The Education Quality and Safeguarding Team is seeking a skilled and experienced Early Years practitioner to join our team and enhance the quality of Early Years provision in Shropshire.
As the Early Years Quality Improvement and Learning Co-ordinator, you will play a key role in ensuring that every child aged 0-5 in Shropshire receives consistently high-quality early years education.
You will support and improve group and school-based providers, as well as childminders, by offering advice, training, and development opportunities.
For more information, visit Shropshire Council jobs
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Dear Colleagues,
My sincere apologies that Shropshire's internal theft and vandalism insurance scheme has not been communicated prior to today with regards to cover for financial year 2025-26. This will continue to be managed and administered by Shropshire Council.
Cover can be offered for period 01 October 2025 to 31 March 2026 at premium of £1.30 per pupil in line with 2024-25 which is a 50% discount on the standard premium. Numbers on roll from October 2024 Census will be used to calculate these charges.
This scheme is a self-help internal insurance scheme for Shropshire maintained schools only. Any schools considering academy or free school status will need to make arrangements for separate external insurance cover from the date that such status is commenced.
A copy of the theft and vandalism insurance scheme policy is available on the Shropshire Learning Gateway.
To arrange cover for 01 October 2025 to 31 March 2026, please complete below and copy and paste into an email to samantha.bradley@shropshire.gov.uk by no later than 10 October 2025:
Theft and Vandalism Insurance Notification Form 2025-26
- School Name:
- Yes / No (please confirm as appropriate)
- This email authorises the charging of the appropriate premium against the school budget
Kind regards
Sam Bradley
Performance and Integration Manager
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Online Assistive Technology Lending Libraries (ATLL) briefings for schools and settings
The ATLL model adopts a ‘try before you buy’ approach. This gives schools the opportunity to measure the impact of different assistive technology devices before making an upfront investment – building confidence in what works and reducing the risk of wasted expenditure.
These free briefings will provide an opportunity to find out how the ATLL will work in Shropshire and how your schools and settings can use it to support your pupils. Representatives from Scanning Pens will be joining us to explain their equipment. Each briefing covers the same content so you only need to attend one.
We look forward to seeing you there.
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New Hate Incident Reporting Form – Supporting Safer Communities in Shropshire
Shropshire Council is committed to supporting schools in tackling hate-related incidents proactively. Our new electronic hate incident reporting form is designed to help schools record, report, and respond to incidents effectively. Please see the attached Powerpoint for further details.
While there is no statutory duty for schools to report hate incidents to the local authority, they are:
Expected by Ofsted and the Department for Education to record and report hate-related incidents. Required to reflect their approach to hate-related incidents in key policies – including Behaviour and Safeguarding.
The electronic form can be found either in the or Local Authority Online Forms or SLG - Safeguarding policies and guidance/the Prevent duty
How Will the Information Be Used?
- To identify key themes, localities, and age groups affected
- To provide targeted support and interventions
- To inform community safeguarding and partnership work
Kind regards,
Education Quality and Safeguarding Team
Website: Safeguarding and Child Protection | Shropshire Learning Gateway (shropshirelg.net)
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Please see the attached newsletter, the first for the academic Year 25/26, containing important messages from your West Midlands Prevent Lead. Content includes important information regarding Prevent Duty training schedules, Martyn’s law, Prevent Key Principles from the Home Office and a resources reminder.
You can sign up to the newsletter here : Sign up
The EQS team on behalf of the Department for Education.
Prevent update
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From Spring 2026, the DfE will provide new written resources, videos and peer-to-peer sessions for schools, facilitated by local authorities. This is to help reception teachers carry out the EYFSP assessment with confidence and consistency.
Best practice sharing
As part of this support, the DfE would like to share some examples of best practice at a headteacher / SLT and teacher level. Below are examples of what each role might like to share:
- Headteachers: how you support the reception teacher to carry out the assessment effectively, such as the steps taken to make sure senior leaders have a good understanding of the EYFSP assessment, any internal moderation and / or quality assurance of the data and how you help teachers to use the data to support transitions.
- Teachers: the process you follow to make EYFSP judgements, including how you have collaborated with internal colleagues and / or other schools and how you use the EYFSP data to support transitions. You may also like to share examples of children you have assessed (e.g. how you assessed a child with SEND, made a judgement against a particular ELG or applied the best-fit model).
If you would like your best practice to be considered for this piece of work, please complete the template and email this to Exemptions.EYFS@education.gov.uk by Monday 13 October.
Peer-to-peer sessions
To ensure the peer-to-peer sessions are relevant and effective, DfE are seeking input from Reception teachers. If you would be willing to share your views in a short conversation, please contact elaine.cernuto@education.gov.uk
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In 2024 the government announced a national transformation programme called Families First Partnership. This is a transformation seeking to bring about a single integrated approach to meeting the needs of children and their families across targeted Family Help through to child protection. These reforms are focused on rebalancing the system and meeting the needs of children and families in an earlier way across the multi-agency partnership.
These reforms represent a change in the way we work as a multi-agency partnership with children and families being placed front and centre, meaning that their needs ought to shape the way we reform our services and support. The reforms have 4 key areas that are integral to achieve these reforms, delivering effective Family Help, Multi-Disciplinary Teams, Multi-Agency Child Protection Teams and Family Group Decision Making.
Full guidance can be found here The Families First Partnership (FFP) Programme Guide
We have accomplished a lot in Shropshire but we still have more to do to ensure that these reforms are co-produced together and delivering earlier help and support for our children and their families and as educational leads you play a critical role in these reforms so we look forward to working with you to develop our local approach together. We will be attending the next headteacher briefings in October where we will provide more detail on the aspects of the programme, the expectations Department for Education (DfE) and how you can help us shape this programme moving forwards.
Natasha Moody
Families First Partnership Strategic Lead
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Please see below for good news stories from the ND workstream on the 17th September.
- The uptake on Autism Education Trust’s (AET) Good Autism Practice (GAP) training is increasing and all the training so far has been very positively received. The schools who have participated already are now being supported by the Neurodiversity Practitioners (NDPs) through the AET’s Competency and Standard Frameworks to implement and embed the knowledge from the training within their schools. A flyer and interest form can be found on Shropshire Learning Gateway: CPD for SEND and Inclusion | Shropshire Learning Gateway
- The AET GAP EY training will be delivered in different locations across Shropshire over this academic year. Thanks to funding we have received, this training will be free for our early years settings for this year. The training will be advertised and can be booked on Shropshire Learning Gateway: CPD for SEND and Inclusion | Shropshire Learning Gateway (Update: The first set of training has now started in Shrewsbury, attended by 37 trainees, and very positive feedback has been received already!)
- We are launching the ‘Supporting the Enhancement of Neuroinclusion in Secondary Schools (SENSES)’ to support our 20 secondary schools across Shropshire. Funding has been secured for the NDPs to deliver six staff coaching / continued professional development (CPD) sessions across this academic year. More information will be released to our secondary schools shortly, but please contact kathryn.morgan@shropshire.gov.uk for more information and to express interest in the meantime.
- A pilot project is being launched to support the successful transitions of our neurodivergent learners moving on to post 16 educational settings. It is hoped that this support offer will then become available to all our secondary educational schools in the next academic year. Adding to this, please keep up to date with the CPD offer on Shropshire Learning Gateway for Transitions Training, that is aimed at supporting all our learners across the age range, which will be delivered by the NDPs in the Spring term.
- Shropshire-based neurodiversity advocate, Rob Griffiths, has launched some wonderful new support, and uses his experiences to inspire others and make positive change.
- Health’s Ordinarily Available Inclusive Provision (OAIP) was completed over the summer and became live on the ICB website (Health services inclusive provision - NHS Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin).
- The Pupil Voice project has been expanded with more schools now participating. The information shared within the groups is influencing the discussions and actions within the Neurodiversity Workstream. For example, their views around sensory preferences in the classroom will be shared in the next Workstream meeting.
- Colleagues across the regional ICBs have expressed excitement around the FASD work to develop resources currently taking place and have asked for updates to be shared in their next regional meeting. Please contact helen.vincent@shropshire.gov.uk for information on the training offers that are available to staff in Shropshire Schools.
Dr Kathryn Morgan
Specialist Senior Educational Psychologist for Neurodiversity, Shropshire Educational Psychology Service
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We’re pleased to announce three community grants for local organisations delivering vital support. One grant has been awarded to PEGS (Parental Education Growth Support) for a new training programme on Child to Parent Abuse (CPA)—a complex and often under-recognised form of domestic abuse. Find out more about PEGS on their website.
PEGS research shows parents often first reach out to professionals in education, health, and social care, making it essential that frontline staff can recognise and respond effectively. This funding enables PEGS to deliver training sessions for professionals—a key step in ensuring families receive informed, compassionate support.
Understanding CPA can make a real difference in safeguarding families. PEGS are offering both in-person and online sessions. If you or your team work directly with families, we strongly encourage you to attend.
Please see the poster for sign-up details.
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Complex Needs Training - Thursday 6th Nov 2025, 9:30-12:30 at Castlefields Primary School, Bridgnorth (other training sessions are planned through the year at different locations around the county).
The training will cover Intensive Interaction (delivered by Kerrie White from the CDC) and an introduction to using visuals, 'Bucket Time' and 'Task Baskets' by staff from Severndale. This training is pre-funded by the SEND and AP Change Programme.
The training is suitable for Early Years and Key Stage 1 staff (and for those supporting KS2 pupils with significant communication and interaction needs).
There are a maximum of two tickets per school via Eventbrite. If there is capacity nearer the time then schools will be able to book additional places.
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1753735372709?aff=oddtdtcreator
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