Schoolsnet Bulletin Board

Primary: For all primary schools and academies

Tuesday 22 May 2018, 9:00am-12:00pm or Wednesday 6 June 2018, 9:00am-12:00pm

Secondary: For all secondary schools and academies

Thursday 14 June 2018. 9:00am-12:00pm

Special Schools are welcome to attend either session.

Refreshments and registration available from 8:45am for a 9.00am prompt start.

Following the success of the recent KS1 and KS2 Assessment and Moderation CPD events, we are running one further event for each Key Stage. These will be run on 17^th April at the National Star College. They are half day sessions at a cost of £60 per delegate.

Date: Weds 25^th April 2018

Time: 7-9.30pm

Venue: Oxstalls University Campus .  This is a free event.

Gloucestershire County Council is supporting the ‘Together we can tackle child abuse’ campaign which is led by the Department of Education.

Date: 19^th April 2018

Times: 09.15-15.30

Venue: The Pavilion, Cheltenham GL51 6PN

Cost: £40 per person to cover administration, venue and refreshment costs which includes lunch.

It has been drawn to our attention that some schools are being approached by an organisation called Milsted Langdon Financial Planning (MLFP) offering to attend the school to provide pension-related information/advisory (or other financial) services for teachers and support staff. The advertising material that they use has the Gloucestershire County Council logo on it, which implies that we endorse them as a company, which we do not. 

The Cheque Book Schools CFR return 2017/18 template is now available to download.

https://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/schoolsnet/school-office/finance/funding-reporting-and-accounting-guidance/financial-reporting-and-returns/

The new statutory guidance for the designated teacher for children in care and previously looked after children has now been published.

The next Secondary Senior Leaders’ Meeting will be held on Tuesday 20^th March 2018, 1.30pm-3.45pm, at The National Star College, Ullenwood, GL53 9QU. 

There has been a recent national increase in notifications of scarlet fever to Public Health England, above seasonal expected levels.

In accordance with the County Catering Contract, the price of a paid school meal will increase to £2.36 from Monday April 16^th 2018.  The County Council reluctantly have to increase the selling price of a school meal due to the increases in the national living wage, food, materials and transport during the last twelve months.

We are seeking the views of headteachers and governors on the proposal to establish a county-wide partnership to improve educational outcomes for all children and young people in Gloucestershire.

The 2018/19 Primary, Secondary and Special Schools Budgets are now available to view:

https://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/schoolsnet/school-office/finance/school-budgets/school-budgets-2018-19/

A nomination has now been received for the Special School Governor seat. No other nominations were received

A complimentary two hour presentation delivered by the Fischer Family Trust (FFT), where you will learn about the key features of the new FFT Aspire, Analyse School Performance (ASP) and Inspection Dashboard Summary Report (IDSR) systems. 

The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) has seen an increase in recent weeks in the volume of what is referred to as CEO Fraud reports whereby schools are the targeted victim. This has resulted in substantial financial losses for several schools that have fallen victim to this type of fraud.

Please find attached the 2018 contact list for Traded Services and other useful contact.

Contact List

In light of the government’s announcement that the sex and relationships curriculum will be updated for the first time in nearly 20 years, the Sex Education Forum has published what it considers the 12 key principles of effective sex education. 

For the majority of NQTs, completed NQT assessment paperwork should be returned to the LA by 19^th March 2018.  Please return the assessments from the Headteacher’s mailbox to: NQTs@gloucestershire.gov.uk

Many of you will be aware that the Children and Social Work Act 2017 (expected to be implemented this year) enhances support for previously looked after children, i.e. children who have left care via adoption, special guardianship or child arrangements orders.

The Standards and Testing Agency (STA) has published guidance for statutory teacher assessment (TA) for the academic year 2018/19.

The multiplication tables check (MTC) becomes mandatory in June 2020 for all pupils in Y4.

All schools which will receive an EYFSP moderation visit during May have now been notified. The Standards and Testing agency  recommend - “Schools should consider sending staff to EYFSP training if they are not receiving a moderation visit in 2018”

Gloucestershire County Council has been reshaping their education service.

Financial year 2017-18 year end closedown timetable is now available to download on the financial reporting and returns page: Financial Reporting and Returns

In the event of your school being used for any local elections this year, please see the attached for details of AMPS Polling Station Charges 2018.

AMPS Polling Station Charges

Please find attached the Gloucestershire Schools Forum - results of nominations

The SEAL Newsletter contains useful information including news updates, practical tips and tools, new research, sharing practice and links to resources.  Previous newsletters are also available. 

The 2018 Gloucestershire local authority (LA) KS1 and KS2 writing teacher assessment moderation plans and the related appeals process can be accessed now via the Statutory requirements for assessment page on GCC Schoolsnet. 

Following national training events for local authorities in autumn 2017, the KS1 and KS2 presentation slides and accompanying materials are now available on NCA tools (‘Teacher assessment’ section). 

At the Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSL) forums last year, Rebecca Richardson from Victim Support spoke about Hate Crime.

Agenda

1. National and Local updates
2. Closing the Gap
3. Governance
4. Curriculum and Assessment
5. EYFS

We want you to know about the second year of completing an independent survey to all children in care and care leavers (aged 4- 25) who are placed by Gloucestershire County Council.

The Society of Cosmetic Scientists (SCS) and L’Oréal are teaming up for British Science Week 2018 to create a special Teach The Teachers event on Thursday 15th March. Teachers will see science in action in a beauty business and we’ll equip them to use the Scrub Up On Science (SUOS) programme in their school.

Adult Education in Gloucestershire are delivering the Level 3 Diploma in Children’s Learning and Development (Early Years Educator). The diploma is designed for people who work in, or want to work with children in Early Years settings, enabling you to work with children from birth to 5 years and gain knowledge of children aged 5-7 years.

Please find attached the Schools Forum Outcome Report from the meeting held on 11 January 2018.

Schools Forum Outcome Report

Primary, Secondary, Special LA maintained only (not Academies)

Internal Audit’s activity within schools is prioritised based on risk and as such, seven primary schools were visited during 2017/18.

Please be aware that updates to the inspection of schools under Section 8 and Section 5 came into effect in January 2018.

You may be aware that the funding for children and young people with additional needs is forecast to reduce in real terms over the next few years but the need is not diminishing. There is a real risk that some children will miss out – their needs will not be understood and they will struggle in the education world. In order to meet this challenge we need to re-think how we work.

Reward Band 3 - £51,369 – £55,755

Full-time position, Secondment

MMG bursaries, Singing Strategy, Cheltenham Festivals workshops, free advice sessions plus opportunities for your students and more are available at Make Music Gloucestershire, the County’s Music Education Hub. Primary   Secondary

To help run activities for Safer Internet Day on the 6 Feb 2018,  Education Packs have been created along with complementary SID TV films tailored for 3-7s, 7-11s, 11-14s, 14-18s. For further information please visit Safer Internet.

The Schools Forum elections which were due to take place in March 2017 were postponed for one year.

Gloucestershire SACRE joins with Herefordshire and Worcestershire for our fourth day for Special RE.

Venue: Adhisthana Buddhist Retreat Centre, Coddington, Hereford.

Following on from last year’s successful launch of the new Gloucestershire Agreed Syllabus for RE, the 2018 conference will be packed with practical and inspiring ideas for implementing the syllabus.  

Venue: Puckrup Hall, GL20 6EL.

Early Years Foundation Stage Profile Moderation Arrangements 2018

Important Process Up-dates

Following the introduction of the Apprenticeship Levy last year we’ve been working with a range of schools and training providers on their requirements and as a result we’ve up-dated the process for schools, the revised version is attached.

A school received a call at the end of last term from a person alleging to be working for Gloucestershire Police, asking if the school would like to advertise in On-Call, an emergency services magazine.

An invoice was subsequently received from a company called The Hannay Partnership Ltd for £175 plus £35 VAT (although the invoice states it is not a VAT invoice).

The Occupational Health department will be moving temporarily to Jordan’s Brook House on Monday 5 February.

Members of staff who have an occupational health appointment planned for February 2018 will be contacted by the dedicated administration team near the time of appointment.

If you have appointed an NQT who has joined your school this term, please complete and return a NQT registration form by 22^nd January 2018 to: NQTs@gloucestershire.gov.uk