Included in this update:

• Fraud alert
• Transition travel to Secondary School: Webinar
• Services for Education Primary SCITT
• 2021/2022 Safety Services, Educational Visits and Employee Assistance Programme Subscription Renewals
• School Accessibility survey 2021
• BCC Policy and Guidance for Educational Visits and Learning Outside of the Classroom 2021–Newly Revised Policy and Guidance
• stormbreak opportunity for primary schools
• Youth Voice Request
• Hunters Hill College closure, Equipment and Furniture (used) available
• Triple Zero City Strategy Consultation
• I Built - A career in the Construction sector

Fraud alert

We have been made aware that a number of schools have recently been targeted in an email scam. An email is sent purporting to come from the Head Teacher or a senior member of staff and asks finance staff if they are able to process a payment urgently. The initial email in most cases looks like it comes from a legitimate school email address and starts with “Are you on your computer?”. If a response is received, the sender then proceeds to request that an urgent payment be made, but the email address then often changes to a gmail one, containing a different individual’s name.

If you do receive such an email, we advise:

• do not make any payments
• speak to the Head Teacher using a known contact telephone number

This kind of attempted fraud is commonplace so we urge schools to remain vigilant. Further advice can be obtained from the Birmingham Audit Corporate Fraud Team who can be contacted by e-mail (CFTAFT@Birmingham.gov.uk)

Travel to Secondary School: Webinar on 23rd June

You are warmly invited to join us to attend a webinar training session taking place on Wednesday 23rd June, 3.45-4.45pm. The session is available to school teaching staff, governors, parent network groups and community champions with a focus on travel to school for pupils in year 6 and 7. To register your attendance please email: connected@birmingham.gov.uk

One of the major changes for some children when moving from Primary to Secondary School is how they physically get there. For the first time in their lives, children may find themselves walking to school by themselves, cycling, travelling on public transport or a school bus. For most children this will be a hugely exciting step on the ladder of independence and for others it may well be a scary one. We are supporting families and schools in preparing for a different travel experience to their secondary school. Delivered in partnership with Transport for West Midlands, this CPD session will:

• Help you to prepare pupils to travel safely and more confidently in preparation for secondary school
• Provide information to help your pupils learn more about the different types of transport, and the role they can play to influence those around them to travel more sustainably
• Reassurance and explaining how we are keeping pupils safe when travelling to school by public transport. Travelling gives them confidence and independence at this time of their lives. Sharing information on ticketing offers.
• Signpost you to FREE school resources and funding available for schools
• Give you the opportunity to ask questions. We look forward to welcoming you to the session.

Services for Education Primary SCITT

Services for Education Primary SCITT is a small and very bespoke teacher training provider working with schools across Birmingham (Ofsted ‘Good’ – 2019). We have recruited several superb Primary trainees for September 2021 for our one-year QTS programme – would you be able to support one through their journey to QTS?

The Services for Education SCITT strongly believes in creating a ‘best fit’ between the host school and the SCITT trainee, in the belief that they are one of the staff team and a potential employee. Carefully planned induction and expert mentoring are key to their success. If you would like to consider hosting one of our trainees for the coming academic year, or if you would just like to find out more about what our programme entails, please do get in touch – we would love to talk to you. https://www.servicesforeducation.co.uk/scitt-group/scitt/

2021/2022 Safety Services, Educational Visits and Employee Assistance Programme Subscription Renewals

Like previous years, subscriptions to the following packages have been auto-renewed for those schools who subscribed during 2020/2021.

• Education Safety Services
• Educational Visits; and  
• Employee Assistance Programme.

The costs have been kept the same as last year. If your school no longer wishes to subscribe to these services, please email schoolsafety@birmingham.gov.uk by 1st July 2021 informing us which service(s) you want to cancel.  If we don’t receive a notice of cancellation by 5th July, we will assume you wish to continue procuring these services and we will invoice your school before the end of term.

School Accessibility survey 2021 

Improving the accessibility of our schools is a key priority for Birmingham City Council. We are particularly interested in the accessibility plan and facilities within schools. We are surveying the mainstream school estate to understand what facilities are currently available and what support schools may need to improve accessibility (e.g. access to funding).In order to gather this information we are asking you to please complete this BeHeard survey regarding accessibility at your school. 

The survey will be available from Monday 14th June until 12th July at https://www.birminghambeheard.org.uk/people-1/2b879d5f  

This is a survey by Education Infrastructure in collaboration with Physical Disability Support Service.  If you have any queries please contact Kayleigh Hampshire (kayleigh.a.hampshire@birmingham.gov.uk)

BCC Policy and Guidance for Educational Visits and Learning Outside of the Classroom 2021–Newly Revised Policy and Guidance

The policy and guidance for Educational Visits and Learning Outside of the Classroom has been revised.  You can access the newly revised policy and guidance by visiting the BESS website or following the below link. 

https://www.birminghameducationsupportservices.co.uk/Article/87661

Do you want to embed mentally healthy movement into your school’s daily activities?

Sport Birmingham have partnered with stormbreak (www.stormbreak.org.uk/) to bring the opportunity for 10 schools across the city to engage in the stormbreak Surge programme. Stormbreak is a charity that aims to improve children’s mental health through movement and Surge is a 12-week training programme for school staff to equip them with the delivery confidence to incorporate mentally healthy movement strategies into the daily life of the whole school. To find out more about stormbreak watch this video and take a look at our website (www.sportbirmingham.org/stormbreak-surge), if you still have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact their School Operations Director directly at darryl@stormbreak.org.uk.
 
Through partnership funding from Sport Birmingham, the opportunity is available to 10 primary schools to join the training in September 2021 at 50% of the normal cost, just £750. We would encourage all schools who are keen to be involved to send an expression of interest email to schools@sportbirmingham.org

Youth Voice Request

The West Midlands Violence Reduction Unit (WM VRU) and partners across the national Violence Reduction Unit network will be running a conference aimed at unpacking some key themes and challenges our network focuses on. We will be exploring a number of key highlights around the country and identifying ways to build better structures to share learning, and embed a joined up approach across the board. VRUs are partnership organisations that aim to reduce violent crime. They benefit from the expertise of partners in sectors such as public health, criminal justice, sports, education, and policing in order to take on a collaborative approach towards preventing and tackling violence. We acknowledge and want to celebrate our young people and wholly believe in empowering and amplifying young voices.

We would like to feature video clips of young people talking about their views on violence in their communities, how it makes them feel and the kind of change they want to see. We want to hear from all of our young people, with a keen focus on those most affected by violence and those from marginalised communities. We have listed some questions below to prompt conversations. These are only guidelines and we encourage our young people to speak openly around violence in their community and steer the conversation in a direction that feels most natural to them.

1. How does violence in your community make you feel?
2. What issues of violence are currently affecting your community the most?
3. What do you think can be done to reduce violence in your community?

Filming guidance

• Please film in a quiet, well lit space
• Please use the questions above as prompts if needed
• If you are using a phone or tablet to film, please ensure the video is filmed in landscape
• Please email the footage across to our Communications lead (email below). If the file size is too large, please upload the file to WeTransfer and share the download link with our Communications lead.

We would love for you to be a part of this conference and would be very grateful if you could get back to us by end of day Sunday 27th June.  

If you have any further questions, please direct them to the WM VRU’s Communications and Engagement Officer, Shazelle Punjabi (s.punjabi@west-midlands.pnn.police.uk) - M: 07786668339

Equipment and Furniture (used) available

Used items available: Hunters Hill College closure. You may be aware that Hunters Hill College is closing on 31st August 2021.

Equipment and furniture items are available for reuse/redistribution to schools that identify a need. Please follow this link to a list of available items (includes photographs for example) - Items will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. Items are accepted by schools “as seen” and the LA retains no liability or warranty for items; the responsibility is with individual schools to assess the suitability of items for reuse. If you have an interest in any items on the list, please email edsi.enquiries@birmingham.gov.uk

Include the email subject “items from hunters hill”; and in the message include the item ref and the quantity required (e.g. item #14: office chair x3). Requests must be received by email no later than 30th June 2021 and schools are responsible for arranging collection and transportation of any items which must be arranged no later than week ending 16th July 2021. Link to Hunters Hill College information and location: https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/directory_record/307149/hunters_hill_college 

Triple Zero City Strategy Consultation

The Triple Zero City Strategy is Birmingham City Council’s plan on how we think we should tackle drug and alcohol addiction across Birmingham. We want to aim for:  Zero deaths due to drug or alcohol addiction - Zero overdoses due to drug or alcohol addiction - Zero people living with any addiction without the support needed to manage it.

The strategy has been developed using data and information gathered from the areas of need in our City and in partnership with Birmingham City Council, the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner and other statutory partners and service providers. Now we would like to take on board the voices and experiences of citizens and stakeholders; this includes all those who live, work, study and/or socialise in Birmingham. As local schools are key partners for public health, I wanted to get in touch to ask whether you could help with boosting comms to ensure the message gets to as many people as possible? Any ideas or assistance you can provide will be greatly appreciated.

The consultation can be accessed via the following link: https://www.birminghambeheard.org.uk/people-1/triple-zero-city-strategy/ -

We also have a dedicated BCC webpage: https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/info/50118/health_and_wellbeing/2347/triple_zero_city_strategy

I Built - A career in the Construction sector

Thursday 24th June 2021 from 16:00 to 17:30 - REGISTER FOR THE LAUNCH OF NEW CONSTRUCTION INITIATIVE designed to sell the dream of a career in construction toy year 9 students.

A unique collaboration between the construction industry, academia and Reed the UK’s leading recruiter. I Built It aims to help address the construction industry’s skills shortage in the West Midlands region while promoting construction as a career of choice. I Built It will promote career options, jobs and work placements, and professional development opportunities for everyone from seasoned industry professionals to people considering a career in construction. Learn more about this initiative and hear the views of leaders operating in construction, recruitment and academia .

Join us for the start of something that will transform the way construction sector employers, training providers and recruiters collaborate to promote and facilitate rewarding careers in the West Midlands and to help address the sectors skills shortage. Our speaker line-up includes: Chris Hall – Group Managing Director – Acivico Group Julian Beer – Deputy Vice Chancellor of Birmingham City University Robert Russell – Regional Managing Director – Reed Global Mike Leonard – CEO, Building Alliance CIC - To book your free place please follow link