Education Matters - July 2024

Dear Colleagues, 

As we approach the end of the 2023/24 academic year, I would like to thank all of you for your hard work to support children and young people in West Sussex over the past year. This year has brought with it new challenges to overcome, and many successes to celebrate. I am personally grateful for the warm welcome that I received from colleagues across the County when I began my role as Assistant Director of Education & Skills in March 2024.

This edition is reflective, providing a moment to celebrate the successes and improvements that we have seen this year. I hope that this edition of Education Matters encourages you to reflect upon the positive progress made in your own settings, as well as thinking ahead to how you might further support West Sussex children and young people in the next academic year.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a safe and restful summer break, and I look forward to working with you in the next academic year.

Best wishes,

Claire Hayes

Assistant Director of Education and Skills

Thought-Full in SEND schools: The Ways to Wakehurst Project

This year, students and staff from Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee School, Horsham, and Woodlands Meed School, Burgess Hill, partnered up with Thought-Full Mental Health Support Teams (MHST) and Kew Wakehurst to attend 5 wellbeing workshops, based around the NHS’s 5 ways to wellbeing: Give; Connect; Take Notice; Keep Learning; and Be Active.

Across their five sessions, the pupils from each school took part in activities led by Thought-Full MHST practitioners, which focused on one of the 5 Ways to Wellbeing. They then went out into the Kew Wakehurst site to further build on the same themes with the garden’s learning and participation team, hearing the sounds, smelling the scents, and seeing the many colours around them.

Pupils made thank you cards, to give gratitude to their chosen recipients, they learnt how to build bee houses, and they kept active with a dance session by the bee mound. They connected with one another by sharing their favourite hobbies and interests, whilst holding onto a piece of string to show the many connections they form and, finally, they took notice of the wonderful nature all around them at Kew Wakehurst’s beautiful site.

All the pupils had a fabulous time and, upon their return to school, their parents, the staff who work with them and peers around them noticed how much of an impact the project had on their wellbeing. These pupils' experience highlights the importance of taking some time to connect, give, keep learning, stay active and take notice.

Building and celebrating positive working relationships - Virtual School celebrations

In this article, we hear from Carrie O'Rourke, Assistant Head of The Virtual School, on the Virtual School's in-person training sessions, and the positive impact that these have had on their professional relationships. 

Emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic with a refreshed understanding of the importance of strong working relationships, the Virtual School always seek opportunities to provide in-person training to schools and educational settings where possible. 

The positive impact of the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme

The HAF programme provides activities and free nutritious meals for children and young people who are eligible for benefits-related free school meals, or who are otherwise identified as vulnerable.

The HAF programme provides a vital lifeline for those in need during the school holidays, ensuring that children and young people can all engage with stimulating activities and access a nutritious meal. In this article, Laura Furminger, Partnership Officer (HAF) explains the positive impact that HAF has made this year in West Sussex. 

Delivering the Duke of Edinburgh Award in West Sussex

West Sussex County Council are proud to be one of the few local authorities to hold a full licence to deliver The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award (DofE). This allows us to support over 40 DofE centres in the County to offer the programme to young people from Year 9 until their 25^th birthday. The centres range from secondary schools, open DofE centres and youth groups to children’s homes and our SEND schools.

During 2023/24, over 2,000 young people started their DofE, whilst 896 young people achieved their full award. In doing so, those young people gave over 27,000 hours of volunteering time to their communities, equating to over £140k of social value. This is not only a phenomenal achievement but also testament to the difference our young people make in West Sussex and their individual communities. We would like to congratulate all our young people on such a fantastic achievement, and to the adult staff and volunteers who give their time to support those young people in achieving their award. For schools wanting to find out more about this programme, please contact our Learning Outside the Classroom team by emailing dukeofedinburgh.award@westsussex.gov.uk.

The Multiply Programme

The Multiply programme has now entered it’s third year after a very successful second year, during which our delivery partners engaged with 1562 learners.

In this article from Richard Bromfield, Programme Officer in the Multiply team, we learn more about the programme and the team's plans for next year. 

School Finance

Schools Financial Services (SFS) are proud to report that the close down of all schools' 2023/24 financial year in Bromcom Finance was achieved in record time.

Having a cloud based system enabled close-downs to be completed quickly, and working closely with Bromcom and West Sussex schools during the year, in order to prepare for the end of year, had a beneficial effect. We would like to thank School Business Professionals in all West Sussex schools, as well as the team at Bromcom, as we appreciate all the hard work that leads up to year end. 

Bromcom improvements in 2023/24

This academic year, the Education Systems Intelligence Team (ESIT) has worked with Bromcom and our maintained schools to enhance statutory processes.

For School and School Workforce Censuses, we have worked closely together to use the MIS to significantly reduce the error and query count, which has enabled time and resource savings in schools and for the team alike, giving more time for assisting schools, where necessary.

Primary Assessments (EYFSP and Phonics) data has been extracted from Bromcom Vision Power BI to enable the upload of results for statutory reporting purposes. This has reduced the time and resource burden on schools to send the data across, making the process more accurate, timely, efficient, and secure.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all schools using Bromcom MIS with these processes and wish you all a lovely summer break. 

A thank you from the Education, Business and Communications team

The Education, Business and Communications team would like to take a moment to reflect on the work completed this year to support schools and early years settings.

The team have been taking time away from their desks to visit School Business Professional locality groups across the County, to gather useful feedback on how our regular communications are working for schools and identifying any improvements that schools would like to see for the WSSfE website. We would like to pass on our thanks to all the locality groups that have welcomed us to their meetings and been so helpful in sharing their experiences with us. We look forward to speaking to more groups in the autumn and bringing colleagues from other teams with us to discuss services they provide to schools.

As always, if you would like to provide any feedback or need any assistance, please do not hesitate to contact the team on school.services@westsussex.gov.uk.

Introducing West Sussex Services for Education

This year has seen the addition of early years and childcare providers to the SLA Online platform, previously known as West Sussex Services for Schools. This change has required a review of the platform structure to accommodate a new “front door” for these user groups, along with the introduction of an online payment system for use by our non-maintained settings.

Existing users will have seen the rebrand of the site from West Sussex Services for Schools (WSSfS) to West Sussex Services for Education (WSSfE) on 17 June 2024, and academies and independent schools now have the option to pay for their training by card.