|
Important - please ensure you download a copy any the documents which are attached/ linked to the bulletin and please save a copy to your own computer before editing. This will ensure the original version remains available to other users. Thank you.
- Message from the Head of Education Excellence
- COVID-19 Public Health
- Assessment
- Attendance
- Early Years
- Digital Divide Pupil Survey
- Good News
- Health and Safety
- HR Workforce
- Leadership and Management
- Music Service
- Support Services for schools
- Training
- DfE daily update
Dear Colleagues,
Another few days where we have seen national policy relating to the Covid-19 response affect education. Significantly the announcement that GCSE and A level examinations will be delayed 3 weeks next summer. Nothing yet though on SATS, even though they coincide with Eid.
Also, from tomorrow we are expecting Wolverhampton will be in the second tier of local restrictions – high. The details of what this means can be found in Thursday's bulletin. However, in school I would just re-emphasise the need for where possible adults should be keeping socially distant from each other. The use of the NHS app in schools is explained in the Public Health section of the bulletin. The number of positive cases of Covid-19 have started to increase again, similar to regional and national trends and we are seeing the impact of this in school cases. However, as I said last week the actual numbers needing to self-isolate are being kept to a minimal because of effective decision making.
Clearly, we want to keep schools open. If you find that you are struggling because of high number of senior staff needing to self-isolate please do contact us, via your school improvement adviser, so that we can support you.
Guidance on Health visitors to school site to work with individual children and young people is also included below. Shortly we will be publishing a similar guide for non-health workers.
We have had Ofsted visit about 6 schools so far for a Section 8 visit in line with their published criteria for this term. Feedback from those schools is that they HMI’s followed the script, no need to see pupils, interested in attendance, planning for virtual learning, pupil and staff well-being, no judgements.
Phil
Phil Leivers
Head of Education Excellence
Phil.Leivers@wolverhampton.gov.uk
Working across bubbles – Teachers and Teaching Assistants
Government guidance allows for teachers and teaching assistants (TA’s) to work across bubbles. However, a number of local incidents of large numbers of children being required to self-isolate have been linked to TA’s working across bubbles. To reduce the potential number of self-isolations we would ask schools to consider restricting TA’s to a single bubble. Where this is not operationally possible teaching and support staff should complete their role whilst remaining 2 metres away from the rest of the class as much as possible.
Lead person/s to contact in the LA:
Louise Sharrod
Principal Public Health Specialist
Louise.Sharrod@wolverhampton.gov.uk
Healthcare workers visiting schools - briefing
The attached briefing (click here EY) has been jointly produced by Public Health and Royal Wolverhampton Hospital and outlines what schools can expect when healthcare workers are coming into schools. Its aim is to provide reassurance to schools that healthcare workers will do everything possible to keep pupils, staff and themselves safe from either becoming infected with Covid-19 or passing it on. This is particularly vital given that they may well be returning to a hospital setting afterwards and coming into contact with other vulnerable people.
Lead person to contact in the LA:
Neeraj Malhotra
Consultant in Public Health
Neeraj.malhotra@wolverhampton.gov.uk
Weekly drop-in sessions with Public Health and Education team (reminder)
As part of our support offer for education settings during COVID-19, Public Health and Education teams will be offering weekly drop-in sessions for staff. Drop-In sessions will take place every Thursday 10-11 am, commencing 15 October, via Microsoft Teams. Members of the City of Wolverhampton Council Public Health and Education teams will be available during this hour for staff to ask questions or seek advice on COVID-19 related issues/scenarios. To join on Thursdays at 10-11am please click link below.
Join Microsoft Teams Meeting
Lead person/s to contact in the LA:
Louise Sharrod
Principal Public Health Specialist
Louise.Sharrod@wolverhampton.gov.uk
Students to be given more time to prepare for 2021 exams
The Education Secretary, Gavin Williamson, has released a statement identifying that AS, A levels and GCSE students will be given more time to prepare for 2021 exams, as most AS, A levels and GCSEs will be held three weeks later to help address the disruption caused by the pandemic. He announced the summer exam series will start on 7 June and end on 2 July for almost all AS/A levels and GCSEs.
Results days are Tuesday 24 August for A/AS levels and Friday 27 August for GCSEs so students will start the following academic year as normal.
For the full statement please see the link below:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/students-to-be-given-more-time-to-prepare-for-2021-exams?utm_source=804ca755-33da-4205-a277-7a9f4d3928c4&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=govuk-notifications&utm_content=immediate
Lead person to contact in the LA:
Louise Mututa
School Improvement Advisor
Louise.mututa@wolverhampton.gov.uk
07970476527
Phonics screening check for Year 2 Pupils Autumn Term 2020
Schools will administer a past version of the phonics screening check during the second half of the 2020 autumn term to all pupils in year 2. For further guidance, see the autumn 2020 phonics administration guidance
Please find the attached letter. Schools are asked to return their ctf files to the Research & Assessment Team by Friday 11th December 2020 in order to give us enough time to check errors and queries with you before the end of the Autumn term.
Lead person to contact in the LA:
Donna Evison
Research and Assessment Manager
donna.evison@wolverhampton.gov.uk
Recording attendance during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak – DfE Educational Settings Status
DfE are continuing to request schools and FE settings to please continue to submit daily information about pupil or student attendance and setting closures during COVID-19.
Please submit on the link below by 2pm each day.
https://form.education.gov.uk/service/educational-setting-status
Please note the questions have been revised, please see links below:
Questions for schools: education settings status form
Questions for FE settings: education settings status form
Lead person to contact in the LA:
Donna Evison
Research and Assessment Manager
donna.evison@wolverhampton.gov.uk
EYFS Early Adopter Schools
Thank you to those who attended the meeting on Wednesday 7 October to discuss the new changes in EYFS along with the implications for the curriculum, baseline, tracking and assessment. It was good to hear your feedback as well as book in visits to your schools. If you were unable to attend the meeting and would like to book in a visit to discuss early adopters and the implications for your school, please contact Stacey Henderson. Click on this link (here for EY) for the slides from the session.
Lead person to contact in the LA:
Stacey Henderson
Senior Early years Advisor
Stacey.Henderson@wolverhampton.gov.uk
Weekly Survey for the Department for Education (DfE)
Quick reminder to all settings to please complete the weekly survey for that week’s attendance. This will then enable us to provide the DfE with an accurate picture of the number of children accessing early years provision across the city of Wolverhampton.
The link for the survey can be found here.
Lead person to contact in the LA:
Stacey Henderson
Senior Early years Advisor
Stacey.Henderson@wolverhampton.gov.uk
Early Years SEND information from nasen
Early Years SEND information from nasen
Please access the website below for information on the following topics, including support, training and resources
- Dates for a variety of I CAN training on SLCN and supporting documents
- A whole range of new resources from nasen
- Transition webcasts, nasen have now released three new transition webcasts and documents for Early Years practitioners, SENCOs, teachers, teaching assistants and parents. These resources will support with the transition for all children, particularly those with SEND who are moving from nursery to Reception and Reception to Year One. Meeting the Needs of Every Child training for Early Years practitioners from nasen
- FREE online course that provides Early Years Practitioners with a thorough understanding of inclusive practice for SEND in Early Years settings.
For more information visit their website or contact at eysend@ncb.org.uk
Lead person to contact in the LA:
Stacey Henderson
Senior Early years Advisor
Stacey.Henderson@wolverhampton.gov.uk
Updated referral form for Universal Service Practitioners for PVI settings
Please click on the link (click here EY) to download the latest USP Referral form. Due to Covid-19, sessions delivered by the Universal Practitioners will only be delivered virtually at this time.
Lead person to contact:
childrensvillageSFH@wolverhampton.gov.uk
The National Literacy Trust
The National Literacy Trust is promoting the DfE’s Hungry Little Minds behaviour change campaign message across the Black Country. Our Facebook page for the campaign is:
https://www.facebook.com/HungryLittleMindsBlackCountry/
Please like the page and share this page with all of the families that you work with in order to gain visitors that will benefit from the page and the Hungry Little Minds campaign. The Hungry Little Minds launch event will be held on Thursday 15th October 1-2pm via Zoom. This will be an interactive storytelling session with Grandpa Sticks (Steve Stickley) who will be sharing the Itchy Bear story. I would be grateful if you could advertise the event through your social media channels. Please find event details below:
https://fb.me/e/4pUXb9Bhm
Lead person to contact in the LA:
Wendy Round
Quality and Access Officer
Tel. Office: 01902 555983
Tel. Mobile: 07773187016
Wendy.Round@wolverhampton.gov.uk
Digital Divide Pupil Survey
Thank you to all schools who have provided parents with details of out Digital Divide pupil questionnaire. We are pleased to say that currently almost one quarter of schools are represented in the pupil responses.
We encourage other schools to take part by sharing the questionnaire with parents and pupils as the more data we have, the better city wide picture we can build.
We would like to make schools who have taken part aware that currently some schools have partial responses (not all children or not all year groups), so a reminder to parents is advised.
Headteachers will be sent an email with more information about the survey, GDPR and parental consent for schools and for parents/carers. Please read this and take the relevant actions before disseminating the questionnaire link to families.
The deadline for responses is October 19. City of Wolverhampton Council will analyse and disseminate findings. Further details regarding dissemination will be sent to you by email.
Lead person to contact in the LA:
Laura Jude
Disadvantaged Pupils Advisory Teacher
Laura.Jude@wolverhampton.gov.uk
Managing ventilation
It has been reported in both the national and local media recently, that parents are contacting schools with queries after their children returned home complaining of being cold all day due to doors and windows being open to aid ventilation. We are also starting to see increased queries from schools regarding the same matter.
The approach taken must be a sensible and pragmatic one. The risk assessments put together by all schools have taken the approach to increase natural ventilation as far as possible by opening doors and windows. This control measure for infection control purposes is still a valid one but needs to be tempered with a reasonable approach to other health and safety matters, including ambient temperature in what may well be a sedentary environment. It is clearly not reasonable to have all doors and windows wide open, when there are sub-zero temperatures outside, or when other discomfort is being caused to people in the rooms.
So, what is reasonable and appropriate whilst still maintaining increased ventilation to reduce any infection control risks?
We would advocate looking at when rooms can be ventilated, without direct discomfort, maybe before occupation, during breaks and afterwards. At other times clearly opening doors has a detrimental effect on the capability of any heating system to maintain thermal comfort, and we would not be critical if the doors were kept closed to address this; but it needs to be managed locally depending on the prevailing conditions for the day and the circumstances of the room(s) in question. Regarding windows, original assessments were undertaken when the weather was warmer where it was possible to have windows fully open but as we are in autumn approaching winter this may no longer be appropriate. We are not advocating shutting them all together but again a pragmatic approach to maybe having some open, some closed, and not all open to maximum extend does seem the most sensible way forward.
The ventilation requirements for infection control are one of the controls implemented, it is not an absolute legislative requirement.
Lead person to contact in the LA:
Natalie Barrow
Health and Safety Advisor
Natalie.barrow@wolverhampton.gov.uk
Update on the application of the Teacher Pay Award 2020
The STPCD 2020 is coming into force on 14 October.
Our local model pay policy including our pay scales has gone through a parallel process of ratification and will be made available to you in the usual manner from that date.
An email has been sent on Friday 12 October directly to Headteachers of maintained schools using our Payroll Services requesting instructions on the application of the pay award and incremental progression.
The deadline for sending your instructions back to us is Thursday 5 November 2020 for an application in November’s payroll.
Lead person to contact in the LA:
Marie Marenda
HR Business Partner
Marie.marenda@wolverhampton.gov.uk
Payroll Services
01902 552345 (option 2)
Payroll.services@wolverhampton.gov.uk
Schools’ Webinar: Interim Visits in the West Midlands – 14 October 2020, 4pm.
Coronavirus forced the suspension of regular inspection activity earlier this year. Now that schools have reopened, Ofsted is working with school leaders (through autumn interim visits) to help parents and the public understand how education is getting back to full strength.
This webinar provides an opportunity for school leaders to hear first-hand about these visits and how they work in practice, as well as hearing about findings from pilot visits.
Link to register:
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/4721731049864835600
Lead person to contact in the LA:
Linda Brown
School Improvement Senior Advisor
linda.brown@wolverhampton.gov.uk
Leadership and Management Engagement session - For Chair of Governors
Chairs from local authority and academy schools are welcome to attend on 22 October 2020 4 – 5pm.
An engagement session is being provided to enable Chairs of Governors to receive a virtual update from Public Health regarding Covid and the local context, as well as information from a Senior Educational Psychologist about how the wellbeing of school communities, staff and pupils is being provided in these unprecedented times.
To ensure your place on this virtual session please book through WVES. This can be done direct or via your school.
Lead person(s) to contact in the LA:
Linda Brown
School Improvement Senior Advisor Linda.brown@wolverhampton.gov.uk
Sarah McElduff
School Governance Co-ordinator
Sarah.mcelduff@wolverhampton.gov.uk
Music Service
We are planning to return to teaching in schools after half term, from Monday 2 November.
Last week we contacted schools directly to work through a set of agreed control measures that have been consulted and prepared with Public Health and the Health and Safety Team.
These measures will ensure that our return to work in your school is safe.
Currently, 8 Music Services in the West Midlands are now working in their schools with similar control measures in place and there has been no cases of infection or isolation.
Further details of our plans are included in the updated slides here (here for EY) and the full Music Service risk assessment (here for EY)
Please share with the relevant teachers in your school.
Lead person to contact in the LA:
Ciaran O'Donnell
Head of Music Service
Tel. Office: 01902558105
Ciaran.O'Donnell@wolverhampton.gov.uk
School Leaders’ Wellbeing: We’re Listening – session to gain your views and input Monday 19 October 4-5pm
We know that school staff are under incredible pressures at the current time. During our engagement sessions and conversations with school leaders we have heard repeatedly that you are concerned about your own wellbeing and the wellbeing of your staff. We have secured additional funding through HeadStart to support the wellbeing of School Leaders and school staff. We would like to invite Head Teachers to a session where you can contribute your views and get involved in shaping this support so that it is helpful and meaningful to you. A listening session is being held on Monday 19th October from 4-5pm so that you can share your views. Please link in here:
Join Microsoft Teams Meeting
Please contact me if you have any queries about this event or if you would like to share views but cannot attend the event.
Lead person to contact in the LA:
Elaine Perry
Senior Educational Psychologist
Elaine.perry@wolverhampton.gov.uk
07900708206
The Vision for School Organisation in Wolverhampton 2020-2022; Wolverhampton Education Place Planning
Consultation on the Council’s Vision for School Organisation in Wolverhampton 2020-2022 commenced on Monday 12 October 2020. The Vision details the significant challenges that the City faces regarding the sufficiency and distribution of school places in Wolverhampton and outlines a framework to guide the future development of school provision across the City.
Please follow the link to view a draft copy of The Vision and to provide comments via the survey.
https://consultation.wolverhampton.gov.uk/school-organisation/vision
Please note that any responses should be received by 8 November 2020.
Lead person to contact in the LA:
Dawn Long
School Organisation Officer
school.organisation@wolverhampton.gov.uk
School Governance Training
Upcoming School Governance training
Tuesday 13 October (today) - Modelling Challenge & Support at 6-8pm
Tuesday 20 October - Effective Governor Visits at 6-8pm
To view training and to book onto courses, please follow the link to WVES website.
Bespoke training to meet the needs of your Governing Board can also be arranged. To discuss your requirements further, please contact Kay Mason Kay.Mason@wolverhampton.gov.uk
Lead person(s) to contact in the LA:
Kay Mason
School Improvement Advisor
Kay.mason@wolverhampton.gov.uk
Sarah McElduff
School Governance Co-ordinator
Sarah.mcelduff@wolverhampton.gov.uk
NQT Training
Please note the following training opportunities are approaching for NQTs and RQTs:
15/10/2020 at 3:45-4:45pm - Network & drop in with focus on SEMH
19/10/20 at 1:30-4:00pm - Identifying next steps in writing with Year 5 teachers.
20/10/20 at 1:30-4:00pm - Identifying next steps in writing with Year 6 teachers.
22/10/20 at 1:30-4:00pm - Identifying next steps in writing with Year 4 teachers
All participants should be booked onto training via WVES.
Lead person to contact in the LA:
Jo Horlock
NQT and Assessment Advisor
Tel. 07792 556576
Jo.Horlock@wolverhampton.gov.uk
9 October – Coronavirus – Daily update to all early years, children’s social care, schools and further education providers -click here or here (EY)
12 October – Coronavirus – Daily update to all early years, children’s social care, schools and further education providers - click here or here (EY)
13 October – Coronavirus – Daily update to all early years, children’s social care, schools and further education providers - click here or here (EY)
Daily update from GOV.UK - click here or here (EY)
|
