacher?
Find out more about the statutory entitlements you need to provide. Including the provision of an Appropriate Body Service and an ECF Based induction.
One opportunity is the John Taylor Teaching School Hub’s fully funded Early Career Framework offer from the Education Development Trust, for schools in East Staffs, Lichfield, Cannock and Tamworth.
Headteachers, school leaders and Induction Tutors can sign up to one of our free Webinars here - https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/ecf-and-ab-webinar-2231719
Talking about School Transitions - Warwickshire Educational Psychology Service guide for parents and carers
Warwickshire Educational Psychology Service (EPS) have created a series of short webinars for parent and carers to support their child through key school transitions: Nursery to Reception, Year 6 to Year 7 and Year 11 to Post 16.
The webinars provide advice and suggestions of things to do before the transition, what to do on the first day and how to manage the subsequent weeks after transferring.
Alongside the Educational Psychologist are Warwickshire school practitioners, sharing their first-hand advice and tips on how to support a smooth transition for all children.
Gemma Gough and Sarah Healy, Specialist Senior Educational Psychologists commented that “Creating these videos have been a great way for Warwickshire EPS to support our local parents and carers at a time that can be full of new experiences and changes for many families. We hope that these short and easy to access videos will help parents and carers to feel reassured and better prepared ahead of their children making these school moves".
The webinars are available to watch on: https://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/educationalpsychology
Please do signpost and share with families where you feel this would be beneficial.
Applying for Secondary School event for Parents/Carers
Please can you share the details of this event with Year 5 parents and carers? Hosted by the WCC admissions team, it will give them advice and guidance on choosing and applying for their child’s 2024 secondary school place. You’re welcome to copy/paste the paragraph below and use in your parent communications:
If you are the parent or carer of a child in Year 5 who is expected to move to secondary school in September 2024, you'll need to apply for their Year 7 place in the autumn - the deadline is Tuesday 31 October.
Join this online event on Thursday 13 July at 7pm and hear directly from the admissions team who manage the applications process, who will share advice and guidance on how to choose your preferred schools and submit a successful application. There will be an opportunity to ask questions during the event and it will also be recording, so that if you can't join us on the day, you can watch it later on the Warwickshire County Council YouTube channel.
Book your place at: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/applying-for-secondary-school-in-warwickshire-tickets-650708555807
In-Year Admissions Updates
If you are involved in managing In-Year admissions – when parents and carers want their child to change school outside of the usual transfer process – then please join us on Thursday 29 June at 11am for an In-Year webinar.
During the event, the WCC Admissions team will share the latest updates and news on how we are managing In-year applications and set out the role that you have to play in the process. You’ll also have a chance to ask any questions of the team.
Book your place here.
The event will be recorded and sent to those unable to join on the day.
Primary Leadership NPQs
Secondary Leadership NPQs
Information on fully funded NPQs through TSHs
Fully funded NPQs are available through TSHs. In the Tudor Grange Teaching School Hub region, are now recruiting for the NPQs, commencing in October 2023. They are offering a full range, and this may be the last year that they are fully funded.
This year, there is extra funding available too:
Schools can receive a grant for each teacher or leader they employ who takes an NPQ in the 2023 to 2024 academic year:
- state-funded primary schools with one to 150 pupils will receive a grant payment of £800
- state-funded primary schools with more than 150 pupils will receive a grant payment of £200
- state-funded secondary schools and state-funded 16 to 19 educational settings with one to 600 pupils will receive a grant payment of £200
LSEH Newsletter
Please find here the latest edition of the Little Sutton English Hub newsletter
Training course by Warwickshire SLS
Warwickshire Schools Library Service are running their popular, 'Help, I'm running the library!' course on Tuesday 26th September, from 9.30am to 12.30pm. This is suitable for any school staff or parent volunteers responsible for running their primary or secondary school library. Here are just a few comments from previous participants:
'Was just so nice to listen to people so knowledgeable with real solutions as I just don’t have time to do all that research on top of my job.'
'I have been inspired to think about how I can improve my library and what is important in there.'
'It was very useful discussing with other schools what their library looked like and included as it made me reflect on our library and what my next steps should be.'
Climate Change Posters for Your School
WCC have created this fantastic set of four posters to raise awareness of some of the impacts and causes of climate change, and to show some of the ways that we can all play our part in living in a more sustainable way.
Look out for the free copies which will be sent to Warwickshire schools over the next couple of weeks to tie in with Big Green Week (10th – 18th June). We hope you can find somewhere to display them in your school, and that they prompt some good discussions with staff and students.
Download the poster here.
Download the poster here.
Download the poster here.
Download the posters here./img/781f7787/
Refugee Week 19 June - 25 June 2023
Every year, hard working teachers and educators across the world plan fantastic activities to celebrate Refugee Week to help children and young people develop a greater understanding and compassion towards refugee experiences that their students can carry into their adult lives.
There are lots of ways schools and educators have taken part, from holding assemblies to dedicated lessons, to creative activities or even launching longer-term projects.
Refugee Week is an annual festival that celebrates the contributions, creativity and resilience of people seeking sanctuary. It’s been running in the UK since 1998 and is always the week of World Refugee Day (20 June).
This year is a big one as it’s our 25th Anniversary. Our theme is compassion and we invite everyone to celebrate what compassion looks like in action.
This pack - Refugee Week 2023: Children & Young People’s Pack has a range of activity ideas and resources for children of all ages that can be explored at school, home or community settings. There is also a range of family-friendly events taking place around the country. Find out what’s near you!
If your school is organising any activity and would like to share please let us know by emailing headsup@warwickshire.gov.uk If you have any photos you can share, please send those too!
Read about the Warwickshire teachers' volunteering experience with Care4Calais in this article written by Nikki Ajibade (Joint Senior Lead Ethnic Minority Traveller Achievement Service [EMTAS] in Education & Learning).
Visit the Knife Angel monument in Nuneaton this June
The poignant Knife Angel sculpture was unveiled in Market Place, Nuneaton on Thursday 1 June at 7pm. Made from 100,000 seized blades, the sculpture was created by Clive Knowles from the British Iron Works to highlight the negative effects of violent behaviour, while also being a beautiful memorial designed to celebrate the lives that have been lost.
The Knife Angel will be in place throughout the month of June. Schools are encouraged to take students to visit the monument and start important conversations about the consequences of carrying a knife, with the hopes this will take us one step closer to achieving our objective of being a truly child-friendly Warwickshire, where every child can grow up safely and without fear of violence.
Visitors to the monument are invited to leave messages of remembrance, which will be displayed on the fence that surrounds it. Message tags can be collected on market days between 10am until 2pm from the NABSCOP (Nuneaton and Bedworth Safer Communities Partnership) stall, where community safety items will also be distributed on Wednesdays.
Those with an interest in photography at any level are also invited to enter the Knife Angel Photography Competition. The competition offers individuals the chance to get creative behind the lens and take a great picture of the nationally famous Knife Angel, with the winner receiving the coveted Knife Angel trophy.
If you do take a class to visit, WCC would love to hear about it – please email charlottepacaud@warwickshire.gov.uk.
Photo credit: British Iron Works
Leamington Spa Library Home Education Fire Safety Session
Save the Date: HOT Conference 2023, 24 October
The West Midlands Employers are organising a HOT Conference on 24th October @ The Studio in Birmingham.
Addressing the recruitment and retention challenge in local government and the wider public sector by cultivating an environment of acceptance and belonging, positioning the sector as an inclusive employer of choice.
Please find here more information.
SACRE annual report 2021-2022
The latest annual report on the work of Warwickshire Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education (SACRE) has recently been published and is available to read on the SACRE website SACRE Annual report
SACRE is a statutory body convened by the Local Authority (LA) to offer advice in relation to quality, standards and progress of Religious Education and Collective Worship in community schools.
It is a statutory requirement that SACRE produces an annual report by 31st December each calendar year detailing their activities. The report must be sent to the Secretary of State for Education as well as to key partners, including schools and councillors.
The main purpose of the report is to hold the LA to account, by informing the Secretary of State and key partners what advice SACRE gave the LA during the year and how that was responded to. This includes advice on RE and Collective Worship in those schools for which the LA has responsibility.
You can find more information about the work of the group on the SACRE website