For action
Action for early years settings, schools and further education settings: Take part in research for a DfE digital service
We are currently developing an online service for schools that take trainees on placements for initial teacher training (ITT) courses. The service will allow educational institutions to claim funding for ITT mentor training and will be available to all educational institutions offering ITT placements during the 2024/2025 academic year.
We want to better understand the needs of multi-academy trusts, independent schools, free schools, local authority special schools, pupil referral units, further education colleges and early years settings. To do this we want to speak to those who work in the ITT space, in the settings listed above, in the following roles:
- administrators, or those who work in HR and finance
- coordinators of initial teacher training / lead mentors
- anyone who may be submitting an application for ITT grant funding
If you would like to be involved, register your interest to take part in a research session.
Contact leah.thompson@education.gov.uk if you have any questions.
Action for schools and further education settings: Prioritise mental health and wellbeing with DfE funded senior mental health lead training
Schools and colleges can claim a £1,200 grant to pay for senior mental health lead training which develops the knowledge, confidence and practical skills of your mental health leads.
This training has made a difference in thousands of schools and colleges, helping leaders improve mental health and wellbeing, attendance and engagement in learning and breaking down a key barrier to opportunity, helping pupils and learners to succeed and thrive.
Access a resource hub to help you embed and sustain your whole school/college approach to mental health and wellbeing which has been updated with new, evidence-based resources for the new academic year.
Access a targeted mental wellbeing support toolkit to help you develop and provide effective in-school/college targeted support.
Resources are also available for teachers, parents and carers to support children and young people experiencing difficulties with mental wellbeing and school/college attendance.
Action for schools and local authorities: Review statutory Working together to support school attendance guidance
The first week of a new school year is critical for setting good attendance habits – thank you for everything you are doing to create engaging, inclusive spaces to welcome pupils back.
On Monday 19 August 2024, our Working together to support school attendance guidance became statutory for schools, trusts and LAs and new regulations came into force on register coding, penalty notices and mandating schools to share their attendance data with us.
Chapters 7 and 8 of the guidance explain the requirements of the new regulations. Full guidance on the national framework for penalty notices, including schools’ duty to consider a penalty notice in certain circumstances can be found in Chapter 6.
On keeping registers, schools are reminded:
- A pupil’s name must only be deleted from the admission register on the day grounds for deleting the name is met even if the pupil stopped attending before that. Entering a past date is unlawful and causes data inaccuracies.
- Remote and online learning must be marked with the relevant absence code in the attendance register. This does not prevent schools using remote learning if it’s in the pupil’s best interest.
- If you have not already, you need to approve the sharing of daily attendance data in your Wonde portal. To do this go to your Wonde portal, review the request in your permissions area and approve the request.
Wonde will connect with your management information system to extract and securely transfer the data to us automatically each day. If you have any problems, please contact support@wonde.com.
Action for schools: Explore and share workload reduction resources and sign up to the education staff wellbeing charter
Reducing teacher workload needs our collective action. Our ‘Improve workload and wellbeing for school staff’ service is created by school leaders, for school leaders, to support one another with tried and tested workload reduction strategies.
If you would like to showcase what has worked well in your school and help others to reduce workload in theirs, please contact us.
Improving wellbeing for staff in education is also crucial to ensuring successful outcomes in our schools and colleges. We continue to encourage school and college leaders to sign up to the Education staff wellbeing charter. The charter is a set of commitments from the department, Ofsted, and schools and colleges to prioritise, protect and promote the wellbeing of staff.
Action for schools: Read updated flu vaccination programme guidance and share public health reminders with parents and staff
This autumn term, all school children in England will be offered a flu vaccination in school. This can help protect children against flu, reduce absence and reduce transmission within the community – including the likelihood of teachers catching flu from pupils. Updated guidance for primary and secondary schools is now available.
We are grateful for the support of schools in hosting vaccinations, as this makes it more accessible to pupils, resulting in higher uptake levels.
A local school-age immunisation provider will contact your school to agree a date for the vaccination session and the best approach for implementing the programme.
We’ve also published a blog with top tips on how to keep children healthy at school. We would encourage you to share this link with parents and staff.
Action for schools: Submit your year-end statement for the National Tutoring Programme (NTP)
The deadline for submitting the NTP year-end statement is 5pm on Thursday 26 September.
All organisations that received the NTP grant for the 2023 to 2024 academic year must complete the form. If you do not complete the form, your full funding allocation will be recovered.
Please report all tutoring delivered from 1 September 2023 to 31 August 2024. Guidance is available on how to complete the form.
It is important to complete the form, even if you did not use any of your NTP funding.
For any other queries on the National Tutoring Programme, email tutoring.support@service.education.gov.uk.
News and developments
Information for all settings: Secretary of State for Education’s start of term message
On Monday 2 September 2024, the Secretary of State for Education issued a start of term message to those working in the sector.
Sign up to receive future emails from the Secretary of State.
Information for all settings: Recruitment for Independent Pension Specialist (IPS) and Employer Representative for Teachers’ Pension Scheme Pension Board
The Secretary of State for Education is seeking to appoint dynamic and inspirational individuals for the positions of Independent Pension Specialist (IPS) and employer representative for the Teachers’ Pension Scheme Pension Board.
The role for IPS is being advertised on the Cabinet Office website, the window for application is live until 7pm on Friday 13 September 2024.
The role for employer representative is being advertised on the Teachers’ Pension website, the window for application is live until 12am on Friday 27 September 2024.
Information for early years settings and schools: Engage with free National Schools Breakfast week healthy eating resources
The British Nutrition Foundation have produced free resources for teachers and parents that aim to raise awareness of the importance of healthy breakfasts for children and young people.
They have been designed for the ‘National Schools Breakfast Week’ campaign taking place from Monday 9 September to Friday 13 September 2024, but the hope is to make a lasting impact that will benefit students each and every day.
Information for schools and further education settings: Funded international opportunities with UK-German Connection
UK-German Connection are planning UK-Germany opportunities for schools, further education settings, teachers and young people. Intercultural opportunities available include:
- the Host a Teacher programme, bringing cultural exchange to life in the classroom. Visits are organised flexibly to suit your school.
- the Professional Enrichment Programme, offering an international continual personal development experience for teachers to visit a school in Germany. German language skills are not required.
UK-German Connection offers grants and advisory support for exchanges. Registration for these opportunities closes Friday 27 September 2024.
Information for schools: Update on the school teacher pay award for 2024/2025
On Monday 29 July 2024, the Secretary of State for Education wrote to the sector confirming that the government had accepted the recommendation of the independent pay body for a 5.5% pay award for teachers and leaders.
Read the letter for more information about the pay award and the additional funding for schools to deliver this.
Information for schools: New Transforming Public Procurement (TPP) e-learning for procurement practitioners in schools and multi-academy trusts
Are you responsible for buying goods and services for your school?
In the latest Buying for Schools blog post, Kevin Draisey, Head of Procurement Operations for Get help buying for schools, updates on the new Transforming Public Procurement (TPP) e-learning now available for procurement practitioners in schools and multi-academy trusts.
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