View as a webpage  /  Share

Education Noticeboard

23rd May 2025

A round-up of news, guidance and key updates for education settings

Contents

Directors Update

Meadows Primary School Would Like Your Support in Winning a National Award

Attendance Support Team Referrals

Attendance Support Team – Modified Timetables

Attendance Support Team – Red Book training

Thinking of becoming a School of Sanctuary?

Emotional Health Network meetings for frontline staff working with and supporting vulnerable children and families across Telford

STEPS (Support Through Exploitation and Prevention Service) | Catch22

PROTECT Listen and Learn sessions for professionals working across Telford and Wrekin

Embedding Talk PANTS - CPD session

New Early Help Assessment leaflet for Parents

Access to Higher Education Information Event

ARC Learning Hub event – Woodlands Primary School

The Household Support Fund

CPD courses to the end of the Summer Term 2025

May Half Term - Holiday Activity Programme

Learn to Ride this Half Term with Telford Bike Hub

The Story Detectives

Urban Games

National Share-a-Story Month

Directors Update

Dear Colleagues Welcome to this week’s edition of the Education Noticeboard. It’s half term already!  Enjoy everyone and I hope you take some time to relax and recharge.  Please take the time to review the safeguarding articles included in this newsletter which covers Emotional Health, West Mercia Steps and NSPCC. We have also developed a new leaflet for parents, explaining the Early Help Assessment (EHA). This leaflet, created with our Dandelion group, introduces Family Help, meeting support needs and provides tips for parents whilst supporting the child's and parents voice. There are lots of activities over half term for families to enjoy.  As part of our 10by10 initiative don't miss the Learn to Ride scheme with Telford Bike Hub and the Story Detectives interactive danced adventure for children and their grown-ups, happening at various community libraries.  Urban Games are also back next week.  Packed with free sports for kids of all ages, children can try football, cricket, BMX biking, hockey, and more.  All great stuff! Enjoy the rest of your week. Best Wishes, Simon Simon Wellman Director: Education & Skills

News

Meadows Primary School Would Like Your Support in Winning a National Award

The pupils from the after-school film club at Meadows Primary School and Nursery are proud to have been nominated for a national award by the film education charity, Into Film and have been invited to a red-carpet award ceremony in London’s Leicester Square attended by celebrities and members of the film industry in June.

The children have been nominated for best animation age 5-11 for their film that tells the story of The Wellington Cobbler and the Wrekin Giant. Into Film receives thousands of entries from its participating schools and clubs across the country. The children would like your support in the audience award category.

The film club at Meadows has been running for ten years and has been particularly beneficial to SEND pupils and is well-attended by pupils who are in receipt of Pupil Premium. The club’s practice in working with these pupils has been shared with the Media Committee at the Houses of Parliament.

If you can visit the Into Film audience choice award page, https://www.intofilm.org/news-and-views/articles/into-film-awards-audience-choice-2025 , you will find a link to the films to view and be asked to vote using either Instagram, Threads or Facebook.

https://www.meadowsprimaryschool.co.uk/Film-Club/

Attendance Support

Attendance Support Team Referrals

Schools are reminded that there remain two pathways for AST legal intervention – the ‘traditional’ Section 444 and the newer Notice to Improve/Penalty Notice route.

The ‘traditional’ Section 444 route is a dripping tap approach and follows a clear escalation process. School issue their own SALs, followed by AST warning letters, then if despite all best efforts of the school, parents don’t engage then an Interview Under Caution progressing to Court action is the best route. Often attendance improves from the day the parent receives the invitation to IUC.

The Penalty Notice route is best considered for cases where there is a sudden and usually significant deterioration in attendance where parents are not engaging with support. A PN can be requested where a child has accumulated 10 unauthorised sessions in a 10 week rolling period. This can include U coded lates.

Prior to a PN, a Notice to Improve (detailing a dated period to allow parents opportunity to engage in support and show improvement) can be used where the school feel that this may be sufficient to change behaviour without the issue of a fine. Where the NTI is unsuccessful, a PN is issued. If, following the issue of an NTI, the pupil continues to rapidly accumulate unauthorised sessions then school does not need to wait the full 6 weeks to refer for a PN. Please note that an NTI is never used in the case of a holiday in term time.

When considering which route to take for escalation, schools must consider the history of the case and how much evidence of support the school has. A penalty notice is an out of court settlement, and therefore by accepting this a parent discharges the offence to the date of issue and so any previous attendance intervention is archived, meaning that the process begins again. For longstanding cases, leaders may wish to consider continuing to employ the s444 route to ensure that they get the best result. The sentencing guidelines also differ between the routes.

Duty Officer

To support schools in identifying the most appropriate pathway, AST have introduced a new ‘Duty Officer’ system to screen referrals. Under this process, schools may receive feedback on referrals for Penalty Notices, Notice to Improve or warnings if the duty officer feels that an alternative pathway is more appropriate and likely to secure a more effective attendance improvement for the pupil.

Attendance Support Team – Modified Timetables

In response to a number of queries from schools around the use of Modified Timetables, the Attendance Support Team are holding an additional briefing to share the most up to date LA guidance on their use.

We therefore invite you to attend a virtual session on Teams on:

Wednesday 2nd July, 4-5.30pm.

The session is free of charge and places can be requested via the CPD booklet.

To view details of future courses and conferences in the CPD booklet, and for information about all Services for Schools, please click on to the

Telford Education Services Website

Attendance Support Team – Red Book training

AST are pleased to confirm the next date for their full day ‘Red Book’ training is Wednesday 4^th June 2025. 

This training will look different from sessions prior to September 23 as we now deliver this in line with the DfE Guidance ‘Working Together to Improve School Attendance’.

All delegates will receive an updated red folder. Delegates should bring any old ‘Red Book’ folders to the training as they are recycled. 

This training is a full day and is charged at £165 pp but with 10% discount for any staff from the same school – all resources, refreshments and lunch are provided. Places can be booked through the CPD Offer :

To view details of future courses and conferences in the CPD booklet, and for information about all Services for Schools, please click on to the

Telford Education Services Website

Please ensure that school staff with attendance responsibilities are given priority for a place on this course. If you have a new member of staff in school, or have staff who have recently been delegated school attendance responsibility, please contact the CPD team to request a place.

Email: attendancesupportteam@telford.gov.uk

Multicultural Development Team

Thinking of becoming a School of Sanctuary?

Open afternoon at Old Park Primary school, our latest school of Sanctuary!

Old Park Primary are very happy to host an afternoon session on Tuesday, 10^th June to provide information around the achievement of the School of Sanctuary Award. This opportunity will consist of a tour of the school, information regarding their application, preparation and journey as a school to achieve the award. There will be the opportunity to ask questions that relate to your own school or any that you have in relation to going for the award.

The school have worked hard on ensuring their curriculum embeds Equality and Diversity, has a strong focus on British Values, and ensures all children feel welcome, safe and have a true love for learning at their school.

We strongly recommend coming, even if you are not ready to start the award application yet, as it will give you the opportunity to see what a school of sanctuary looks like and make comparisons with your own school for your own personal reflection. We hope this will give you an opportunity to identify the good practice within the school and compare it to the good practice already in your school, hopefully enabling you identify the next steps in your school becoming a school of sanctuary too!

For more information on becoming a school of sanctuary please visit:

https://schools.cityofsanctuary.org/.

If you would like to attend the opening morning, please contact the school or email louise.ashton@taw.org.uk to confirm you attendance.

Safeguarding

Emotional Health Network meetings for frontline staff working with and supporting vulnerable children and families across Telford

Outline

E2O Network meets at least termly over the academic year at The Linden Centre, Overdale.

Facilitated by Rachel Cook (Headteacher at Newdale Primary School)

Each meeting includes CPD focus and importantly plenty of opportunities to problem solve and share effective practice already in place at different schools.

Session content: Overarching theme – SEND/complex needs strategies – cases study linked.

Date: Tuesday 1^st July 2025

Time: 1pm – 3pm

Cost: Free – Though I would appreciate someone volunteering to bring biscuits or cake!

Pre-Task: How is your school coping with the ever-increasing numbers & complexities of behaviour and SEND – there will be time to network and share!

Agenda:

• Quick update from the Safeguarding team – Early Help and New Family Hubs
• Case studies from various schools sharing how they are managing the increasing number of complex behaviour and SEND needs.
• Ladygrove Primary School
• Wrockwardine Wood Infant School
• Telford Park Secondary School

A big thank you to these schools who have kindly offered to share what they do. I am hoping we repeat this sharing exercise at the Autumn E2O gathering too! Hoping for more volunteers…

The intention is that this is a free network for frontline staff and that costs would only be incurred if speakers were to attend at any point. We will even supply tea & coffee!

If you are interested in sending colleagues to this event, please inform elsa.wooldridge@taw.org.uk specifying which school you are from and how many colleagues will be attending

STEPS (Support Through Exploitation and Prevention Service) | Catch22

A new service across West Mercia, STEPS.

We are happy to share that our service is now live!

To give you a brief overview, the service offers a range of support, including

• 1:1 early intervention support for CYP at risk of CCE
• 1:1 support for CYP at risk of, currently experiencing, or have experienced CSE
• Awareness and prevention for CCE and CSE in the form of group training and workshops

If you’d like to know more, please contact us via the service email address: Steps@catch-22.org.uk.

Please also find links to our website and referral forms:

STEPS (Support Through Exploitation and Prevention Service) | Catch22

At the bottom of the page, in the ‘Contact Us’ section, you will find the referral forms for 1:1 work and Awareness and Prevention. Just for ease, I’m adding them both here, too:

STEPS 1:1 Referral Form

STEPS Awareness and Prevention Referral Form

PROTECT Listen and Learn sessions for professionals working across Telford and Wrekin

As part of the PROTECT campaign, NSPCC Midlands and partners are running a series of Listen and Learn sessions for professionals to learn more about the resources and opportunities available across Telford and Wrekin that can help keep children safe from child sexual exploitation (CSE) and abuse

To support teaching professionals to confidently embed child sexual exploitation (CSE) prevention into the curriculum in an age-appropriate and culturally sensitive way for children aged 0-18.

Embedding Talk PANTS - CPD session

Join this interactive, face-to-face session to learn more about how you can embed Talk PANTS into your settings.

 Date: Thursday 11 September 2025 Time: 9AM – 12PM

Venue: Mercure Telford Centre Hotel, Forge Gate, Telford TF3 4NA

During this interactive session we will: provide an introduction and refamiliarisation of Talk PANTS and the teaching resources explore the upcoming activity for Talk PANTS week (WB: 20 October 2025) explore how to embed an understanding of Talk PANTS throughout school, including for children who have SEND explore how you can engage parents with talking PANTS.

Early Help

New Early Help Assessment leaflet for Parents

A new leaflet for families that explains what is an Early Help Assessment, and what families can expect from the process has been developed with our Dandelion group.

It introduces Family Help (a new term for targeted early help) and how any family at some point may require additional help.

Provides tips for parents when completing an EHA, such as you can have someone with you for support.

Finally, it emphasises that the parent always has a say in what is written and will record their views as well as their child’s view of strengths as well as areas of support required for their family.

Job Box

Access to Higher Education Information Event

Want to go to university but don't have the qualifications to apply? Our Access to Higher Education diploma is specifically designed for adults looking to change direction.

Come along to our information session to learn more from staff, current students and the Learn Telford team.

Access to HE Diplomas enable adults without traditional qualifications to progress to university. If you don't have level 3 qualifications but want to go to university for personal or career based goals, Access to HE could be your stepping stone for studying a degree.

This one off information session is designed for anyone interested in pursuing Access to HE and ultimately a course at university. Discover how our year-long diploma translates into UCAS points and prepares you for degree-level study.

Learn Telford currently offers three Access to HE courses in Psychology, Health Science Professionals and Education. Come and learn about what these pathways can lead to and the student finance options available.

Places must be booked in advance. To register, please visit https://learntelford.ac.uk/Search/FullDetails/7933710 or to call us on 01952 382888 or to email us at support@learntelford.ac.uk

Virtual School

ARC Learning Hub event – Woodlands Primary School

St George’s Trauma and Attachment Informed Journey

Tuesday 10th June 2025

4.30pm - 6.00pm

Free to attend

This session will take participants through our attachment and trauma informed journey to date, including how our school environment has been developed to meet pupils needs. The visit will also include a tour of the school and a Q&A session.

Book your place by clicking on the link below:

ARC Learning Hub Events: St George's Primary School | ARC

Supermarket School Holiday Food Vouchers

The Household Support Fund 

The government has provided the council with further funding via the Household Support Fund for the period from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026.  Councillors are therefore delighted to have been able to make the decision to extend the Cost of Living Holiday Food Voucher Scheme for 11,150 children.

This represents an investment of £1.8 million to support residents with the cost of living during school holiday times.

Details of the vouchers we will be issuing during this financial year (from May Half-Term onwards) are shown in the table below

* These dates may vary in practice, depending on staff/IT availability.

An email has been sent to all direct voucher recipients to notify them of this extension.

Please note that the voucher value for some holidays has changed compared to previous years. This is because there has been a cut in our funding, and both Easter 2025 and Easter 2026 need to be covered from our 2025/26 Household Support Fund allocation.

As previously, we will send voucher codes out directly by email to all parents/carers that we hold a working email address for. 

Please ensure that you continue telling us about any changes to this information that you become aware of as soon as possible.

Our communication to them will continue to include appropriate contact details, should they experience any problems with their voucher code, plus a link to our Frequently Asked Questions web page at www.telford.gov.uk/fsmvoucher.

In the unlikely event that a parent contacts the school with a query regarding a voucher code they have not received, please direct them to winterfunding.grant@telford.gov.uk.  If the query instead relates to problems downloading or spending the e-voucher(s) they have chosen, please refer them to our voucher provider, Select Essentials. They can be contacted on 0800 587 2294 or by completing a form online at

www.select-essentials.co.uk/ContactUs

There continue to be a small number of families who will require your assistance to obtain their e-vouchers or who we don’t have an email address for.  Their voucher codes will again be distributed directly to schools.  As before, please forward or redeem these as appropriate to the parents/carers of the specific child that each has been allocated to.  This will help us track who has received them in the event of queries.

Thank you very much for your ongoing support with providing us your data and distributing these vouchers for eligible pupils at your school.

Full details of how we are using our 2025/2026 Household Support Fund allocation, including details of the application process for our discretionary scheme for those experiencing severe financial difficulties, can be found at www.telford.gov.uk/householdsupportfund.

We have also created two financial advice leaflets – one for people of working age: www.telford.gov.uk/financialadvice and one for pensioners: www.telford.gov.uk/pensioners.  These leaflets can be found on our Cost of Living webpages at www.telford.gov.uk/costofliving, and contain a range of help, support and advice. Please feel free to share these links with parents and carers.

For further information contact: winterfunding.grant@telford.gov.uk

CPD

CPD courses to the end of the Summer Term 2025

Further details of these and all other courses are available in the 2024-25 CPD booklet on the Telford Education Services website and on the Ollie website. 

The CPD Booklet to the end of the 2024-25 academic year can be viewed via Telford Education Services

As always, courses can be booked by completing and returning a CPD booking form to cpdschoolimprovement@telford.gov.uk (unless denoted differently).

In addition to the courses run by Telford & Wrekin Council which are advertised in our CPD booklet, you may also wish to look at the range of courses run by other local providers, whose web links are detailed below:

AmazingCPD

Severn Training Schools Alliance

Other Information and Resources

May Half Term - Holiday Activity Programme

Take a look at our May half term Holiday Activity Programme which runs from 27 May to 1 June 2025. All sessions can be booked in advance (except Fun & Floats). Choose from tennis, Fun & Floats, tobogganing, Tots Donuts and swimming crash courses. There are also offers on at Telford Soft Play, the Bike Hub as well as ice skating crash course at Telford Ice Rink and Ski School at Telford Snowboard and Ski Centre.

Telford Bike Hub are trying to reach as many parents and carers as possible, to make them aware of our Learn to Ride offer this half term. We would be grateful if you could share this information with your families at school.

Learning to ride a bike is a life skill but sometimes we need a little help. At Telford Bike Hub our instructors will help build your child’s confidence and provide them with the skills needed to ride a 2 wheeled bike unaided. We have years of experience and our patient instructors will support your child’s learning through games and fun activities.

Each session lasts 1 hour and are suitable for children aged 4+. Bike and helmet hire are included in the cost and we keep our sessions small – no more than 8 children per group. Booking information, session dates and times can be found on Tickets Telford – search Learn to Ride Telford Bike Hub - Learn To Ride

Help us get as many children cycling as possible by sharing this information with parents and families this half term, thank you.

The Story Detectives

Join Story Detectives Playful and Particular for an interactive danced adventure to find the Most Important Story.

Are you brave? Ready for adventure? Fabulous at finding letters?

Join The Story Detectives Playful and Particular as they journey round the  library collecting letters, solving clues, and building an adventure story.

The Story Detectives is an interactive danced adventure to find the Most Important Story. Choreographed by award-winning choreographer Katie Green, with original writing by poet Anna Selby and a dynamic soundscore including original music by Max Perryment. Suitable for children of all ages (especially those aged 3-8) and their grown-ups.

Stirchley Community Library Wednesday 28 May 10.30am 

Madely Community Library Wednesday 28 May 2pm

Southwater Library Thursday 29 May 10.30am

Wellington Community Library Thursday 29 May 2pm relaxed session 

Tickets are free, but please book in advance here www.telford.gov.uk/libraries  

Email: Libraryenquiries@telford.gov.uk

Website: www.telford.gov.uk/libraries 

Urban Games are back!

Urban Games are back this May half-term—and it’s packed with FREE sports for kids of all ages!

From football and cricket to BMX biking and hockey, children can try something new, stay active, and even tick off a ‘10 by 10’ goal like joining a team sport!

Led by expert coaches from:

• AFC Telford United Foundation
• Shropshire Cricket
• Telford Flyers
• And more!

The sessions run from Monday 26 to Friday 30 May across Telford and Wrekin. All sessions are free and there’s no need to book in advance.

Urban games - Urban games - Telford & Wrekin Council

Awareness Dates

National Share-a-Story Month

National Share-A-Story Month (NSSM) is an annual celebration of the power of storytelling and story sharing, providing a fantastic opportunity to fulfil the core aim of the FCBG of bringing children and stories together. Across the country Federation book groups and individuals run a whole host of events. Each year we are inspired by a specific theme and work with different organisations to provide people with resources and opportunities.

National Share a Story Month 2025

Organised by the Federation of Children’s Book Groups, National Share a Story Month is an annual event designed to celebrate the fabulous world of children’s fiction and to inspire a love of reading by sharing stories.  In 2025, the theme of National Share a Story Month is Saving the World, One Book at a Time.  Our plans are designed to celebrate both the joy of sharing stories and the importance of our local environment to our health and wellbeing.

National Share-a-Story Month – The Federation of Children's Book Groups