Schools Newsletter Issue 59 - Wednesday 16 October 2019

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Schools Newsletter

 

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Learn Together  |  Cambridgeshire County Council

Dear Reader,

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I am sure you will agree, the first 7 weeks of term have flown by and I am sure everyone is ready for the half term break. 

Hopefully you had a chance to read last weeks newsletter and the update on schools funding.  There has been much press coverage following a further announcement on funding on Friday when the Department for Education published the national funding formula spreadsheet at school and LA level.  This can be found here.  However please be warned this is a generational model for the LA level funding (our total quantum) and schools will not receive this allocation as the based on data that is out of date and the final allocations are subject to local issues to be agreed by schools forum.  We will be working up detailed budget proposals in the coming week.  The headlines from the overall announcements are 

  • The schools budget for Cambridgeshire has increased by £17.9m – a 5.2% increase.
  • High needs block has increased by £5.75m, an increase of 8.3%.  This was around £2m less than we expected to receive and will mean we will need to make further savings.
  • A reduction of £1.1m on our central school block – We will be exploring the impact this will have on schools as the majority of the funding went to school activities / services.
  • The minimum funding guarantee per pupil will be set at 1.84% per pupil. 
  • We do not yet have any details on the growth fund which is a critical aspect for Cambridgeshire. 

As previously shared, we will be consulting on the budget in November.  Consultation sessions will take place at the CPH conference on the 14 November (book here – head only) and the CSH meeting on the 3 December.  I will cover the key headlines in upcoming meetings with nursery and special schools as funding arrangements are different for these sectors.  We have organised two governor briefing sessions for the 20 November at Stanton House (6pm until 8pm) and 25 November at CPDC (6pm until 8pm) – you can book onto these here. Places are limited.

For maintained schools information, we have been considering the 19/20 pay award for centrally employed teachers and have agreed to apply a 2.75% increase across all points for staff.  We have taken this view from a perspective of the challenges of recruitment and retention, the historic shortfall in pay for this group and our position in terms of comparative pay compared to our neighbours.  Please note that non-teaching staff are covered by a separate agreement which has previously been shared.   

Sorry for the full on messages for this final week but please ensure you have a break over half term and I look forward to seeing you after half term. 

Best wishes,

Jon

In this issue:

Quick Links

Current Local Authority senior management structure

Cambs Learn Together

Cambridgeshire County Council

LA and Teaching School CPD offer

Early Years

Knowledge Hub

Help With Recruitment?

Statutory Duties of the Local Authority

About us

Update school email address

Primary Schools Data Oversight

The 2019 data summary for Cambridgeshire can be found here.  It covers a summary of all key stages in primary schools. 

We are hoping primary schools are finding the schools on the page and QLA analysis helpful.  To support your use of this, you can find an explanation of the RAG rating here and we have the overall Cambridgeshire position for the Year 6 QLA which can be found here. Please let us have any feedback on these.

Jon

Link Officers

We have updated our list of link officers to schools to allow for new starters and leavers.  Details of these can be found here. I will be undertaking the schools survey again after half term and I am intending to collect feedback on this role and we will be considering how it will continue early in the new year.  In the meantime, officers will be contacting you shortly to organise contacts for this academic year.  If there are any queries please let me know.  A descriptor and expectation of your link officer role can be found here.

Jon 

Dragon visits Granta School ahead of the Well Child Awards

Mr Duncan Bannatyne visited Granta today ahead of the Well Child awards in London this evening. His day included a tour of the school, a meeting with school council and a wonderful presentation by 6th form students. We hope he will come back soon.

Duncan Bannatyne

BBC Tiny Happy People

Tiny Happy People – the BBC’s biggest ever education initiative which aims to contribute to closing the ‘word gap’ in children aged 0-5 will be soft launching on 16 October.

It’s a free, online resource for parents, carers and professionals to inspire and empower care givers to chat and play with their children.

New Ofsted Framework

We are now into the full swing of the new inspection framework and gathering feedback from inspections.  We are looking to share this more formally with schools in the autumn.  Inspectors are finding their way with the new approach and I would recommend that heads review the Ofsted Myth Busting documentation so you are familiar with the expectations for inspectors.  It can be found here.

Thanks Helena for reminding me to share this document! 

Jon

Primary Schools PE Conference

The Physical Education Advisory Service delivered an extremely well received PE conference on October 2 2019 in St Ives. There were 97 delegates from schools across Cambridgeshire & Peterborough attending a choice of 16 applied workshops, and an innovative marketplace. Keynote presentations were made by Sue Wilkinson (CEO AfPE), Jon Glenn (Swim England) and Elaine Wyllie (Founder of the Daily Mile). Cllr Simon Bywater welcomed delegates to the event, with pertinent talk about the holistic contribution that PE and Physical Activity makes to the lives of young people. Downloads of presentations and resources are available at this link.

New system for managing early help referrals

In January 2020 Cambridgeshire social care and early help teams will be moving to a new case management system – LiquidLogic.

This will provide access for schools to record their interventions in the system allowing a more joined up approach to working with children and their families in our communities.

You will be able to see a history of professionals involved with the family and if there is an open early help assessment.

In LiquidLogic all processes are completed online including early help assessments,plans and requests for additional support; you will no longer need to send paper copies of documents to us.

A series of training sessions have been arranged for schools to find out more and ask questions about the new process (see below). Click here for more information.

Training and Events

Peterborough Celebrates Reading Conference

Friday 22 November 2019, 09:00 to 15:30, Kingsgate Conference Centre. For teachers and leaders wanting to further develop children's interest and enjoyment of reading.

SENCo Briefings

Tuesday 5 November, 10.00 to12.30 or 13.30-16.00 at CPDC, CB2 9NL- Primary

Monday 11 November, 10.00 to12.30 at Over Community Centre, CB24 5NW- Secondary

Monday 25 November, 10.00 to12.30 at Hemingford Pavillion, PE28 9BX- Primary

Tuesday 26 November, 13.30 to 16.00 at South Fens Business Centre, PE16 6TT- Primary

Agenda: Cambridgeshire SEMH Review, ‘The language of SEMH’, Costed Provision Map workshop (Please bring copies of your school’s own costed provision mapping). £30 per delegate for Academies

Early Years AET Good Autism Practice

Thursday 7 November, 9.15 to 16.30 at Over Community Centre, CB24 5NW. For all staff who work regularly with children with autism. £40 per delegate.

Liquid Logic Communications sessions

Monday 11th November CPDC 3.45 - 4.45pm

 

Monday 25th November, The Meadows Community Centre 3.45 - 4.45pm

 

Thursday 7th November Ely College 3.45 - 4.45pm

 

Monday 11th November Burwell primary school 3.45pm - 4.45pm

 

Monday 4th November Broadleas, St Ives 4.15 - 5.15pm

 

Tuesday 5th November, Stanton House Suite 2 , Huntingdon 4 - 5pm

 

Thursday 14th November, Scaldgate Youth, Child and Family Centre, Whittlesey 4- 5pm

 

Thursday 21st November at Hereward Hall Room 5, March 4 - 5pm

 

Monday 4th November at Bargroves, St Neots 4- 5pm

 

Thursday 7th November at Broadleas, Morris room, St Ives 4 -5pm

 

Wednesday 13th November at Stilton Primary school at 4 -5pm

 

Monday 4 November at Northstowe Community Wing, Pathfinder School, CB24 1AA 1 - 2pm

 

Wednesday 20 November at Blue School, Eastgate, Cambourne, CB23 6DZ 1 - 2pm

 

Monday 4th November at Oasis Child and Family Centre, Wisbech 3.30- 4.30pm

 

Monday 11th November at Oasis Child and family Centre, Wisbech 3.30 - 4.30pm

 

   

New to Headship Induction Programme - Session 2 (See "Developing Leadership" tab)

Wednesday, 30 October 2019 (9.00 - 13.00) Shirley Primary. Headteachers – New, Interim, Acting, or new to Cambridgeshire. No charge for schools that have purchased the New to Headship package, Cambs LA schools £65, Out of County, Academies and Independent Schools £75.

Improving Progression in English for R & Y1 (See “English” Tab).

Monday 28 October 2019 (13.30 -16.30) Cambridge Golf & Conference Centre. Reception Teachers and Year 1 Teachers, Early Years Leaders and/or English Subject Leaders. Cambs LA schools £65, Out of County, Academies and Independent Schools £75.

Improving Leadership Forum - Session 1  (See "Developing Leadership" tab)

Monday 28 October 2019 (13.30 -16.30) Huntingdon FA. Headteachers, Deputy Head teachers and Assistant Headteachers & Newly Appointed Headteachers. No charge for schools that have purchased the New to Headship package, Cambs LA schools £65, Out of County, Academies and Independent Schools £75.

AET Good Autism Practice

Thursday 31 October, 9.15 to 16.30 at South Fens Business Centre, PE16 6TT.        For All school staff who directly supports a child or young person with autism (usually teachers or support staff). £110 per delegate.

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