Happy Wednesday!

Welcome back!

Hope the first week of term went well, wishing you all a positive start to the academic year✨

All Implementing WELL workshops are now available for bookings via the School Development Team.

Please ensure your school secures places on the following sessions:

Implementing WELL Workshops:

• Workshop 2: Mon 29 / Tue 30 Sep 2025                                       
• Workshop 3: Wed 26 / Thu 27 Nov 2025                                       
• Workshop 4: Thu 29 / Fri 30 Jan 2026                                                 
• Workshop 5: Tue 17 / Wed 18 Mar 2026                                   
• Workshop 6: Wed 20 / Thu 21 May 2026

A summarised timeline for participating in the Implementing WELL project can be found below:

Implementing WELL Project Timeline

By 29^th/30^th Sep 25 – Prepare for Workshop 2:

1. Implementation Climate Health Check – Jon and Jonathan are hosting an optional online session on 15^th September 15:45 - 16:45 to help with completion of the Health Check.

Click here to join the meeting

2. NEW Implementation Plan – Complete the pink highlighted sections only, with initial thoughts (these will be developed in Workshop 2):

• Implementation Lead and Team sections
• Implementation Climate Reflections
• Problem – (choose one problem only - focused on English/Maths pupil outcomes, linked to Pupil Premium strategy)
• Final Outcomes – a summary of the pupil outcomes you intend to improve as a result of this project.

By 24th Oct 25 - To receive WELL Grant Funding:

1. Participate in Implementing WELL Workshop 2 (29^th/30^th September)

2. Submit the following to WELL@Cumberland.gov.uk:

• Signed WELL Grant Offer Letter 25-26 (sent to Headteacher on 17^th July 2025)
• Completed Evaluation of WELL-Funded Implementation 24-25 (Pre-populated in Grant Offer Letter Page 7)
• Updated NEW Implementation Plan from Workshop 2, with pink highlighted section complete

By 30^th June 2026:

1. Submit a completed and costed NEW Implementation Plan
2. Ensure a consistent Senior Leader participates in all 6 Implementing WELL workshops (if full participation is not evident then all or part of the grant may need to be repaid).

Message from the ERA team:

Just a quick message from us at ERA to say welcome back and hope you all had a great summer break. 

We are looking forward to seeing you as we continue our Disadvantaged Provision Project with Marc Rowland, work alongside Johnathan & Jon on Implementing WELL and continue to be the local link for the other external research leads who join our team and work with us (Sally Franklin, Stuart Kime, Rob Coe etc).

Our role at ERA is to ensure that we help develop local skills and expertise in evidence-informed school development that particularly focus on our disadvantaged pupils. We are so privileged to work alongside so many of you, identifying great practice and helping to support you in any way we can with your improvements.

This half term we will be:

• Carrying out some final re-visits with the DPP Cohort 1 schools;
• Liaising with Marc to begin preparations for the work on the publication later this year;
• Working alongside the Implementing WELL Development Team;
• Developing further links with the EEF Research Schools Network and the DfE.

If there is anything else that we can help with then please let us know via email at head@ashfield-jun.cumbria.sch.uk or pwilliams@ashfield-jun.cumbria.sch.uk.

If you are interested in booking the ERA building for meetings or small group training then please contact admin@ashfield-jun.cumbria.sch.uk.

See you all soon

Sue Frost & Patty Williams

Award Enrolment Form

Complete by Friday 26th September

We’re excited to begin another year of the Cumbrian Award with our 31 participating schools.

To onboard your new Year 5 or Year 7 pupils, and to continue the participation of your current Year 6 or Year 8 and 9 pupils, please complete the Cumbrian Award Enrolment Form by Friday 26th September (8 minutes completion time). 

We also warmly welcome new schools to join the award by completing the same enrolment form.

When completing the form, you’ll also have the option to order resources—such as passports and strand booklets—to support your school’s participation in the award.

GTT Grant Offer Letters

Return by Friday 24th October

Schools continuing participation in 2025/26 will receive their GTT Grant Offer Letters (GOLs) this week.

Please read, sign and return the GOL by Friday 24th October. 

Cohort 1(2024/25): INSET Day Training

Monday 1st September 

We were delighted to welcome over 200 colleagues—including Teaching Assistants (TAs), Teachers, and members of the Senior Leadership Team—from Cohort 1 of the Maximising the Impact of Teaching Assistants (MITA) programme to an INSET Day Training Session. 

This half-day session built on the Education Endowment Foundation’s guidance on the effective deployment of Teaching Assistants. Key topics included:

• Revisiting the scaffolding framework to support pupil independence
• The crucial role of teachers in clearly communicating lesson objectives to TAs
• Setting and reviewing ‘mini goals’ to help pupils make incremental progress

A huge thank you to everyone who joined us. Your engagement and commitment set a brilliant tone for the year ahead.

Cohort 1 (2024/25): Evaluation

Complete by Wednesday 24th September

MITA Leads will have received a link to a short MITA survey, looking at each of the 7 programme objectives. The survey invites you to rate your developed knowledge and improved understanding of each objective.

Please complete by Wednesday 24^th September.

Cohort 2 (2025/26): Launch

We are excited to launch Cohort 2 of the MITA programme and look forward to welcoming all participating SLT members to Day 1 at Whitehaven Golf Club on Thursday 2nd October from 09:30 to 15:30.

Cluster Writing Programme Launch

Thursday 11th September

We are excited to welcome participating schools to  the launch of the ‘Sentenced to Success’ cluster writing programme with Stella Jones and Town End Research School on Thursday 11th September, 09:00–12:30, online.

This programme will help schools embed sentence-level work at the core of their writing curriculum, focusing on key foundations like grammar in context, transcription, sentence fluency, and modelling writing as a process.

We look forward to supporting schools on this important journey to strengthen pupils’ writing skills.

ELSA Evaluation Survey

Complete by Friday 12^th September

Please can any school with a WELL-funded ELSA complete a short ELSA Evaluation survey by Friday 12^th September.

The average response time is less than 3 minutes, your responses will enable the WELL team to evaluate this provision and inform future cohorts.

Autumn Term 25 Training Cohort

An Autumn Term ELSA cohort has been confirmed, the first schools on the waiting list have been contacted to secure their places. If any places become available, they will be offered to the next school on the waiting list.

Thank you for your patience and co-operation.

Annual Events Planner & Implementing WELL Padlet 2025/26

All 2025/26 WELL Events and training sessions are detailed in the WELL Annual Events Planner.

Events with the '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 Implementing WELL Padlet includes all  presentation slides, recordings and resources to support participation in the Implementing WELL project.

Please do not share these resources more widely than your school.