What's new from WELL?

Participation & Grant Agreements 2024-25

Thank you to the large number of schools that have confirmed their wish to participate in WELL Phase 3. A gentle reminder that we need the 'Participation Commitment' form to be completed and submitted by Monday 30th September.

Tomorrow (19th), we will be sending out the 2024 - 25 grant agreements for the Universal/ Targeted Grant Element of WELL to the Headteachers of the schools that have confirmed participation.

Once we receive your decision to continue participation in the project via the 'Participation Commitment' form, we will send your school's grant agreement.

As part of this agreement, a quick reminder to:

• Complete and return the 'Participation Commitment' form by Monday 30th September  
• Book your school's places on the 'EEF’s New School’s Guide to Implementation with Professor Jonathan Sharples' workshops. Date options can be found below:

EEF’s New School’s Guide to Implementation with Professor Jonathan Sharples (Choose 1 Session):

• Thursday 3rd October 09:30 - 12:00, Energus
• Friday 4th October 09:30 - 12:00, Whitehaven Golf Club
• Friday 4th October 13:00 - 15:00, Whitehaven Golf Club

As promised in the last WOW, we have sent a communication directly to Headteachers of small schools, outlining an additional option to access this session.

Updated Implementation Plan (New Template)

Based on the updated EEF Implementation Guidance, we have updated our WELL Implementation plan template to align with the EEF model.

A blank version of this can be found on the WELL Website here. 

An example of an exemplar completed implementation plan can be found on page 35 of the EEF's 'A School's Guide to Implementation'. 

Schools may prefer to wait until after the Professor Jonathan Sharples sessions, at the beginning of October, to formulate updated plans for Phase 3 of WELL. If your own school improvement plan follows the implementation process, there will be the option to submit the relevant section of this plan as your WELL implementation plan. The deadline for updated implementation plans is Friday 15th November 2024.

The WELL Team will also be using this template as part of our own implementation process. An example can be found in the Grant Agreement documentation sent to Headteachers.

Internal Evaluation of your Phase 2 WELL - Funded work 

In the Summer Term, we provided Headteachers with an online form to complete your summary evaluation of your specific WELL grant-funded implementation work from 2021 - 2024.

A reminder that the deadline for completing this is Friday 18th October 2024.

The Education Research Alliance (ERA) will be providing drop-in support sessions to complete this evaluation on Wednesday 9th and Thursday 10th October. Please email WELL@cumberland.gov.uk if you would like to attend on either of these dates. 

If you are unable to locate the link to the form, please email WELL@cumberland.gov.uk and we will re-send this to you.

Annual Events Planner and Programmes Padlet 2024/25

The WELL Programmes Padlet outlines all our high quality professional development programmes available for 2024/25. All WELL Events and training sessions for the opportunities included in the padlet, are detailed in the WELL Annual Events Planner.

If you wish to express an interest of participation for any of these opportunities, please email WELL@cumberland.gov.uk.

Events on the Annual Events Planner with a 'green dot' are bookable via SLA Online/ School Development Team. For all other events, please email WELL@Cumberland.gov.uk directly to express an interest.

The Annual Events Planner is a live link and will be updated throughout the year.

Uniting, Collaborating and Committing

Throughout WELL Phase 3, we will continue to strive to make opportunities as inclusive as we can.

As part of our Theory of Change (ToC), we have previously explored the option of requesting schools, to part or match fund the programmes that we offer. This was in part due to an identified risk, that fully funded programmes and professional development could be seen as 'free'. Clearly, this is not the case and the overwhelming majority of schools have shown full commitment once signing up.

While we recognise that there will be occasions beyond a school's control, failure of a school to sustain the commitments involved in a funded WELL programme comes with significant costs to all involved in the project. We will continue to encourage schools to carefully consider, the fit and feasibility before committing to a WELL programme element to ensure fidelity to it and enable us to maximise this precious resource for the benefit of children and young people in West Cumberland.

New Project Cohort for 2024/25

We are delighted to be continuing our work with Marc Rowland. In addition to our continued work with the 20 schools from Cohort 1 (2023/24), Cohort 2 of the Disadvantage Provision Project will begin in November 2024.

The project focuses on looking at school life through the lens of disadvantaged pupils and considers how schools are meeting their needs. Through school visits, network meetings and feedback on their current Pupil Premium Strategy.

Schools will work collaboratively to develop strategies to support their disadvantage pupils to thrive. The project is running across two academic years, until August 2025 and will culminate in a handbook produced by local practitioners, sharing effective strategies with our pupils, in our schools, across our region.

If you are interested in participating in this project, please email WELL@Cumberland.gov.uk before 11th October.

The 'launch event' of the 2024/25 cohort will take place on Monday 21st October, 15:45 - 17:00, Online.

UCAS Tariff Points Reduction

Look out for the news coverage coming soon!

We are delighted to announce that the pupils currently or beginning participation in Cumbrian Award this academic year, will be eligible to apply for a UCAS Tariff Points reduction when applying for courses at the University of Cumbria in the future.

Full details will be included in the article and shared with all Cumbrian Award schools once released.

To find out how to join the 24 schools now involved and implement this ground breaking Award, please email WELL@cumberland.gov.uk and we will be in touch!