Noticeboard: 10 March 2022

This week's Noticeboard includes information about fundraising for Ukraine, an attendance update, the recording of a recent webinar on caretakers' houses, training opportunities and more.

Included in this update: 

Support for Ukraine

One of the best ways to help people in Ukraine is by donating money via trusted charities and aid organisations – it can reach the areas and organisations that need it much quicker than lorries that have to travel thousands of miles to deliver donated goods. Birmingham City Council is recommending that any citizens or council staff who wish to support the aid effort make their donations through the following routes: 

More information is available through the City of Sanctuary part of the council's website.

VotesforSchools Ukraine Teaching Resource 

In response to the evolving situation in Ukraine, and requests from teachers to create something to help them discuss this with their children, VotesforSchools created an additional resource to supplement their weekly debate. 

To access this resource for your school, please email info@votesforschools.com.

School Attendance Update

Covid addendum

The Department for Education has updated its Covid addendum regarding school attendance to take into account new public health guidance. You can find the document at this link.

DfE education status settings form

The DfE education status settings form has now changed to a weekly collection.  You can find the updated guidance at this link

In February Susan Morris-King, one of Her Majesty’s Inspectors and also Ofsted’s National Lead for behaviour and attendance, reported the main findings of Ofsted’s ‘Securing good attendance and tackling persistent absence’ report via a webinar which gave useful tips and guidance as to school attendance and best practice.  The presentation and useful case studies on effective attendance strategies are available at this link. 

#you'vebeenmissed

Where parents are engaging with the school’s efforts to improve attendance, FAST-track after step one isn’t usually appropriate. Resources on emotionally based school avoidance are available to schools, other professionals, parents, and children at this link - https://bwc.nhs.uk/youve-been-missed  

Caretakers Houses Webinar: Recording and FAQs 

Education Infrastructure would like to thank the schools that attended the Caretakers' Houses Framework Webinar that took place on Friday 18th February 2022.

A recording of the webinar is available at this link.

Please see at this link a document with some Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), together with the answers

At this link is a simple ‘School Site Visit Template’ that schools can use  when carrying out their annual site visit to the caretaker's house.  

Message from Services for Education regarding moderation

Thank you for your support in completing our recent survey to collect school contextual data. This helps us to identify schools for the moderation sample and to allocate moderators accordingly as well as giving you an opportunity to consider and respond to key aspects of our moderation process.

Whilst the STA guidance around the process of external moderation continues to state that schools are not required to submit data to the Local Authority in advance of a moderation visit, many schools have stated a preference to provide this in order to know the children whose work will be moderated the day before the visit, so that they can be organised when the moderator arrives. STA has stated that although this is not a statutory requirement, this can happen, but only by local agreement with each head teacher. 

Should you be chosen for moderation this year, you will be asked to indicate whether your school would like to submit your teacher assessment judgements, categorised by standard, in advance of the visit or whether you would wish to have the teacher assessments for every pupil available in hard copy, on the day of moderation. Should you not wish to submit your data in advance the moderator would expect to select their sample at the beginning of the visit. Should you wish to submit your data early, we would request it one week ahead of the visit for receipt no later than 3 full working days in advance.  This should ensure that our undertaking to give you 24 hours notice of the moderation sample can be delivered. In order to accommodate this commitment no moderation visits where data will be provided in advance, will be undertaken on a Monday. I feel that I must stress that there is no expectation from the Local Authority or STA that the school will choose to submit their data early and it will not affect the outcomes of any moderation visit.

You will be asked to confirm your intention re the submission of data via the portal as outlined in your moderation notification letter. This will serve as an electronic signature and as such meet the requirements as set out in the Teacher Assessment Guidance documents.

Denise Harris
Moderation Manager

Confirmation of Cohort Data Request: FAO All Providers of 14 – 19 Education and Training

Confirmation of Cohort data requests will be sent out from Monday 14th March 2022. This return is part of an intensive cycle of activity to ensure that every young person aged 16 or 17 participates in education or training.

Stage One: Validation of the pre-populated spreadsheet

For Year 11, this includes all young people on-roll at your institution. For Year 12, this only includes young people who are Birmingham residents.

Please check for accuracy and notify us by Friday 8th April 2022. Where a pupil has joined your roll or is no longer on roll please ensure that we have a new address and contact details where appropriate and the name of the new school/college/provider the young person has moved to. Without this information, we will not be able to take these young people off your roll which may result in them becoming not known on your destination tracker. The Insight reference numbers on the return must not be removed as we need this information to match with our Access database when it is returned for processing.

All information must be provided. All completed returns to be sent back via the encryption software/secure method used within your institution to insight@birmingham.gov.uk by Friday 8th April 2022.

Failure to send in a return can result in the local authority having incorrect information on your cohort which could impact on what data is returned into the DfE for your institution.

We will write out again for Stage Two of the process which will be September Guarantee Returns for all year 11 and/or 12 (both internal and external candidates) for all offers received by young people currently on roll.

September Guarantee data requests will be sent out from.6th June 2022

AET Autism and Anxiety Module: 17 March 2022

This module on autism and anxiety in schools will provide delegates with an understanding of what we mean by anxiety, how it appears in autistic children and young people (CYP), what the key triggers are, and what teaching staff can do to support autistic pupils. It is designed so that the training can be delivered to staff working with different age groups and in mainstream and specialist school settings. However, there is a need for the trainer to adapt its use, the resources, and the examples that are given for the delegates they are training.

There are resources, a reading list, and academic papers that you can refer to. These are all free to access and can be downloaded. There is also a document on suggested reasonable adjustments to reduce anxiety.  These training materials will be linked in the training materials section of this delegate pack or shared directly with you by the trainer.

Delegates will be encouraged to reflect on their own experiences with anxiety, what they have found useful in reducing their own anxiety, and what has worked for them in practice when looking to address anxious thoughts and feelings in CYP.

After completing this module, you will be able to understand:

  • how autistic CYP might express anxiety.
  • what can cause anxiety in autistic CYP.
  • what you can do to prevent and reduce anxiety in autistic CYP.

Learning objectives

After completing ‘Autism and anxiety’, participants will be able:

  • to have greater knowledge about how prevalent and impactful anxiety can be on autistic pupils
  • to learn that anxiety can be transactional and we all have a role in reducing anxiety in school
  • to understand that there is a toolbox of approaches that can be used to reduce anxiety and the first step is to learn about the individual’s triggers and preferred means of support
  • to understand that by reducing anxiety we can significantly improve a CYP’s ability to engage with school life and their peers, as well as improve general well-being.

For practitioners in early years, schools or post 16 settings. The aims after completing this module, you will be able to understand: 

  • how autistic CYP might express anxiety. 
  • what can cause anxiety in autistic CYP. 
  • what you can do to prevent and reduce anxiety in autistic CYP

This session will be run via Microsoft Teams/remote training by the Communication and Autism Team (CAT) on Thursday 17th March 2022 (9am - 12.30pm).

To secure your place, please book online via this link.  

Services for Education Assessment Briefings for Senior Leaders: Wednesday 6th April 2022

This course will provide senior school leaders with essential information, guidance and updates regarding Statutory Assessment and key assessment issues at both local and national levels.
During the course, participants will gain:

  • an understanding of the requirements for statutory assessment across the primary age range
  • an opportunity to consider the management of Statutory Assessment duty including accountability, security and integrity of the processes
  • details of the cycle of moderation and monitoring in Birmingham schools 

Further information is available at this link. 

Summer Time Advanced Aerospace Residency

The STAAR (Summer Time Advanced Aerospace Residency) Programme is brought to you by Northrop Grumman, with the support of the Northrop Grumman Foundation, and in partnership with the RAF Museum. It is being delivered by the Museum, Royal Air Force Cosford, Tablet Academy and RAF Youth and STEM Engagement Team.

STAAR is designed for Year 9 students who demonstrate an interest or aptitude for one or more STEM subjects. Interested schools can enter the STAAR competition, with applications opening on 28 February 2022, with winning schools given the chance to attend a residential at RAF Cosford. The competition has a mixture of tasks across the STEM spectrum, and schools are asked to submit a maximum of 10 students from across Year 9, with an equal gender split (same sex schools may apply 10 students). 

Please visit www.rafmuseum.org/STAAR for more details and to apply.

Reflections Training Academy: Pre-Entry Programme for Y11 students

Reflections Training Academy specialises in hairdressing and barbering and is inviting Y11 students to a four stage programme of workshops. The workshops will focus on elements of the industry. Students will also be able to explore the facilities, meet the tutors and gain valuable information to give them an informative insight to both hairdressing and barbering and the courses and jobs they can apply for. Workshops will be taking place on:  

  • 28th March: 4pm - 6pm
  • 11th April: 10am-12:30pm
  • 3rd May: 4pm-6pm
  • 14th May: 10am-12:30pm

To book a place please email BHXRecruitment@reflectionstraining.co.uk or call 0121 643 2147 

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