PEP Bulletin w/c 7 September 2020

View in your web browser | Sign up for more alerts

portsmouth city council
Portsmouth Education Partnership

PEP Bulletin

9 September 2020

If you have information to be included in the next issue of the PEP bulletin, please send your text, image and link by Tuesday at 12pm to pep@portsmouthcc.gov.uk.


Leadership, recruitment and retention

Teach Portsmouth Awards update

Teach Portsmouth

Deadline extended for long service award category

We've been blown away by your submissions for the long service award so far. We appreciate how busy you have been getting ready to start up again. To enable everyone the chance to recognise a colleague, we've extended the deadline for the long service award category until Monday 14 September.

If you know someone who has worked in Portsmouth for 20 years or more, why not tell us? You can recognise up to 5 people online - all you need to do is tell us their name and give a supporting statement of 200 words or less. If you have more than 5 people, please email their names and supporting statement to teachportsmouth@portsmouthcc.gov.uk

Everyone recognised in the category will be given an award.

Recognise a colleague now


Curriculum and CPD

Financial literacy curriculum for year 6

The coronavirus crisis has highlighted the importance of financial literacy, which is one of the reasons why the council has decided to partner with a charity called City Pay it Forward to work with primary schools on teaching year 6 pupils about the basics of money.

City Pay it Forward, a charity created by civically-minded parents, have come up with an engaging, full year financial literacy curriculum. The curriculum is made up of three components: a teacher’s manual which sets out simple to use, term-by-term schemes of work; homework assignments and handouts; and a series of PowerPoint presentations and short videos to be used in class.

The volunteers at City Pay it Forward have interacted with over 15,000 year 6 students across over 150 schools in the country. The curriculum has been extensively peer-reviewed and importantly, benefits from the Young Money Quality Mark which is endorsed by the Department for Education.

The entire curriculum can be downloaded for free at www.citypayitforward.com and the teacher’s manual will be posted to every primary and junior school next week.


PSHE Association back to school packs

The PSHE Association have created dedicated ‘back to school’ support packs for primary and secondary to help schools welcome their students back after closures and get them back on their feet.

The packs will support schools to develop a transition strategy for PSHE education programmes as part of a whole school reintegration approach that safeguards young people and promotes wellbeing.

Find out more


Relationships and health education training and resources

Relationships and health education will be compulsory for all primary school age pupils from this September. Register now to receive free Department for Education training and resources for your school and community.

South Farnham Teaching School has been selected by the DfE to deliver this central programme of support for schools in the South East. This is a fully funded DfE project with no cost to schools. The department expects schools to engage this training to ensure compliance across the sector in time for the statutory changes from September 2020.

Find out more


Oak National Academy teacher hub launched

For the start of term, Oak National Academy has launched a Teacher Hub with nearly 10,000 free lessons and resources to help school contingency planning as well as teaching pupils in school and at home.

Oak National Academy will add more subjects, resources and functionality and will be launching an expanded specialist offering in the next two weeks. Teachers and schools can sign up for updates about free new resources and support.


Solent Maths Hub update

Solent Maths Hub

Solent Maths Hub would like to welcome everyone back to the new academic year. We know it looks very different for everyone this year and here at the Solent Maths Hub we are working hard to ensure our Work Groups are adapted to meet the needs of all the schools in our region. Over the next few weeks we will be starting to share details of our offer this year which will include, among several other Work Groups, the following:

  • Subject Knowledge for Primary TAs and Teachers
  • Subject Knowledge for Early Years practitioners
  • Mathematical Thinking at GCSE
  • Challenging Topics at GCSE
  • Core Maths 

In the meantime, have you seen the new look of the NCETM website? We hope that you find the site much easier to navigate with all your favourite resources in one place. As a starting point, why not have a look at the news and features section that includes links to the new DfE Primary National Curriculum documents that could support your school through Covid recovery and beyond focussing on the key Ready to Progress criteria within each year group.

Lastly, make sure you follow us on Twitter, our handle is @mathshubsolent. This year we will be celebrating a theme each month to raise the profile of Maths across the curriculum and within the classroom. This will include National TA Day (coming up this month), Maths Week England, Pi Say, Teacher Appreciation Week and Black History Month.


Emotional health and wellbeing

Welcome Back to School wellbeing support

A local package of resources has been produced to offer schools and other education settings guidance and support to manage some of the challenges that staff, pupils and parents may face in terms of emotional health and wellbeing. It contains resources and links to local and national services.

Please share with all staff in your setting.

Download now

Welcome Back to School Wellbeing Support

Provision of Solent NHS Trust Children’s Services within schools

Solent NHS Trust have issued an update covering how they are planning to restart the delivery of Children's Services within the school setting as schools begin welcoming back all pupils.

Read now


Supporting the mental health and wellbeing of staff in schools - virtual webinar

The LGA are holding a virtual Zoom webinar on Friday 2 October 2020, 2.00pm - 3.30pm.

The webinar will touch on how the COVID-19 epidemic has highlighted the importance of actively supporting the wellbeing of teachers and all staff in schools with some insights into the lessons learned so far. You will hear from leading experts about how to support your own and other staff members’ mental health and wellbeing.

The webinar is suitable for HR staff and also those with staff wellbeing responsibilities in schools.

The webinar is free to all LGA member councils and therefore PCC employees in maintained schools can register for free by selecting 'Portsmouth City Council' from the LGA member dropdown list whilst booking.

Find out more


LA updates

School meal prices

A reminder that for schools in the Caterlink contract the cost of free and paid pupil meals has increased from £2.10 to £2.15 per meal. The cost of adult meals is now £2.25 + VAT (£2.70). 

For more information contact Christine.Matchett@portsmouthcc.gov.uk.


October school census - Thursday 1 October 2020       

LA deadline is Thursday 8 October. Please ensure you meet this deadline to enable the detailed post-census data checking reports to be created and sent back to you. These reports will help you to validate your data to ensure its accuracy. If you cannot submit on time please contact us ASAP. Academies that purchase EIS SLA, please send a copy of your school census to the LA via SSE and inform us by emailing education.informationservices@portsmouthcc.gov.uk when you have done so.

All schools must have an approved return on COLLECT by Wednesday 28 October. Please be aware that DfE may still require your school to make changes to your census after this date.

A familiarisation blade is currently available for schools to check that the required data are being passed from your MIS to COLLECT and if any validation errors or queries are generated against your school's data. This blade will close at 4pm on Friday 25 September.

For further information please call 023 9284 1078 or email education.informationservices@portsmouthcc.gov.uk


Share your welcome back stories

We're continuing with our welcome back campaign - feedback from schools and parents continues to be positive. If you haven't got it already, there's an information pack to help shape your conversations with families as the new school year begins. You can also share social media posts from the council's Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages.

We'd really love to showcase some of the fantastic work happening in schools across the city as pupils return to school. If you have a great case study or piece of content you'd like to share, email corporate.communications@portsmouthcc.gov.uk


HR

The HR news information is located on the human resources Google homepage and maintained schools and any academy with an HR Traded Services agreement can access it here.  

Further information can be obtained by contacting HR.


Did you receive this email from a colleague? Sign up here