Education Providers' Bulletin

Tuesday 21 September 2021

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. Public Health
3. Early Years
4. Information
5. Training and Consultation
6. DfE daily update

Message from Phil Leivers

Dear Colleagues,

We are into day 2 of the Local area SEND inspection and a big thank you to those who have already been involved or are about to be. There are online meetings for leaders and SENCOs later today, and a number of establishments will be having visits from the inspectors. Too early to say how it’s going but inspectors seem confident in our self-evaluation. There is a theme emerging looking at how children and families are supported at times of transition, at all phases.

Secondly, there are two open online meetings on Tuesday 21 September 4.00 – 5.00 pm.

1. For Specialist settings leaders/headteachers  -  Join here
2. For mainstream SENCOs, inclusion leads - Join here

Please can I encourage you to attend the appropriate meeting if possible.

There is also a lot of activity going on in the background to support the 12-15 year old vaccination and its imminent commencement. And again thank you to secondary and special schools for engaging with us and public health to make this happen smoothly.

Phil

Phil Leivers
Phil.Leivers@wolverhampton.gov.uk

Public Health

Vaccination of 12-15 year olds

The guidance for schools on the vaccination of children and young people was released last week. This guidance outlines the vaccination arrangements for healthy 12 to 15 year olds, who will this autumn be offered a first dose of the vaccine.

Vaccinating children should help to reduce the need for children to have time off school and to reduce the risk of spread of COVID-19 within schools, helping to reduce disruption to face to face education this winter.

For further details on the delivery, eligibility, consent and the role of schools, please see the link below:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-vaccination-resources-for-schools/covid-19-vaccination-programme-for-children-and-young-people-guidance-for-schools

Click here to access information/ advise about false and misleading information about the COVID-19 vaccination Programme. 

Lead person to contact in the LA:

Louise Sharrod
Principal Public Health Specialist
Louise.sharrod@wolverhampton.gov.uk

Early Years

Information

Widening the Curriculum Working Party Group - Secondary 

Religious Education practitioner mailing list 

Lead person to contact in the LA:

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

Training and consultation

Autumn Training Brochure  

Please see the attached Education Excellence Autumn Training Brochure.

Lead person to contact in the LA:

Sarah Mcelduff
School Governance Coordinator
Sarah.McElduff@wolverhampton.gov.uk

Secondary Schools - Developing an Inclusive, Accessible and Ambitious Curriculum 

Free SEND/Inclusion Webinars by NASEN

Anna Vrahimi
School Improvement SEND Advisor
anna.vrahimi@wolverhampton.gov.uk

For Secondary Schools

Online training sessions for using Alps

An opportunity for schools to attend and gain confidence and really make the most of Alps as they enter into the new academic year. Please find the links to book both of these meetings below.

Data Session (for data mangers) - https://calendly.com/customer-success-team-alps/alps-subscription-introduction-to-data-group

Education Session (Head & SLT) - https://calendly.com/alps-education/alps-subscription-meet-the-education-team-groups

Repeated: Promoting Inclusion from the Early Years

Support Network- Solution Circles

The first of six Solution Circle sessions will be held on Tuesday 28 September 1.45-3.15pm. These sessions offer an opportunity to share experiences and successes and collaboratively problem-solve in relation to any issues or concerns that school staff may experience when creating inclusive environments in the early years. There will be representation from the Educational Psychology Service, Special Needs Early Years, Outreach Service, Speech and Language Therapy Service, Education Excellence and Occupational Therapy.

We encourage school staff to attend as many of the Solution Circles as possible for participation irrespective of whether or not you have an issue or difficulty to raise. We are hoping that this will provide a foundation for sharing good practice and developing a network of support across schools. Please see link for what is a solution circle? And link for dates, times and Microsoft Teams links to access the sessions.

Lead person to contact in the LA

Dr Stephanie Herriotts-Smith
Senior Educational Psychologist stephanie.herriotts-smith@wolverhampton.gov.uk

DfE daily update

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

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.