ALLOW City of Wolverhampton Education Providers' Bulletin: 02 Sept 2021

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Education Providers' Bulletin

Thursday 2nd September 2021

City of Wolverhampton
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If you would like your Chair of Governors, SENDCo, DSL or Digital Leads to receive this bulletin, please email Georgia.Smith@wolverhampton.gov.uk with their email address who will add them to the distribution list.

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Bulletin Summary


  1. Message from Phil Leivers 
  2. COVID-19
  3. Assessment
  4. Finance
  5. Health and Safety
  6. Information
  7. Leadership and management – Ofsted Inspection information, September 2021
  8. Safeguarding
  9. Training and Consultation
  10. DfE daily update

Message from Phil Leivers


Dear Colleagues,

Welcome back! This is always my favourite time of the year. Everyone is so keen and eager, new equipment and uniforms and anticipation of what can be achieved. Hopefully everyone has had a rest and is raring to go. The elephant in the room of course is that Covid-19 hasn’t gone away and we are learning to live with it.  There are opportunities to meet with public health, health and safety and education officers today and tomorrow to discuss concerns and issues.

Primary engagement session Friday 3 September 11-12pm Click here to join the meeting

Link to the slides and recording of the Secondary session here.

I hope the start of term goes well and I look forward to seeing many of you over the term,

Best wishes,

Phil


COVID-19


Information and resources from the DfE and NHS to support return back to settings, schools and colleges

Please see the below links:

Returning to education schools and colleges 2021

Return to Education Primary School Leaflet

Return to Education Secondary School Leaflet

Return to Education Early Years School Leaflet


Attendance


Reminder to complete the educational setting status form for schools and colleges

Update on the educational setting status form – DfE guidance below:

Schools and colleges are asked to resume completing the educational setting status form from the start of the autumn term. Please complete the form each day by 2pm.

We are asking you to continue to submit your attendance data daily throughout September, so we can monitor attendance in schools and colleges after the summer break.

Further information on completing the educational setting status form, including an updated set of attendance sub-codes, can be found in our guidance.

Lead person to contact in the LA:

Donna Evison
Research & Assessment Manager
donna.evison@wolverhampton.gov.uk


Assessment


KS4 and Post 16 Results 2021

Many thanks to those schools who have already submitted their KS4 and Post 16 results. We are still outstanding some school exam results; we would be most grateful if you could submit your results as soon as you can. 

Your support by providing this information has helped to gain a Local Authority picture on the performance of our City's schools for 2021. 

Please try to ensure that your response covers each area of the data request, on the attached tables. (Post 16 table) (KS4 table)

Please return to the Research and Assessment Team via email to research.assessment@wolverhampton.gov.uk 

Lead person to contact in the LA:

Donna Evison
Research & Assessment Manager
donna.evison@wolverhampton.gov.uk


Finance


School Cleaning Charges 24.07.21 to 21.08.21

The attached schedule shows school cleaning charges for the period 24.07.21 to 21.08.21. Should you have any queries, please contact Caroline Holt, on 01902 555700 (Caroline.Holt@wolverhampton.gov.uk) or Lisa Green, Cleaning Manager, on  01902 555202 (Lisa.Green3@wolverhampton.gov.uk).

Lead person to contact in the LA:

Andrew McCloskey
Finance Officer
Andrew.McCloskey@wolverhampton.gov.uk


Fraud Alert

Reports have been received from other local authorities that schools have been receiving emails appearing to have been sent from the Head Teacher or a senior member of staff and requests finance staff to process a payment urgently.

The initial email looks like it comes from a legitimate school email address and usually starts with “Are you on your computer?”. If a response is received, the sender then proceeds to request that an urgent payment is made, but the email address then often changes to a Gmail containing a different individual’s name. The requests appear to be for amounts around £10,000.

It is advised that staff responsible for processing payments remain vigilant in order to prevent this fraudulent activity.  If you become aware of such fraud, please report it to Audit.Services@Wolverhampton.gov.uk

Please continue to be vigilant when dealing with any emails requesting payments or changes to bank accounts, irrespective of who is requesting the change to be made.

Lead person to contact in the LA:

Mark Wilkes
Audit Business Partner
mark.wilkes@wolverhampton.gov.uk
01902 554462


Insurance SLA Recharges 2021/2022

The Council has recently renewed all insurance policies effective from 30 June 2021.  The insurance market has suffered a difficult year with the pandemic and worldwide weather related losses impacting on both investment return for premiums and costs of claims.  The Council has experienced some rises in premium this year, up to 15% on some classes of insurance.

Due to the high quality of risk management in schools and resultant claims experience it has been decided the full increases will not be passed onto schools and accordingly only a nominal 3% increase will be applied for this year’s premium recharge.  The amount will be collected by journal in the coming weeks.

Over the next year we will be placing the insurances out for tender.  It is possible insurance policies will be awarded to different insurers from renewal 2022.  We will also be considering the Government’s Risk Protection Arrangement (RPA) as part of this process to determine best value for schools.  As the RPA does not presently cover all schools risks the Council will procure additional cover where necessary to ensure seamless cover continues.

If you have any queries please do not hesitate to get in touch with one of the Insurance Team, contact details can be found here.  

Lead person to contact in the LA:

Jayne Goddard-Mills
Insurance and Claims Manager
Jayne.goddard-mills@wolverhampton.gov.uk


Health and Safety


Please find attached revised Risk Assessment template issued by Natalie Burrows

COVID-19 Guidance September 2021

COVID-19 Risk Assessment September 2021


Information


New Locally Agreed Syllabus for RE

As you are aware the implementation period for the new Locally Agreed Syllabus for RE began on September 1.

If you were unable to attend the training events in the summer term and require a pre-production copy of the syllabus, please contact Laura Jude.

The final copy of the syllabus will be published on the Wolverhampton SACRE webpage the coming days. The content will not differ from that presented in the pre-production copy so schools are advised to continue to use this copy for planning purposes.

As you are also aware Wolverhampton SACRE is in the process of revising the Wolverhampton scheme of work for RE, which has historically been provided in addition to the legally required Locally Agreed Syllabus for RE.

Updates will also be published on the SACRE webpage. For planning purposes schools can continue to use the relevant aspects of the scheme of work currently published online should they wish to. Use of the scheme is optional.

The SACRE webpage can be accessed here:

https://www.wolverhampton.gov.uk/education-and-schools/religious-education-wolverhampton-sacre

If you would like your RE lead to receive updates about RE in Wolverhampton directly, please contact Georgia Smith who can add them to the mailing list to receive this Bulletin.

https://www.wolverhampton.gov.uk/education-and-schools/religious-education-wolverhampton-sacre

Lead person to contact in the LA:

Laura Jude
School Improvement Advisor for Equalities
07973715929
Laura.Jude@wolverhampton.gov.uk

or 

Georgia Smith
School Improvement Support Officer
Georgia.smith@wolverhampton.gov.uk


SEND Making a Difference Workshop

Hope you are all well and having a good summer! We have discussed Making a Difference Workshops in our Inspection Preparation Meetings and two dates have now been set.

Firstly, apologies for the short timescale with getting this flyer out and dependent on when we get notification of an Inspection if we do have time we will put more on but would welcome where you can to encourage colleagues to attend the two dates set.

The making a difference workshop is very much about sharing what’s working well, what are our areas for improvement are, what we are doing to address any challenges and share information on the Inspection Framework.

The sessions will be held on Teams and are open to anyone from across the SEND Partnership.

If anyone has any questions or queries please let me know.

Lead person to contact in the LA:

Rachel Warrender
Quality & Improvement Officer (Adult/Children’s)
Rachel.Warrender@wolverhampton.gov.uk


School Safe Alerts

There has been a revision in the way schools need to report School Safe Alerts to the Authority with immediate effect.  All concerns should be sent directly to SSA@wolverhampton.gov.uk where they can be reviewed and processed accordingly.

Lead person in the LA to contact:

Libby Brown
Business Support Team Leader
Libby.Brown@wolverhampton.gov.uk


Leadership and management – Ofsted Inspection information, September 2021


Ofsted have been in the process of updating their key documents in readiness for the return to inspection activity from September 2021.

Full details can be found at:

Section 5 (full inspection) handbook

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-inspection-handbook-eif/school-inspection-handbook

Section 8 (monitoring and short inspections) handbook

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/section-8-school-inspection-handbook-eif/school-inspection-handbook-section-8

Early Years inspection handbook (Ofsted guidance on inspecting registered early years and childcare providers)

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-inspection-handbook-eif?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=govuk-notifications&utm_source=aaba4655-d49e-494c-abf6-aa58b8110a10&utm_content=immediately

Inspecting schools: a guide for maintained and academy schools

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/inspecting-schools-guide-for-maintained-and-academy-schools?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=govuk-notifications&utm_source=2258ca76-9ab2-47c3-91b4-31779b17cbed&utm_content=immediately

Inspecting schools: a guide for parents

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1014569/School_inspections_-_a_guide_for_parents.pdf

Lead person to contact in the LA:

Linda Brown
School Improvement Senior Advisor
07812 494965
Linda.brown@wolverhampton.gov.uk


Safeguarding


Education Provider’s Safeguarding Group update

Brief overview of the discussions had at the Education Provider’s Safeguarding Group on the 19th July 2021

  • Section 175/157
  • Sexual Harassment in schools and colleges
  • Escalation Policy
  • Escalation Policy Survey

Bulletin Link - https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/UKWCC/bulletins/2ec0f63

Lead person to contact in the LA:

Amy Dunn-Donachy
WST Administrator
Amy.dunn-donachy@wolverhampton.gov.uk


Training and consultation


Reminder – Upcoming Equalities CPD

Delegate places for the following training are bookable via WVES:

September 14 – 13:30-15:30: Understanding Disadvantage in your School or Setting Context. This session is suitable for all school and setting types. Book here: https://wves.wolverhampton.gov.uk/Event/145869

September 16 –13:00-15:00: Equalities and Curriculum. This session is suitable for schools. Book here: https://wves.wolverhampton.gov.uk/Event/145875

Lead person to contact in the LA:

Laura Jude
School Improvement Advisor for Equalities
07973715929
Laura.Jude@wolverhampton.gov.uk


Training networks for  all teachers new to EYFS or those who are receiving children into Year 1 but maintaining  an EY approach in the first term

There is a series of 6 sessions dedicated to high quality EYFS practices. These sessions are suitable for all staff new to EYFS whether they are ECTs or experienced teachers who are new to EYFS. All dates and titles are given on the attached document.  Current Year 1 teachers receiving children from Year R and maintaining an EY approach to teaching and learning might also benefit from this training. Please book your places on WVES.

Lead person to contact in the LA:

Sophie Cross
EYFS Advisory Teacher
Sophie.cross@wolverhampton.gov.uk
07812 494 975


Health and Safety Training courses for schools Autumn Term 2021

Due to Covid-19 most training courses for schools will take place on Microsoft Teams and not in the Civic Centre or at the GTG Training Academy. 

Before the training courses take place, all attendees will be sent an invite to the training via teams. Click here to see all of the training dates. 

Lead person to contact in the LA:

Cyndy Morris
Health & Safety Co-ordinator
01902 554209


Free ‘Building Mental Wellbeing from Reconnection to Recovery’ Virtual Workshop

Active Black Country are delighted to be joined by Barry Carpenter who will provide a free keynote session for schools with thoughts and strategies on how to create a vibrant culture of learning on Tuesday 28th September 3.30pm – 4.45pm.

The workshop is targeted at the Primary, Secondary, Special School and Alternative Provision staff and particularly those working across PE, School Sport and Physical Activity initiatives. Please see the attached flyer to register your free place.

Lead person to contact:

Tim Aldred
Education Lead Active Black Country
tim_aldred@blackcountryconsortium.co.uk 
07943 504573


DfE daily update


1 September – Coronavirus – Daily update to all early years, children’s social care, schools and further education providers- click here.



If you don't have a CloudW account and cannot access a document within this bulletin, please contact Georgia.Smith@wolverhampton.gov.uk who will send it to you.