For action
Action for all settings: Take part in our call for evidence on Safeguarding children in schools and colleges
Our 12-week 'Safeguarding children in schools and colleges’ call for evidence, invites staff in schools and colleges, and other safeguarding professionals, to share their views and current good practice in their settings to inform the content of Keeping Children Safe in Education and help shape future safeguarding children in schools and colleges policies.
We are seeking your views on:
- The role of designated safeguarding leads
- The recording, retention and sharing of child safeguarding information
- Filtering and monitoring systems
- Supporting children following reports of sexual violence and harassment
- Protecting children in boarding schools and residential special schools
- Quality assuring safeguarding
- Children bringing their own devices to schools
This call for evidence closes on 20 June 2024.
Action for all settings: Review new Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) toolkit for Freedom of Information exemptions
The ICO has created a self-assessment toolkit for Freedom of Information (FOI) exemptions. The toolkit helps public authorities apply FOI exemptions on a commercial interest basis.
It might not always be appropriate to release commercially sensitive information. The ICO's toolkit helps public authorities decide whether to release information that falls under the FOI's Section 43 exemption.
The toolkit will help educational establishments to think about:
- how they are currently using the exemption
- how they're judging the likelihood of harm
- if they are taking other considerations into account
There are 5 modules relevant to educational establishments. These modules provide a better understanding of Section 43 and how to apply the exemption.
Action for schools and further education settings: Review your cyber security policies ahead of exams 2024
As exam season approaches it is vital for schools and colleges to review their cyber security policies. Schools and colleges have a critical role to play in maintaining the integrity of assessments.
Please confirm with your IT team or provider that they are taking action to meet our cyber security standards for schools and colleges. By meeting these standards, schools and colleges can increase cyber resilience and help protect student data.
The National Cyber Security Centre has also published a free cyber security training package specifically tailored for school and college staff. The training includes hints and tips on password creation and management, multi-factor authentication, and protecting against phishing threats. password creation and management, multi-factor authentication, and protecting against phishing threats.
Action for schools and further education settings: Explore our new workload and wellbeing service and access our professional supervision service
We know that addressing high workloads in schools continues to require our collective action. We have updated the workload reduction toolkit with the launch of our new ‘Improve workload and wellbeing for school staff’ service to support school leaders.
The new service also allows peer sharing of successful approaches to workload reduction. If you would like to share what has worked in your school, please contact us via the links in the service.
The department continues to fund the charity, Education Support, to provide free professional supervision to school and college leaders. The professional supervision enables leaders to work with qualified and experienced supervisors to develop strategies to support their mental wellbeing.
Action for schools and local authorities: Be ready for September, access guidance on mandatory daily attendance data collection and sign up for upcoming training
This article will be of interest to senior leaders and attendance leads
Reducing absence is our number one priority and our latest reforms support schools, trusts and local authorities to continue their hard work tackling the absence problem.
To support you to embed the new regulations and statutory attendance guidance by September 2024, we are running a series of training sessions and webinars from April 2024. The series cover a range of issues to ensure you are ready to hit the ground running in September, see our calendar of events over the summer term to sign up.
To prepare for the mandatory collection of daily attendance data, we have published guidance on sharing your data. This guidance is for all schools, trusts and local authorities. It contains information on:
- what data you need to share
- issues that might have an impact on data accuracy
- how your data will be used
Action for schools: Express your interest in joining the National Breakfast Programme
The National School Breakfast Programme has been extended for another year until July 2025.
Evidence shows that providing a healthy school breakfast at the start of the school day can contribute to improved readiness to learn, attendance, concentration, wellbeing and behaviour.
There are spaces available to start on the programme this term, and schools can express an interest in joining the scheme by completing an expression of interest form.
The offer is available to all schools that have 40% or more children in income deprivation affecting children index (IDACI) bands A-F. All participating schools will receive a 75% subsidy for breakfast provision until July 2025, meaning they pay just 25% of the cost of food and delivery.
Action for schools: Review updated Initial Teacher Training (ITT) Reform funding guidance
We have updated the guidance which details the funding available to training providers and placement schools for ITT in 2024 to 2025. The updated guidance includes information of what funding is available and how to apply for it.
Schools who host trainees on ITT placements will be able to incur costs related to the introduction of the general mentor role from 6 April 2024.
Further information about the general mentor role is detailed in the ITT Criteria 2024/25. There is also guidance available for schools on how to host an ITT placement.
If you’d like more information about ITT reform funding, please email ttreform.funding@education.gov.uk.
Action for schools: Review changes to International Relocation Payment (IRP)
IRP is a pilot scheme for non-UK nationals moving here to teach languages and physics.
From September 2024, payments to teachers will be split into two £5,000 instalments rather than given as a single £10,000 sum. Teachers can apply for the first payment at the start of their first year of employment and the second payment at the start of their second year, subject to still meeting eligibility criteria.
If you have recruited an overseas teacher who may be eligible for the IRP, please cascade this message to them and ask them to visit the Get Into Teaching page for more information.
Teachers with specific queries can email teach.inengland@education.gov.uk.
News and developments
Information for all settings: Changes to flexible working legislation
Following legislative changes, all employees now have the right to request flexible working from day one of a new job and can make two flexible working requests (rather than one) within a 12-month period.
Employers must consult with their employees to fully explore options before rejecting any requests.
The DfE’s Flexible Working Toolkit contains resources to help schools to implement a flexible working policy and review statutory flexible working requests.
Information for all settings: New free Separating Better app launched to support parents
The Separating Better app, funded by the Reducing Parental Conflict Programme at the Department for Work and Pensions and developed working with relationship experts at OnePlusOne, aims to help parents separate more amicably for the benefit of everyone involved, especially children.
The app contains:
- Budgeting and legal tools
- New videos on healthy conflict management and communication skills
- Evidence-based advice on separation and co-parenting
The app is part of a test and learn strategy on digital approaches to relationship support. It can be downloaded from app stores (IOS and Android).
Information for early years setting and schools: Trial ‘Belly Bugs’ for free to get students excited about healthy eating and help tackle obesity
Sunderland primary schools have successfully trialled an eight-lesson, cross-curricular pilot based on Belly Bugs (gut microbes) for Early Years Foundation Stage, key stage 1 and key stage 2.
Covering topics such as fibre, colourful food and sustainability, the pupils loved discovering they had little helpers inside them keeping them healthy and happy. School cooks reported an increase in uptake of vegetables and salad during the pilot.
Contact zoe@bellybugs.co.uk if you are interested in trialling the programme.
Information for schools and further education settings: DfE funded US-UK Fulbright Scholarship awards
The United States - United Kingdom (US-UK) Fulbright Awards support education exchanges between talented people of all backgrounds in the US and the UK, enabling study, teaching and research at some of the world’s most exciting universities through scholarships, advice, coaching and experiential learning.
Awards are open for applicants as follows:
- employed at UK higher education institutions (deadline 29 April 2024)
- primary and secondary teachers (deadline 6 May 2024)
- postgraduate scholarships (deadline 6 May 2024)
Visit their website for more information.
Information for schools and local authorities: Free School Meals guidance update
On 25 March 2024, we updated the Free School Meals guidance.
The guidance clarifies that schools’ existing legal duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled children also applies to food provision. This includes ensuring that eligible disabled children can access their free school meals.
It also clarifies our expectation that local authorities should consider making food provision for children Educated Otherwise Than At School (EOTAS), who meet specific criteria.
Information for schools and local authorities: Updated subject access request (SARs) guidance
The DfE data protection team have updated the subject access request (SAR) guidance in the data protection in schools manual. Read the new guidance for information on how to handle SARs in schools, including examples.
The data protection in schools manual is an online resource for anyone working with personal data in schools. The DfE data protection team are continuing to update the manual and will update the sector as new content is added.
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