Notice: 14 January 2021

A round-up of news, guidance and key updates for education settings.

Included in this update

In today’s edition of the education noticeboard you will find information from the DfE about the National Scheme for Free School Meals which starts on Monday 18 January 2021. Please do make sure to take a look at the article to find what you need to do before Monday so that you can access the scheme. Many thanks to schools who returned the FSM survey that was sent out earlier this week. As you are aware FSM has featured heavily in the media and your responses were invaluable so we understood our local picture. The majority have been delivering FSM via vouchers with some offering packed meals. It is our understanding that schools will be reimbursed for this from the DfE (as specified in the national guidance, which is detailed below) although it is not yet clear how you claim!

Another key focus this week has been access to technology, please take a moment to check out the information that is provided around access to laptops, data and 4G wireless routers. In addition I will also be sending another (sorry!) ’quick survey’ so we can ascertain key gaps in terms of access to devices.

For primary schools, please find information below about staff testing. There are DfE webinars to attend next Monday and Tuesday.

Finally, the Early Years team have included ideas for providers and schools about how to support learning at home, including a downloadable resource with activities. We also include information around the Nuffield Early Language Intervention programme which is a free programme aimed to support language development.

Thank you once again for your support over the past week.

Simon Wellman
Director: Education and Skills

Coronavirus (COVID-19) staff testing in primary schools

DfE Update - Added 15 January 2021

On 13 January 2021 we confirmed that primary schools, including school-based nurseries and maintained nursery schools, should expect to receive a delivery of home testing kits from 18 January 2021 for testing of staff. If you have not received a delivery by close on Monday 25 January 2021, or have missing or damaged items, please complete this contact form. You will need the URN for your school or college to complete this form. You do not need to start any testing before the week commencing 25 January 2021.

Primary schools including school-based nurseries will receive sufficient test kits to test their primary and early years staff. Maintained nursery schools will also receive testing kits to offer to their staff. Private early years providers will be eligible for regular asymptomatic coronavirus (COVID-19) testing through local community testing programmes.

Together with NHS Test and Trace, we will be hosting a series of webinars for primary schools that will provide information on testing and discuss any issues that may arise, we will also publish guidance. Each webinar will last for 60 minutes and there will be an opportunity to ask questions.

Each webinar has a maximum capacity of 10,000 attendees.

The webinars will be repeated, and recordings made available online. You will only need to attend one on each topic. They will be available on the following dates (click on the link to join):

Introduction to testing in primary schools.

Reporting and recording of results.

We strongly encourage primary schools to attend these webinars. If you have any difficulties logging in, then it is very likely that we have reached the maximum capacity. If you are unable to attend the live webinar, recordings of these events will be uploaded onto the Department for Education YouTube page. We will provide links to these in a future email, once they are available.

Guidance for special schools, special post-16 providers and alternative provision

DfE Update - Added 15 January 2021

We have published additional guidance for special schools, specialist post-16 providers, and alternative provision (including hospital schools) during the national lockdown period.

It should be read alongside the main guidance documents: Restricting attendance during the national lockdown: schools and Guidance for full opening: special schools and other specialist settings, which cover the main operational issues.

The guidance provides information on safety and workforce, recording attendance, Education, Health and Care plans, and funding. We know that children and young people in alternative provision and special settings, and their families, can be disproportionately impacted by being out of their normal setting. For some of these children and young people, remote education cannot meet their needs as effectively as face-to-face provision. We have published this guidance to include information on providing on-site provision for these pupils and students wherever possible and appropriate.

National Scheme for Free School Meals

DfE guidance on providing school meals during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak makes it clear that, for pupils in school, meals should be available free of charge to:

all infant pupils
pupils who meet the benefits-related free school meals eligibility criteria

Schools should still provide support for children eligible for benefits-related free school meals who are at home during term time. Schools can work with caterers to provide food parcels if this is their preferred option.

If schools decide to provide food parcels then they will be able to claim additional funding of £3.50 per week for each eligible pupil receiving food parcel provision at home. Advice on what should be in the parcels is included in the full guidance.

Schools can also use local voucher schemes and can claim to be reimbursed up to £15 per eligible FSM pupil per week.

Any food parcel or local voucher scheme costs incurred by schools until the national voucher scheme is open will be reimbursed:

‘Schools should be assured that valid claims for costs will be met in full.’

The guidance references other press releases in terms of support for families: the Holiday Activities and Food programme, and the Covid Winter Grant Scheme. These schemes will cover provision over the February half term and schools will not need to make provision.

The National Voucher Scheme

Schools should receive an email by 14 January 2021 (today!) advising how to reset passwords or activate an account for the first time. Schools can then:

order a single voucher to cover multiple weeks, for example, a £30 voucher to cover one eligible child over 2 weeks;
order a single voucher to cover more than one eligible child within the same household, for example, £60 to support 2 eligible children over 2 weeks;
set a weekly £15 rolling voucher, up to the week commencing 8 February 2021.

Schools are advised to submit one spreadsheet to order eCodes for all eligible families to speed up processing.

Once the voucher value is confirmed schools can:

send an eCode directly to the parent or carers of the pupils(s) eligible for free school meals -they will need to choose an eGift card from a range of supermarkets;
select an eGift card on the parent or carer’s behalf, and print and post the eGift card to them;
select an eGift card on the parent or carer’s behalf, print the eGift card and arrange for families to collect it or deliver it to them in person.

The Edenred system can send redemption codes directly to parents. It will monitor where emails have not been successfully delivered.

Alternatively, schools can choose a supermarket on a families behalf and post eGift cards if families do not have email addresses.

The supermarkets available through Edenred are Aldi, Iceland, McColl’s, Morrisons, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Waitrose, M&S, Company Shop Group.

Schools are still able to purchase vouchers from other supermarkets and claim back the costs.

As before, families can redeem vouchers by presenting it on a smartphone, tablet or on paper.

Full Guidance: Providing school meals during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

Get Help with Technology

Access to the DfE ‘Get Help with Technology’ site has now being given to the Headteacher for each maintained school. You will therefore be able to request mobile data or 4G routers directly. You will have received an email from the DfE on Wednesday evening giving you details. You will also be able to nominate someone else to hold this responsibility by going directly to the Get Help with Technology website.

Get help with technology

Use this service to:

tell us (DfE) who will place orders for laptops and tablets
give others in your organisation access to the services they need
see device allocations
increase children’s internet access

If you have difficulty with access, please contact Andy Cooke by email: andy.cooke@telford.gov.uk.
Please ensure you include the email address of anyone you would like to have access to this site.

Lockdown Learning Kids support package

In partnership with the Department for Education and thanks to teams across BT Enterprise and Consumer, the Lockdown Learning Kids support package has been launched, giving free, unlimited mobile data to disadvantaged families in England until July 2021.

This new programme is a continuation of the work we’ve been doing since March to support our customers who need us most, and it supports our Skills for Tomorrow ambition to give millions of school children the digital skills they need for a brighter future.

Families can apply through their children's school.

BT announces ‘Lockdown Learning’ support scheme for kids and families

Get Internet access: Schools, trusts and local authorities can help disadvantaged children get online using free mobile data increases or 4G wireless routers provided by the Department for Education. You can request this support for children and young people who meet all 3 of these criteria:

do not have fixed broadband at home
cannot afford additional data for their devices
are experiencing disruption to their face-to-face education

Increasing data allowances on mobile phones

This scheme temporarily increases data allowances for mobile phone users on certain networks. This will allow other devices to connect to the internet via a mobile phone so children and young people can access remote education if their face-to-face education is disrupted.
This support is now available to all schools with children in years 3 to 11.

How to request a mobile data increase

4G wireless routers

Schools, trusts and local authorities in England can request more 4G wireless routers for disadvantaged children in years 3 to 13 who are experiencing disruption to face-to-face education and do not have a broadband connection or access to the internet at home.
The process for ordering 4G wireless routers is different to that for ordering laptops and tablets. Routers may be dispatched separately to any laptops and tablets you order, and may arrive at a later date.
How to order 4G wireless routers
If you've already received routers or are waiting for a delivery, please read the guidance on preparing 4G routers for information on technical support, security and data limits.

Supporting EYFS children with Catch Up Funding

The Nuffield Early Language Intervention is a 20-week programme proven to help young children overcome language difficulties. It is designed for children aged 4-5 years and combines small group work with one-to-one sessions delivered by trained teaching assistants, targeting vocabulary, narrative skills, active listening and phonological awareness. Developed by a team led by Maggie Snowling and Charles Hulme, the intervention has been evaluated in robust trials funded by the Education Endowment Foundation and the Nuffield Foundation. These have found it to be effective for improving children’s oral language skills as well as promoting longer-term progress in reading comprehension.

The Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) is designed to improve the spoken language ability of children in reception classrooms.
It is targeted at children with relatively poor spoken language skills.
Teaching Assistants are trained in how to develop children’s language skills.
Clear lesson plans are provided to save preparation time.
Materials for children are bright and accessible.
Three 30-minute sessions per week are delivered to groups of five children during the Spring and Summer terms (20 weeks).
Children also attend an additional two 15-minute individual sessions per week.
All sessions focus on listening, narrative and vocabulary skills.
Work on phonological awareness is introduced in the final ten weeks.

For more information see NELI: The Nuffield Early Language Intervention.

Next set of online Teaching Assistant training see:-

Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI): Training for Teaching Assistants

Supporting home learning for children in the EYFS

Supporting the home learning environment is an important activity at all times, however during this period of pandemic it is even more important especially for our youngest children.

‘Parents/carers are children's first and most effective motivators for learning. The key to keeping young children’s natural curiosity alive is for parents to take an interest in everything their child does and to talk about it together. Evidence shows that there is a positive impact on children’s development and on their education where parents or carers have higher aspirations for their children and engage actively with them through conversation, reading and play. (Desforges and Abouchaar, 2003)

The research report provides further evidence to support the importance of the early home learning environment for children in the EYFS.

Provider influence on the early home learning environment
(EHLE)

The Early Years Team have created a resource sheet with many ideas and links to aid parents/carers to help them to support their children’s learning:-

Download: Ideas for Home Learning

The Government have supported home learning through their the Hungry Little Minds website

Hungry Little Minds – Simple fun, activities for kids aged 0 – 5

For more information please contact us by email on: talkingchildcare@telford.gov.uk

Spring 2021 school census

Information provided from the DfE

We have used the last week to speak with the users of the January and February data collections to ensure that they remain critical and feasible to return and we have engaged with sector representatives to understand any difficulties that would be encountered. Feedback has suggested that for those collections already planned, the majority of schools and LA’s should still be able to make a return and the data is valued not just by the department but also by the sector. In light of this feedback, we intend to progress with our pre-planned data collections as normal. Timescales will remain as scheduled but we do understand that there may be individual circumstances that make this difficult to comply with – if this is the case we will be asking schools and LA’s to let us know as soon as possible so that we can support. Whilst most of the School Census requires details of pupils on roll, additional guidance will be provided by the end of the week to help you provide data for other items such as school meals and class activity. To help you prepare, it is likely that this guidance will explain about how we will require details of what you would expect or what would be timetabled if schools was open as normal.

Once we have received the updated guidance from the DfE, we will of course send out guidance notes for you.

If you have any further enquiries please contact: Eileen.finnigan@telford.gov.uk

SEND News – New on the SEND Local Offer

Have you been wondering what’s happened to the SEND Newsletters?

Over the last term we have been sharing key messages with SENCO’s through the Education Noticeboard. During this time we have received feedback to say that the SEND Newsletter has been missed – we are pleased to announce a new section on the SEND Local Offer: SEND News!

SEND News will be updated regularly, on a monthly basis we will release a message on the Education Noticeboard to say that the page has been updated. The page will be available view all the time so you can visit as much as you like to see the new articles that have been added.

The SEND News page includes the same sections that existed in the SEND Newsletter:

Top Tips
SEND Training Courses
Educational Resources
Early Years
Schools
Preparing for Adulthood
Parent/Carer News

We would love to hear any feedback about the SEND News pages and we would like to work with you to develop the pages further.

What would you like to see featured on these pages?
What type of articles do you enjoy reading?

To share your feedback please contact us by email: localoffer@telford.gov.uk

SEND News – January 2021

All CPD courses running online until February Half Term 2021

Further details of all of our courses can be found in the CPD Booklet, available on the Telford Education Services website. For the majority of courses bookings continue to be made in the normal way by completing a CPD booking form and sending it via email to cpdschoolimprovement@telford.gov.uk

CPD courses up to February half term.
Child Protection Supervision (SG 203)	Monday 18 January 2021 (two places remaining)	9.30am to 12.30pm
Newly Qualified Teacher Development Group: Supporting and Accelerating your Progression (CPD 522)	Wednesday 20 January 2021	4pm to 5.30pm
Taking the Chair – four parts (GO 504)	Wednesday 20 January 2021 Wednesday 24 February 2021 Wednesday 24 March 2021 Wednesday 21 April 2021	4pm to 6.30pm
Preventing and Dealing with Racist Bullying (CPD 533)	Wednesday 20 January 2021	1.15pm to 4pm
Teaching children with SEND - meeting the need (LSAT 508)	Monday 25 January 2021	4pm to 5.30pm
Online Safety – a Safeguarding Responsibility (CPD 609)	Tuesday 26 January 2021	4pm to 5.30pm
Ensuring the EAL provision provided by support staff in primary schools to meet the needs of all pupils (CPD 713)	Wednesday 27 January 2021	1.15pm to 4pm
Newly Appointed Designated Safeguarding Leads' Training (2 days) (SG 102) (Face to Face currently planned)	Wednesday 27 January Thursday 28 January 2021	9.15am to 3.30pm
Supporting SEND in the classroom - for newly qualified teachers (LSAT 502)	Monday 1 February 2021	1.15pm to 4pm
EAL and Maths (CPD 603)	Tuesday 2 February 2021	3.30pm to 6pm
Induction & NQT mentor network and update (CPD 516)	Tuesday 2 February 2021	4pm to 5.30pm
Safer Recruitment Training (this course should be booked via Human Resources)	Wednesday 3 February 2021	9am to 4.30pm
Preparing for Statutory Assessment at the End of KS2 (CPD 504)	Wednesday 3 February 2021	9am to 12.30pm
Designated Safeguarding Leads Refresher (SG 107) (this course must be booked via Ollie)	Thursday 4 February 2021	10am-11.30am
Awareness Raising of Emotion Coaching (PSS 0041)	Thursday 4 February 2021	4pm to 5.30pm
Preparing for Statutory Assessment at the End of KS2 (CPD 504)	Thursday 4 February 2021	9am to 12.30pm
SENCO Network Meeting (LSAT 227)	Thursday 4 February 2021	4pm to 5.30pm
Emotional Based School Refusal: Using applied psychological principles (EPS 203)	Friday 5 February 2021	1.15pm to 4pm
SEND: Building Capacity in your school part 2 (LSAT 403)	Tuesday 9 February 2021	3.45pm to 5.15pm
Teaching and delivering outstanding EAL provision for 'new to English' pupils and advanced bilingual learners in primary schools (CPD 712)	Tuesday 9 February 2021	1pm to 3.30pm
Newly Appointed Safeguarding Governor Induction Training (SG 103)	Wednesday 10 February 2021	5pm to 7.30pm
Meeting the OFSTED requirements and developing reading strategies for EAL learners at KS2 (CPD 714)	Wednesday 10 February 2021	3.30pm to 6pm
Understanding and managing your school budget (GO 508)	Thursday 11 February 2021	9.15am to 12noon
Meeting the Statutory Safeguarding and Welfare Requirements of the EYFS (EY 009)	Thursday 11 February 2021	4pm to 5.30pm

Sue Dyson
Traded Service Specialist
School Performance and Development
Email: sue.dyson@telford.gov.uk

For bookings please email cpdschoolimprovement@telford.gov.uk

Management of Actual or Potential Aggression (MAPA) Training

Management of Actual or Potential (MAPA) training is designed to enhance your understanding and management of disruptive, aggressive, and / or violent behaviour.

We currently offer two Management of Actual or Potential(MAPA) training courses:

Full MAPA (BSAT 201), held over two days
MAPA Refresher training (BSAT 212)

Full MAPA training: Due to the current national lockdown, and our associated inability to run face to face training at this time, the next Full MAPA course scheduled for 21 and 28 January 2021 has had to be cancelled. However, there are three further courses running during this academic year and these are detailed below. Places are currently limited to 12 delegates per course.

MAPA Refresher training needs to be attended every 12 months following Full MAPA training in order to maintain your licence.

MAPA Refresher training builds on the foundation established in the Full MAPA training programme. The training provides staff with the opportunity to develop a more meaningful understanding of how programme concepts apply to their work within education settings. Over time staff build confidence in their ability to apply training concepts effectively and safely as they face various and ever-changing realities.

MAPA Refresher training courses are being run online in partnership with the accrediting body CPI for the remainder of this term. The course comprises a series of online learning modules focused on de-escalation theory, followed by a virtual classroom competency assessment led by course tutor, Helen Fox.

Full MAPA (BSAT 201)

Full MAPA training dates
Thursday 18 March 2021 (part 1) Thursday 25 March 2021 (part 2)	8.30am to 4pm 8.30am to 12.30pm
Thursday 29 April 2021 (part 1) Thursday 6 May 2021 (part 2)	8.30am to 4pm 8.30am to 12.30pm
Thursday 24 June 2021 (part 1) Thursday 1 July 2021 (part 2)	8.30am to 4pm 8.30am to 12.30pm

MAPA Refresher (BSAT 212)

MAPA Refresher training dates
Thursday 11 March 2021 (currently full)	9am to 12.30pm
Thursday 13 May 2021	9am to 12.30pm
Thursday 8 July 2021	9am to 12.30pm

If you have any concerns or queries regarding behaviour management or, more specifically, about MAPA training, please send an email to BehaviourSupportAdvisoryTeam@telford.gov.uk and one of the Behaviour Support Team will contact you. Please book you place/s by completing a CPD booking form and returning to cpdschoolimprovement@telford.gov.uk

Update on Arthog Wales and Outreach Outdoor Education Provision

This statement is for the period up to and including the 17 July 2021 (end of Summer Term 2021)

With the deterioration of the coronavirus situation, Telford and Wrekin Council continues with its supportive and flexible approach to scheduled bookings. While there remains hope that the situation will improve through the spring, a decision has been taken for the remainder of the academic year. This is to allow schools to plan ahead and communicate with parents/carers. This update takes into account the July DfE Guidance for Schools for September 2020 and January 2021, further updates from T&WC and the DfE’s expected review of Educational Visits in February 2021.

The teams from Arthog Wales, Arthog Outreach and Sky Reach High Ropes continue to be ready to provide opportunities for children and young people to have in the fun in the outdoors, whilst learning at the same time. Day activities have recently included canoeing on the Montgomery Canal and Simpsons Pool, hill walking on The Wrekin and around Llanymynech, climbing at Grinshill, exploring woods, fields and hedges including Corbett Woods, and into Short Wood for a Stone Age experience complete with deer. Team-building and tower climbing days have also been held in school grounds. There are still plenty of Covid-secure opportunities to look forward to - and new ones being found all the time!

Arthog Outreach is open for non-residential activities on school sites and in their local environments including for Vulnerable Learners and children of Critical Workers.
Arthog Wales residential provision

Arthog Wales is preparing to reopen its residential provision when the Government Guidance allows and with Covid-19 safe operating conditions. Arthog residential provision is now closed until 5 April 2021

Arthog Wales alternative non-residential provision

Arthog Wales is offering an alternative non-residential Arthog outdoor education experience in the school and local environment. A daily fee of £210-230 per group of 10 participants will apply, and will replace the residential fee. This is in collaboration with Arthog Outreach, but involves Arthog Wales Outdoor Educators.

Payment of Course fees up to 17 July 2021

Arthog Outreach will invoice as normal.
For Arthog Wales, up to and including 17 July 2021 all invoicing and journal transfers according to standard booking conditions, will be suspended.
To support our schools with changes in circumstances/courses instead of invoices being issued 6x weeks prior to a course start dates, invoices will be issued after a course has taken place and will be based on the actual numbers attending.
This temporary measure will be in place to the end of the Summer Term 2021.
For bookings from 18 July 2021 our Booking Form Terms and Conditions will apply, including the cancellation policy

Summer Term 2021

Arthog Outreach is open for non-residential activities on school sites and in their local environments.
Arthog Wales is planning to fully reopen. In the event that Arthog Wales cannot fully reopen it will offer;
A residential experience at the Centre based on the National and Council Guidance applicable at the time to ensure a CV-19 Secure operation,
and/or
An alternative Arthog outdoor education experience in the school and local environment. A daily fee of £210-£230 per group of 10 participants will apply, and will replace the residential fee.

Rescheduling your booking with Arthog Wales

If you are due to attend in the Spring/ Summer Term 2021 and you would like to discuss an alternative outdoor education experience at your school/ local environment please get in touch with Arthog Wales. A daily fee of £210-£230 per group of 12 participants will apply, and will replace the residential fee.
Or you would like to discuss an alternative date for a residential then please contact Arthog Wales. Options include school holiday periods and weekends. [Please note we only have limited opportunities for postponement and are managing these by a case by case basis].

Individual Cancellations up to 17 July 2021

For some families, priorities will have completely changed under the current circumstances as a result of the Coronavirus.

Therefore:
If a school or group wants to continue to hold onto their existing booking slot, but due to the coronavirus individual parents want or need to cancel their child due to attend, we will not invoice for any reduction in their booked places.

Schools and groups would therefore be in a position to issue refunds against any monies collected from that parents cancelling their child’s place, without being invoiced for these reductions.
If parents, who have previously cancelled then wish for their children to re-attend, then that school will be invoiced for those places, subject to our capacity at that particular time

Contacting Us

We will refer any individual queries we may receive from parents back to the schools concerned.
We are continuing to work office hours. As we may not be working at our usual place of work, email is the best way to contact us.
You can also view our latest posts on our Facebook pages and on our websites

Arthog Outreach

Arthog Outreach Facebook

Contact details:

Outdoor Education Service
Outdoor Services Manager & Education Visits Adviser - jo.barnett@telford.gov.uk

Arthog Wales
General Enquiries and bookings - info@arthog.co.uk
Centre Manager – mark.youd@telford.gov.uk
Administration – elizabeth.cheese2@telford.gov.uk
Outdoor Ed Programmes – mark.bramich@telford.gov.uk

Arthog Outreach
Centre Manager – alan.braybrooke@telford.gov.uk
Administration – angela.meakin@telford.gov.uk

Reminder - Nominations for The High Sheriff of Shropshire’s Outstanding Young Citizen Awards 2021

Reminder that nominations for The High Sheriff of Shropshire’s Outstanding Young Citizen Awards 2021 are still being accepted and will close at midnight on Thursday 25 of February 2021.

We have already received some wonderful recommendations, but we know there are more amazing young people in the county that we can recognise at this event. I appreciate it is a difficult time for us all right now but I do think it is more important now more than ever that we acknowledge and celebrate our young people who are going above and beyond.

For more information on how to make a nomination please take a look at the Education Noticeboard: 26 November 2020.

Farmvention Competition 2021 – Climate Superheroes

This year’s National Farmers’ Union Farmvention competition is open to primary and secondary school children. The aim of the competition is to identify Britain’s Climate Superheroes, inspiring climate action and bringing the world of food and farming into the classroom.

The focus of the competition this year is climate change. Entrants are challenged to develop an invention, innovation or idea that would help British farmers care for the environment and reduce their impact on the climate.

To help with this, the NFU has created brand new interactive 3D farm tours; children can meet Blackbrook Longhorn cattle, get inside the cab of a combine harvester, see how cows are milked and fed using robots, and find out how The Small Robot Company develops robots to zap weeds and map farms using artificial intelligence. You can find more details on the Farmvention website .

Visit the Farmvention website for more details about how to enter this year's competition.

Entries close on Monday 31 May 2021.

For more information please contact the Climate Change & Sustainability team, Telford & Wrekin Council: 01952 380132

This entry was posted by Marianne on Wednesday, 13 January 2021.

About

Every week during term time we publish a new update for the education community. It includes essential briefings and specialist information about education.

Site Feed

Education Noticeboard

Education Noticeboard