Noticeboard 7 July 2022

Eid Mubarak for this weekend! This week's Noticeboard contains a message from Sue Harrison on SEND Leadership, an update from School Admissions, your weekly Oracle Cloud update from 1B team, the Summer Edition of The Auditor and more!

Included in this update:

Message from Sue Harrison, Director Children & Families regarding SEND Leadership

Dear all

As those of you who attended the recent Special HT Forum will be aware, Pauline Maddison’s assignment as interim Assistant Director SEND and Inclusion came to an end last week. I am extremely grateful for the contribution Pauline made during her time in Birmingham and wish her every success in the future.

The recruitment process for a permanent Director for SEND and Inclusion is underway and I’m pleased that we’ve had a number of very strong applications. Interviews are taking place at the end of next week, with involvement from stakeholders including our head teachers, and I will let you know as soon as an appointment has been made. In the meantime, an interim Assistant Director will be covering the SEND and Inclusion portfolio and I will confirm the arrangements for this as soon as possible.

I am pleased to say we have additional capacity in place now to support more frequent communication with head teachers and I am committed to ensuring we communicate more regularly with you from now on.

Thank you for your continued support.

Best wishes

Sue

Sue Harrison
Director of Children's Services

Update from School Admissions

As we approach the end of the academic year, please see key information below from the School Admissions Team:

Closure of admission rounds – September 2022 intake

Parent/carers will no longer be able to submit late applications or a change of preference(s) for Reception Class, Year 2-3, secondary transfer or Year 10 from 11.59 pm on 31 July 2022.  School Admissions will continue to process any applications that have been submitted prior to the end of July 2022.  Any applications received after this date will be managed via the in-year admissions process. Schools should download an updated list of their offers at the end of August 2022 in preparation for the start of the new academic year.

Important – Transfer to secondary school in 2023

Next week all Birmingham maintained Primary, Junior and All-Through schools will be sent a letter which should be distributed to their current Year 5 pupils who live in Birmingham and do not have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). There is key information included regarding deferred entry and children being taught outside of their normal year group, so it is important that this letter is shared with all children attending your school born between 01/09/2011 - 31/08/2012. 

Parent/carers will be able to submit an online application from 1 September 2022 and are urged to apply for their child to transfer to secondary school by the national closing date of 31 October 2022. Further Information about the application process will be available on the council's website from 1 September 2022.

We would be grateful for schools' support in publicising the process and, where necessary, assisting those parents/carers who may find the application process difficult. 

Open Sessions – Autumn Term 2022

We ask that you ensure that there is accurate and up-to-date information about your school on your website, such as your prospectus and details of any open days, evenings or online events. Please ensure that you liaise with neighbouring schools so your open sessions do not clash, and be sure to arrange them before the final closing date for applications, 31 October 2022.

Oracle Cloud Weekly Update from 1B Team 

Thank you for your continued patience as we implement this new system.

  • New HR Dashboards: Form Raisers and Form Authorisers can now access a Team dashboard in Oracle. A guidance document was issued last week from 1byourview@birmingham.gov.uk  
  • Payroll costs report: This report is now ready, has been tested, and will be released soon.  Where it is applicable Cheque Book Schools will have their direct debit re-started for services.   
  • Income Banking: A drop-in session on income banking is arranged for 7th July.  Relevant users should have received an invite from 1byourview@birmingham.gov.uk 
  • Reconciliation Files: The 1B team continue to work on providing reconciliation files. The integration is currently in the build phase being tested to ensure it is fit for its purpose. Please accept our apologies for the delay. 
  • Payments (revalidation invoices): On 21st June Schools Finance Users were provided with a spreadsheet of invoices processed via Oracle. This was shared following requests from schools wanting to check the status of invoices; additional tips on searching this report was been sent from 1byourview@birmimgham.gov.uk on 5 July in this email we also requested feedback from you on the regularity of this report.   
  • All invoices that have not been validated are being investigated by the schools' payments team, they are working on these invoices in order of submission to the Simplified Loader. Please do not resubmit and only contact the school payments team in an emergency  
  • New Simplified Loader Version: All Simplified Loader users should have received instructions to download version 1.77 on the Simplified Loader from 1byourview@birmingham.gov.uk. From Friday 8th July if you are using an old version, you will see an error message. 
  • Internal Billing: We can confirm the correct approvers of internal invoices to schools have been identified and applied to each school. We will now restart processing internal invoices, which will begin to workflow through to you for approval. A Drop-In session to support you with processing internal bills will be held the week commencing 11th July. 
  • Payslips: June Payslips have been processed and will begin arriving at schools the week commencing 11th July.

The majority of users are accessing Oracle and Simplified Loader without issues. However, if you do experience access issues please follow the below: 

Safeguarding Update: What’s New in Keeping Children Safe in Education for September 2022?

Training session being held on 15 July 2022 – 11:00-12:30pm

This session will focus on:

  • Changes to the Keeping Children Safe in Education government guidance
  • Implications of the ‘new’ bullet point on KCSIE Part 4 where a staff member has ‘behaved or may have behaved in a way that indicates they may not be suitable to work with children’
  • Responding to low-level concerns about adults working in education

You can book your place for this informative training session by simply following this link or email the team SSI@birmingham.gov.uk and they'll be pleased to assist! 

The Auditor Summer 2022

Please follow this link to view the latest edition of the School Newsletter from Birmingham Audit

REMINDER: Fair Access Protocol 2022 Sign-up

All schools will have received a copy of Birmingham’s Fair Access Protocol which has been finalised in accordance with the revised School Admissions Code 2021; we have also taken into consideration comments/views made during the formal period of consultation.

As a matter of procedure, we are now asking all schools to formally acknowledge and sign-up to the new Protocol. If you have not already done so, please simply complete and submit the short sign-up form at this link by no later than close of play Friday 8 July 2022.

In line with government guidance, we require over 50% of schools to have agreed to the revised Fair Access Protocol. It will be implemented from September 2022 with all schools required to adhere to its policy and procedures.

Any queries should be directed to fairaccessprotocol2022@birmingham.gov.uk 

Art Competition for Children and Young people with Additional Needs   

SEND services are running an art competition over the summer holiday to get children and young people with additional needs in the creative mood and showcasing their lives. We are looking for images created by children and young people of themselves, their families, their friends and their interests.  We want to include a selection on the SEND Local Offer website 
over the next year, so that the website shows the creative talents of our children and young people in Birmingham, who they are and what they get up to.

The competition will run from now until 16th September and will be organised in the following age categories:

  • Age 0-7                        
  • Age 8-13                      
  • Age 14+

We are looking for images (drawings, paintings, collage, computer generated etc. however they wish to create) on the following subjects:

  • Me and my favourite games
  • Me and my schoolwork
  • Me and my family
  • Me and my friends
  • My journey to school 
  • Me and my additional need
  • Me living my best life

There will be voucher prizes in each category and a child or young person may enter as many categories as they wish. Please email entries or queries to: info@localofferbirmingham.co.uk or post to PO Box 16289, Birmingham, B2 2XN.

Please label each drawing with the child or young person’s name and age and please include contact details if you wish the artwork to be entered into the competition.  We will not be able to return artwork and will label any submissions we use on the website and social media using only the child or young person’s first name and age.

Free Immigration Support Session for recently arrived Hong Kongers

Wednesday, 13 July at 6.00-8.00pm and Friday, 22 July at 10:00-12:00pm

The Refugee and Migrant Centre (RMC) is delivering free online sessions which will provide an overview of your rights under UK immigration law and explain how to access them. Covering family members, settlement, post five-year options and a chance to ask questions to RMC's Immigration Department Manager.

To book onto a session please follow this link.  

My Bold Birmingham Art Competition

Are your children or students budding artists?

Birmingham City Council has launched an art competition My Bold Birmingham for youngsters age 4 - 18 to draw or paint a picture of what Birmingham means to them.

The winning artwork will have their work displayed across digital screens across the city and inside the Council House this summer!

Creativity is encouraged - there are no rules! Bold and colourful artwork that represents our unique city is very much welcomed.

The competition closes on 11 July 2022. Competition details and how to enter can be found on the Be Birmingham website.

 

This entry was posted by Laura Hendry on 01/07/2022.