Schoolsnet Bulletin Board

The Standards and Testing Agency (STA) has published information about how schools access 2022 KS2 national curriculum test results, scaled score conversion tables, marked scripts and test papers (click here).  

The Youth Support Team are providing FREE breakfast and meal packs during the upcoming school holiday for families who need them during the weeks.

Active Gloucestershire are working with Shift Yoga to offer 50 teachers and TAs from primary, secondary and special schools in Gloucestershire, the chance to learn yoga so they can use their new found knowledge to support children and young people’s mental health.

The Department for Education (DfE) has launched a consultation on ‘Appropriate body reform and induction assessment: Consultation document’    

Please view the Schools Forum Outcome Report from the meeting held on 16 June 2022.

We know the summer term is a very busy time for schools, which can  put a strain on the wellbeing of staff. We want to remind you that free wellbeing support is available for all schools. Please make your staff aware of how to access it.

If you have appointed an ECT or have an existing NQT joining your school in the Autumn Term, the LA is able to provide your Appropriate Body service. This includes all the administrative requirements, alongside in-school support for your ECF induction processes and bespoke visits where needed.  We offer extensive experience and are here to support you all year round. To register, please access: GCC plus

In July we will be launching the new data from the Pupil Wellbeing Survey on our Pupil inform database. We are holding a number of face-to-face twilight training events across the county to help you understand how to get the most out of your school/college data.

Applications for Holiday Free School Meal Vouchers for the Summer holiday period is now open until midday 12 July. Voucher emails will be sent out between 13 and 14 July.

Schools are requested to submit their GCSE results as soon as possible using the proforma attached.

Please see below information to pass onto all relevant families regarding the Holiday Activity Food Programme (HAF), HAP and food hampers.

Bear Us In Mind has been created to support and provide psychological tools for children who may be experiencing trauma or grief, especially due to displacement and/or bereavement. It is led by Julie Stokes OBE, an expert in palliative care and Founding Patron of children’s charity Winston’s Wish.

Following the Attendance Network meetings, attached are the resources that were used on the day, please use them to support staff development, particularly in relation to the new attendance guidance from the Department for Education.

Gloucestershire has a strategy for improving: awareness of Hate Incidents and Crimes; their impact; the reporting of them; and the responses to both the victim and the perpetrator. The importance for schools is that hate incidents/crimes is bullying directed towards an individual or group because of their identity or perceived identity.

To ensure schools do not miss out on vital communications from the council, they need to inform us when changes to email addresses occur – for example when there is a change of Headteacher or a school converts to an academy.

The Gloucestershire Safeguarding in Education Team (GSEP) will be rolling out training to Administrators in relation to the Single Central Record during the summer holidays.

The aim of these 90 minute sessions is for your administrator/SBM to update their knowledge on the school's single central record (SCR).

Welcome to the Summer 2022 edition of the Children with a Social Worker Newsletter.

We have been notified by Transport for Wales that there is likely to be significant disruption to their services next week stemming from the RMT strike action on Tuesday 21, Thursday 23 and Saturday 25 June. Disruption is expected across the whole UK rail network on days either side of strike days too and will impact pupils traveling by train.

We are delighted to say that the Gloucestershire School Improvement packages for the 22/23 academic year are now live to purchase.

Thank you for your part in making the Pupil Wellbeing Survey 2022 a success. In total, over 24,000 children and young people across the county took part. A great achievement by all during a very challenging period. In July we will be launching the new data from the Pupil Wellbeing Survey on our Pupilinform database. We are holding a number of face-to-face twilight training events across the county to help you understand how to get the most out of your school/college data.

Please see below health protection information provided by Public Health.

Please find attached the Gloucestershire SACRE RE Newsletter which has useful information on recent national developments, training and resources.

We are holding an Open Day for school leavers at Gloucestershire’s Employment & Skills Hub on Wednesday 6 July. Young people can meet and chat to a range of employers, apprenticeship and training providers from a wide range of sectors and industries.

Gloucestershire County Council are working with Coram Voice for the fourth year to carry out an independent survey to all children in care and care leavers (aged 4- 25) who are placed by Gloucestershire County Council.  A huge thank you for those who have already supported children and young people to complete the Bright Spots Survey. By way of an update, we are pleased to share that we have had responses from 50 of our young people.

In partnership with Gloucestershire Parent Carer Forum (GPCF), Gloucestershire County Council and the Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group, we coproduce a newsletter for parents and carers every two months.  Interesting and useful content for professionals also.

This autumn, in line with Government’s Green paper for SEND ‘Right support, right place, right time’ Gloucestershire County Council will be making some key improvements to the EHC pathway which will make it a better experience for all. We are piloting two new digital EHCP portals and a new digital EHCP Audit Tool.

Over the summer holidays, the Children and Families Hub has several different schemes in place to support families. We would like to make you aware of these schemes now so you can pass details onto families early, meaning they are conscious of the support available when considering their plans for the summer.

Laptops and Devices provided by the Department for Education (DfE), through the Get help with technology (GHwT) programme in the 2020-2021 academic year, need to be reset by 30 September 2022 as the mobile device management and content filtering software expires.

We are delighted to share with you the newly published GSCP Working Together to Tackle Exploitation Strategy 2022 to 2025. This is for all agencies that work with children. Please take the time to read it and share amongst your staff. You may wish to consider how you can update your policies and processes to align with this strategy. For more information for all staff to ensure we do work together to tackle exploitation please read on…

In recent years Data Management Team has provided ‘Expected Pupils’ lists in advance of the summer EYFSP, Phonics and KS1 assessments. However, they are now in a position to be able to modify and shorten the process by removing this part of the procedure and in its place utilising the information contained within the data feed (B2B) that schools regularly provide to the LA.

SEND services have reviewed the timeliness of EHCPs and the current approach to progressing plans. Due to continued high demand it has been necessary make key decisions to improve timeliness and services overall. These changes will affect all schools.

As part of the Gloucestershire Safeguarding in Education Teams commitment through Traded Services we would like to offer all Traded Service schools the offer of an annual safeguarding audit from a member of the team.

Many communities have recently welcomed families from Ukraine. A number of schools are also delighted to have received applications for a range of employment roles and are mindful that some of the checks required pose a unique set of challenges due to the current circumstances caused by the recent Russian invasion.

Sixth form and further education (FE) colleges who had a newly qualified teacher (NQT) with qualified teacher status (QTS) who completed their induction between the summer term of 2021 and the spring term of 2022 are eligible for additional funding if they provided these NQTs an additional 5% off their timetable for the 2021 to 2022 academic year to invest in their development.

This year’s event will take place on Thursday 30 June 2022 (10:30 - 16:00) at Sixways Stadium, Worcester (Warrior’s Way, WR3 8ZE).

These sessions are a great opportunity for Subject Leaders in both Primary and Secondary to gain up-to-date knowledge and be able to discuss and reflect upon the latest changes. It will allow teachers to explore practical, classroom-friendly ideas and materials.

Keeping Children Safe in Education 2022 was published on Friday 20 May.  As part of Gloucestershire Safeguarding Children Partnership’s ongoing commitment to Gloucestershire Schools through traded services, we are pleased to announce there will be two short webinars (you will only need to attend one) to go through the changes and what action you now need to take.

Following on from Simon Rowe’s Curriculum Roadshow (taking place on 17^th June), the morning will enable leaders to hear from schools that have successfully developed their curriculum and recently been judged good or outstanding, network with similar size schools and reflect on messages from Simon Rowe’s Curriculum Roadshow.

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

Gloucestershire County Council, in partnership with Social Finance UK, is working to improve the access of information regarding local Gloucestershire services that support children and young people (CYP). The project sets out to build an online Directory that will provide an enhanced solution for education professionals and practitioners who work with CYP. The Directory aims to ensure access to up-to-date, relevant evidence-based services and interventions for CYP in a timely and effective way. 

The Virtual School has produced a newsletter which shares good practice, training and news regarding supporting previously looked after children.

Gloucestershire County Council launches the nationally advertised competition to identify an academy trust to run the new special school to open in September 2023.

The Schools Critical Incident Support sheet has been updated for May 2022.  Schools should familiarise themselves with emergency out of hours procedures including premises and site related emergency contractor call out information previously provided.

If you receive payments from the HMRC during the year relating to the tax free childcare scheme please ensure that the bank details held on your account has been updated.

Are you a Primary or Secondary teacher of mathematics?

Are you interested in developing your own teaching practice further, with the principles of Teaching for Mastery at the core?

Are you interested in working with and supporting other schools as they work on developing Teaching for Mastery in their own classrooms and schools?

Deadline - Friday 20 May at 5.00 pm

Effective information-sharing underpins integrated working and is a vital element of both early intervention and safeguarding.

Tom Hall, Physical Activity Specialist for children and young people at Active Gloucestershire, speaks to Ben Morris, Director of Play at Play Gloucestershire about why play is so important to children and how they should be encouraged to play every day.

Following serious concern over a number of teenage suicides, you will remember that in recent years the Gloucestershire Safeguarding Children Partnership and Suicide Prevention Group have sent out stickers for pupils to put in planners.

Please see below information regarding acute Hepatitis in children and free posters for managing cases of infectious diseases.

The 2022 Gloucestershire local authority (LA) KS1 and KS2 teacher assessment moderation plans, plus related appeals processes, can be accessed now via the Statutory requirements for assessment page on GCC Schoolsnet.