Schoolsnet Bulletin Board

Please see below information regarding CPR/Bleed Control Training provided by the Midlands Air Ambulance Charity.

The new KCSiE Assurance Declaration is now live. The Keeping Children Safe in Education Assurance Declaration is a requirement of the Gloucestershire Safeguarding Children Partnership (GSCP) covering educational settings legal obligations under Working Together to Safeguard Children 2018, Keeping Children Safe in Education 2022 (KCSiE) and Section 175/157 of the Education Act 2002.

Children & Young People's Mental Health Update.

Gloucestershire County Council is working with Shared Intelligence to understand how young people in Gloucestershire experience their time in education.

The essential guide to choosing education and career options 2023.

Ensure you attend our final Subject Leader Network Meetings this Summer for our English, Science and Maths sessions. If you haven’t already, make sure to book your places.

The Holiday Activity and Food Programme (HAF) is returning this summer for children and young people in reception to year 11, who are eligible for pupil premium free school meals.

Gloucestershire County Council is pleased to announce that the Pupil Wellbeing Survey Report for 2022 is now live! You can access the report on Inform Gloucestershire by clicking here.

Gloucestershire Healthy Living and Learning and NHS Glos have fully funded a special 30-minute mental health and anxiety Year 6/7 Transition Show for students and parents/carers.

Please see below details from the Data Management team regarding collection of assessment data this year.

We have recently updated our Deregistration form to make it as clear as possible if schools have safeguarding concerns, which includes holding a safeguarding file and what to do with it.

There has been a national drop in immunisation uptake following the pandemic, with MMR fallen to its lowest level in a decade and cases of measles have consequently been rising.  There are lots of ways schools can help.

Mangotsfield English Hub is seeking to recruit outstanding primary school teachers with a passion for phonics and early reading to support other schools through working as a Literacy Specialist.

The third and final Attendance Network Meeting for this academic year is taking place at The Pavilion in Cheltenham.  

Please find the latest EO&I Structure Chart below. GLOSSI subscribers will be sent the contact details of their named adviser separately. Non GLOSSI subscribers can email for guidance on matters of statutory advice e.g. safeguarding and statutory assessment arrangements via Glossi@gloucestershire.gov.uk where one of the team will respond to your enquiry.

Our focus this month is on the Children & Young People's Mental Health Navigation Hub - an introduction to the project and early insights from the pilot.

The Banded funding initiative is about allocating funds to settings that will allow creativity and flexibility to achieve outcomes at the earliest opportunity.

Following the Department for Education's consultation on Early Career Teachers (ECT) appropriate body (AB) reform and induction assessment, I confirm that for existing ECTs currently registered with Gloucestershire LA, schools can continue to access AB services through Gloucestershire LA, until 31^st August 2024. 

You will be aware that Gloucestershire Local Authority is currently working with 54 other local authorities and the DfE on the ‘Delivering Better Value in SEND’ (DBV) programme. 

Gloucestershire Hospital Education Service (GHES) has a vacancy on their Management Committee for a community member.

The Office for the Police and Crime Commissioner, Gloucestershire Healthy Living and Learning, and Gloucestershire Safeguarding Children Partnership would very much like to invite you to watch an interactive drama presentation that will be delivered within Gloucestershire schools aimed at Year 9 pupils and funded by the Home Office Safer Streets fund and by the OPPC Gloucestershire.

Our annual conference is at Puckrup Hall this year, on Thursday 22^nd June 2023.

As of this term, Sian Edwards, the current Inclusion Lead for Gloucester and Forest, will be remaining as an Inclusion Lead in the Education Inclusion Service but will be focusing on the wider alternative provision landscape and supporting the AP transformation.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has developed postcard and poster resources to share with parents and carers of those starting school in September, to ensure children are up to date with their immunisations.

The session will focus on the role of the administrator and why safeguarding is integral, including robust front office procedures, roles and responsibilities under the Section 175/157 of the Education Act 2002.

Schools have a key role in keeping children safe and promoting their welfare as part of the legal requirements of the Education Act 2002. The statutory guidance ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education' September 2022 provides a framework for schools to ensure compliance in their operating procedures.

Single Central Record Training dates are now available on the GCC Plus system to book up until July 2024.  Sessions are being delivered each month, so if you haven’t attended in the last 12 months please do book on.

As you will be aware the police have been transitioning to a new, more efficient system to enable Operation Encompass notifications to be sent in a more timely manner so as not to delay schools being advised.

Our focus this month is on Young Minds Matter (YMM) through the work of their  Gloucestershire based Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs). Identification, Prevention and Early Intervention in Schools for Children and Young People aged 5-18 years old is at the forefront of what YMM and their MHSTs offer. 

Welcome to the Summer 23 edition of the Virtual School Newsletter, promoting all areas of our work.

Your pupil number forecast is now available to download; it is a likely indication of your pupil numbers over future years to enable you to plan provision.  This pupil number forecast will be used in assessing basic need, through the school capacity return, to ensure sufficiency of school places throughout the county. It will also be used in any Section 106 agreement negotiations affecting your school. The forecast is available via Perspective Lite.

Your pupil number forecast is now available to download; it is a likely indication of your pupil numbers over future years to enable you to plan provision.  This pupil number forecast will be used in assessing basic need, through the school capacity return, to ensure sufficiency of school places throughout the county. It will also be used in any Section 106 agreement negotiations affecting your school. The forecast is available via Perspective Lite.

When assessment data is received by the LA it will be cross checked against that contained in the B2B data feed and schools will be notified of any potential issues that are identified, for example, different UPN or pupils on roll that have not been included in the return. 

The GLOSSI Governor Network is pleased to welcome Emma Knights OBE, Chief Executive of the National Governance Association (NGA) to our third Governor Network meeting of 2022-23. Emma will be providing the keynote speech at our summer event on 5^th June 2023, 6.30pm-8.00pm on Microsoft Teams.

Early Help and Education Services are engaging with those that use the graduated pathway/approach– a framework that makes accessible a set of direct tools to support the assess, plan, do, review model.  This model was designed to align with processes, pathways and interventions available to CYP/families from a variety of agencies and services.

Services delivering Autism Assessments in Gloucestershire are hosted within Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust. Referrals to the services can be made by any professional working with the child or young person.

National Dementia Action/Awareness Week is 16 – 22 May.  

Gloucestershire County Council is delighted to announce the proposal to combine the alternative provision schools (Gloucester and Forest APS and Severn Valley APS) into a single county-wide school has been approved by Cllr Phil Robinson, Cabinet Member for Education. This will come into effect from 1 September 2023.

The NCETM and GLOW Maths Hub are currently accepting applications for the following CPD opportunities: Primary Mastery Specialist; Secondary Mastery Specialist; Professional Development Lead; and School Development Lead. 

The recently enacted Marriage and Civil Partnership Act 2022 will extend the ambit of the criminal law relating to forced marriage by creating a new offence which makes it illegal to carry out any conduct whose purpose is to cause a child (aged under 18) to enter into a marriage before their eighteenth birthday, whether or not that conduct involves violence, threats or any other form of coercion or deception. In essence, it will now always be illegal to cause a child to marry, whatever the method used, and whether or not the child lacks capacity to consent to marriage.

The Virtual School has released its training plan for the next 12 months to support schools in supporting their vulnerable young people.

Please see the link below for the Alternative Provision Glossary of Terms.

The deadline for nominations has now closed (5:00pm on Friday 17 February 2023).

An opportunity for school leaders and governors to hear key messages relating to these essential documents.  Time is allocated for leaders, including governors, to begin to consider how the prompts and most up to date school information may be used to enable them to refine their own Self Evaluation Forms, and plan for updating it throughout the year.

Please see the link below for the Gloucestershire Academy Trust Development School Sessions.

The news update attached gives information and links for local and national resources for RE. This includes £600 grants for resources for teaching in RE; resources from the Jewish Museum of London;  Birmingham faith visit information; Spirited Arts competition; free RE training for ECTs; updates on national surveys.

Please see below for recent updates including:

• Secondary School Immunisation drop in clinic dates
• Next UKHSA webinar – save the date!
• Reminder of infection prevention resources

As promised attached is the skeleton draft attendance policy for schools to use as the basis of their policy if they wish to. We look forward to seeing you at the Attendance Network Meetings next week.

Attendance Policy - skeleton draft

A reminder to ensure that school office staff use appropriate additional checks where necessary.

Summary of key information relating to Strep A and winter bugs more broadly to assist schools and Early Years settings for the new term:

• Webinar Thursday 5th Jan at 4pm on managing Group A Strep
• Simple messages to share with parents from our local NHS partners on managing winter bugs in children
• Guidance from UKHSA on how schools and EY settings should respond to cases and outbreaks of Strep A (including Scarlet Fever and iGAS)
• Guidance from UKHSA on how schools and EY settings should respond to cases and outbreaks of winter bugs (respiratory and diarrhoea & vomiting)
• Helpful posters
• UKHSA contact details and helpline.