A message from Paul Wagstaff,
Director of Education & Skills
14 January 2021
Dear colleagues,
It does seem like every week there is another ‘story of the moment’ linked to schools and the current situation. I am sure I speak for many in thanking you for maintaining calm and working so well with your parent community to establish the routines and home learning support for our young people at this time. Like many things at the moment, guidance is dynamic, often not fully developed and subject to change, and not always communicated in the timely manner we would hope for.
I hope that the following information is helpful in clarifying things for you.
Testing in schools (for school leaders)
Please find attached a letter setting out the council public health position regarding lateral flow testing, from Interim Director Tony Hill.
Waste from lateral flow tests (for premises managers)
The Wastes Management Services at WSCC has put together this document to make it as easy as possible for schools undertaking Covid testing to have the waste from them removed.
Free School Meals (for school leaders)
Further to the update from John Figgins yesterday (13 January), I would ask that schools also consider FSM children isolating as a result of Covid, but who were attending school, are also eligible for the government's Edenred vouchers for the period of school absence. Although the voucher scheme starts on 18 January you are able to backdate vouchers, and full guidance on this is available from Edenred.
Schools are not required to provide parcels or vouchers to UIFSM children who are not in school, only for means-tested FSM children. The government voucher scheme is administered by Edenred and all queries concerning the scheme should be directed at Edenred as the council do not have a direct involvement with this term time voucher scheme
Updated safeguarding guidance/policy (for headteachers and DSLs)
Following the move to remote learning for a large number of pupils, our Safeguarding in Education team has produced two documents for schools:
We will be working closely with children's social care to encourage the highest risk children who have a social worker in to school. Please note that guidance has been provided to our social workers to say that face to face visits to those most at risk should continue.
Information technology (for school leaders)
Colleagues in primary schools have raised concern regarding their ability to order additional IT equipment for their disadvantaged pupils. The DfE has indicated that ordering equipment is currently being prioritised for secondary schools and orders will open in the next few weeks for primary schools in disadvantaged areas first. Whilst I understand a small number of primary schools may have been able to access the system but most have not. At this time we do not know when West Sussex primary schools generally will be invited to apply.
Attendance reporting (for school leaders and business managers)
We recognise that the reporting requirements for school attendance set by the DfE have become more onerous since the beginning of term. It is important to note that much of the information on schools and cases in schools which is used to inform policy making is drawn from this reported data. It is therefore important that schools contribute in order that an accurate picture is represented of what is happening in schools. We have agreed with the DfE that schools do not need to fully complete the free text sections of the form to ease the administrative pressure.
Reporting positive cases (for school leaders and business managers)
We would ask that schools continue to report their positive cases to us via the E&SwelfareGroup@westsussex.gov.uk email. We ask that during this current lockdown you report to us all positive staff cases but only report positive cases of pupils who are in school and not those currently learning remotely.
Next public health surgeries (for school leaders)
Our Public Health & Education teams are aware of how challenging this period has been for many schools and are keen to provide regular events to provide some additional support settings.
With this in mind, they will be running regular surgeries for primary & nursery, secondary and special educational settings in the upcoming weeks. These surgeries for schools will provide the chance to raise issues and ask questions.
To book a place please head to WSSfS, below are the links to the next three of these events:
Managing COVID-19 in Schools - Public Health Surgery (Special) 19th January 2021 13:00 – 14:00
Managing COVID-19 in Schools - Public Health Surgery (Secondary) 20th January 2021 13:00 – 14:00
Managing COVID-19 in Schools – Public Health Surgery (Primary & Nursery) 27th January 2021 13:00 – 14:00
Best wishes
Paul
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