Dear Colleagues,
Welcome to the final education planning group update before the February half-term break.
In what has been another turbulent half a term for education, with staff and student absences playing havoc with carefully laid educational plans, staff stress levels have been at an all time high.
So, please do take this opportunity to have a much deserved break and recharge your batteries to come back even stronger for the rest of the Spring term.
Moving to today's update, we have a final reminder of the February half-term FSM voucher offer, a few Public Health updates, advice on teacher pension indexation and a reminder to include the pro-rata salary on your job adverts which are either part time, term time only (or both).
Best wishes,
Dan
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In November 2021 the joint Teaching trade unions highlighted an issue for teachers and school leaders due to the 2021/22 pay freeze. They asked if all teachers and schools leaders who had no pay progression in 2021/22 could be paid a £1 payment for 1 month only which would trigger pension indexation and would resolve the issue they had highlighted.
A decision was taken by schools forum joint SEN and budget working groups on Wednesday 9th February to support the request from trade unions and therefore we are asking all schools to make a £1 payment to all teachers and school leaders who have had no pay progression in 2021/22 before the end of March 2022 so that pension indexation can be triggered. Whilst the LA is the employer for maintained community and voluntary controlled schools, voluntary aided schools and academy trusts are also asked to apply this policy.
You will need to identify all teachers and school leaders that have not had pay progression for 2021/22 and instruct your payroll provider to make a £ 1 recruitment and retention payment for the teachers and a £1 payment under section 15 of the model pay policy (other payments) for school leaders. An advice note will be issued on the schools portal early next week but in the meantime if you have any queries please contact Kerry Anderson, HR Business Partner kerry.anderson@cumbria.gov.uk
FSM WONDE Voucher Feb Half-Term Offer
Thank you to all schools who’ve ordered their WONDE FSM vouchers for benefits-related FSM, EY PP and Funded 2’s; if you haven’t done so already, the WONDE LA window closes on Tuesday 15th February at 5pm.
If you need to check the latest FSM numbers for your school, please contact Jason Spedding on 07774016810 or via email Jason.spedding@cumbria.gov.uk If you require any other support, please contact Ez on ellen.wealleans@cumbria.gov.uk.
Sample letter to parents:
Full letter to headteachers:
WONDE Information and Support
evouchers.com (formerly Schoolvouchers.com) Email: support@evouchers.com Web: evouchers.com Support: help.evouchers.com
New online notification system
A reminder that the new electronic reporting system for notifying the Education Infection Prevention and Control (EIPC) Team of COVID-19 cases in educational settings is now being rolled out. Each setting will receive an email with instructions and a bespoke web link that they can use to notify the EIPC team of COVID-19 cases and outbreaks. It may take a number of days for all settings to receive their link. Until you receive it, you should continue to report as normal, by emailing your notification forms to EducationIPC@cumbria.gov.uk.
Long COVID
Everyone’s experience of COVID-19 is different. Most people recover quickly, without any persistent symptoms or long-term problems. However, a small minority of people can have symptoms or problems that last for weeks or months after the initial infection. This is often known as ‘long COVID’. It is estimated that around 1.3 million people in the UK (2.1% of the population) are currently experiencing self-reported long COVID.
To support education settings who may have staff or pupils experiencing long COVID, we have compiled a document that provides information about the post COVID-19 recovery period and signposting links to additional advice and support that you may find helpful.
The document can be found in the ‘information for schools and early years settings’ section of the Cumbria County Council webpages: Coronavirus (COVID-19) - information for schools and early years settings | Cumbria County Council.
The Emotional Health & Wellbeing Team and Virtual School are running training aimed at SENDCOs and Designated Teachers and Social Workers in schools working with Children Looked After or on the ‘edge of care’ and are vulnerable to stress or living with developmental trauma.
Training will be delivered over the course of four sessions via Microsoft Teams and will have a capped cohort of 70 places.
To enrol click on the following link Course: Understanding and responding to developmental trauma in schools (Virtual Event) (learningpool.com) or search the course title on My Learning.
For more information about the training, download the flyeer below:
Emotional Health & Wellbeing Team and Virtual School Training 2022 flyer
Pro-rata salary reminder
In line with changes to the term time working section of the Green Book in 2018, you must advertise the pro-rata salary for term time only roles. An example is shown below:
Pro-Rata Salary: £15,414 - £15,722 (plus Annual Leave based on continuous years’ service)
The advertised salary includes a supplement (JWC) to the base grade of the post. JWC supplements are conditional on the physical demands and /or working conditions of the role.
Hours: 37 hours per week (Term time only – 40 weeks)
To calculate the pro-rata salary, divide the full time salary by 52.14 weeks, then by 37 hours. Multiply by hours worked per week then by number of weeks to be worked. An example is detailed below:
- Full time salary / 52.14= weekly salary / 37 = hourly rate x contracted hours = actual weekly gross salary x number of weeks to be worked = pro-rata salary
- £20,092/52.14 = £385.35/37 = £10.41 x 20 hours = £208.29 x 38 weeks = £7,915.24 + annual leave
- £20,493/52.14 = £393.03/37 = £10.62 x 20 hours = £212.45 x 38 weeks = £8,073.10 + annual leave
If you have any queries please contact Kerry Anderson, HR Business Partner at Kerry.anderson@cumbria.gov.uk
The recruitment procedure for schools based staff will be updated in due course to include this and will also include a calculator for ease of use.
Reminder of how to advertise a vacancy on the CCC website
If you have a vacancy which you need to be advertised on the Cumbria County Council website you should email your advert and the job description to Capita advertise.pa@capita.co.uk and they will upload your advert. You should give a least 4 weeks for an advert to be live.
Thousands of children and young people across Cumbria enjoyed a variety of winter activities over Christmas thanks to Cumbria’s Winter Holiday Activity programme.
The two-week programme supported 77 youth clubs, sports clubs, outdoor centres and other organisations to host hundreds of activities, giving young Cumbrians the opportunity to try something new and to have fun during the winter break, as well as being provided with a nutritious meal.
Thank you to all of the schools who participated or supported the programme!
For more information about the success of the winter programme, visit the Your Cumbria website.
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School Portal updates since Thursday 3 February 2022.
Simply click the name of the document to open the file.
Cumbria Educational Psychology Service are currently exploring the issue of barriers to school attendance and 'emotionally-based school avoidance' for children and young people in Cumbria.
Emotionally-based school avoidance (EBSA) is a broad umbrella term used to describe a group of children and young people who have severe difficulty in attending school due to emotional factors, often resulting in prolonged absences from school.
We would like to know more about schools' perceptions and experiences of this issue so that we can better support schools to help pupils who experience these difficulties.
Take part in the survey using the link below:
Health Visiting Services in our 0-5 Universal and Strengthening Families teams across Cumbria - 1 and 2 year old checks
The Health Visiting Service in Cumbria is experiencing some staffing and recruitment issues which may impact on the level of service provided to families by Health Visitors currently. This means that in some areas of the county, families will not routinely be offered an antenatal visit, 12-month review or 2 to 2.5 year review, unless there is an identified clinical or targeted need.
As a result of the current situation, we would greatly appreciate it if you could be extra vigilant at this time to ensure that any children where there may be developmental issues or wider concerns are identified early and get the support they need.
If you have a child within your care who is approaching their 12 month or 2 to 2.5 year health review and you feel that they do need to be seen by a Health Visitor, please contact your local Health Visiting Team to ask that they can be considered as a priority for a review.
For more information, visit the Health Visiting Services website.
Free online workshop - working with parents
Contact are offering this workshop to early years practitioners in Cumbria. This will take place instead of the Childminder networks this term. Contact sessions are very interactive and all practitioners working in the early years are welcome to attend on Tuesday 22nd Feb (evening).
Please see the attached to book – Practitioners Workshop on Working with Parents
Home Learning
This week our focus is on the rhyme 'Horsey, Horsey’. Please share with parents to support home learning around the development of speech, language and communication.
Chat Play Share – Horsey Horsey
Upcoming Events
Movement in the Early Years – Supporting the curriculum and engaging parents
Tuesday 1st March 2022,
18:30-20:00
Free to EE members & Lakes College Learners
£6 for non-members (includes a raffle ticket)
Booking is essential, as places are limited.
Please contact: Branch Secretary at elizat@lcwc.ac.uk
Or message the Branch Facebook Page: @ee.westcumbria
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