Noticeboard 22 September 2022

This week's noticeboard contains important information on Free Winter Flu Vaccination, the weekly Oracle Cloud update, a link to the recording of Sue Harrison's recent webinar and much more!

Children and Young People’s Plan: Recording of Webinar with Sue Harrison

Thank you to everyone who attended the webinar on Tuesday, and we hope you found the session informative. For those of you who were unable to attend, a recording of the session can be found by simply following this link.

Oracle Cloud Weekly Update 

Please accept our sincere apologies for the issues schools continue to experience.  We have committed to strengthening our engagement with schools and will continue to share regular updates. Thank you for your patience. 

  • Support Routes – This is a polite reminder that the 1byourview mailbox is closed. If you have emailed this mailbox, you will not receive a reply. Please refer to the support route document shared via email to reach the correct team in the quickest way possible.
  • Internal Billing – Please now ensure you are regularly checking Oracle for internal bills, that are auto-approved after 30 days. Last week Simon and Abiola hosted two internal billing refresher sessions for school finance users. We have now moved to a phased roll-out of internal bills, with the volume of bills raising over the coming weeks to allow both bill raisers and finance users to become familiar with process and any queries to be addressed. If you have a technical query relating to the internal billing process please raise a service ticket at https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/school_support_service
  • ESS Progress – The ESS test roll-out commenced prior to the summer break and has been well received. The full roll out will continue during the Autumn term. Schools will receive notice of when the roll out will take place for them along with guidance to be shared with school employees.
  • Incremental pay progression – You will have received an email containing a spreadsheet for population for Incremental progression payments. Should you require PM to be paid, please complete, and return as per the email instructions.
  • Invoice Entry issue – On Wednesday, 14 September a specific issue was identified affecting the processing of invoices. This issue has now been resolved and further testing was completed on Thursday, 15 September with the Simplified Loader to ensure the resolution does not impact the school's invoice processing. This has been completed and was communicated to school finance users directly last week. You can now resume the use of Simplified Loader to submit invoices for processing. We apologise for the extended time to resolve this issue. If you experience issues using the Simplified Loader please raise a service ticket at https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/school_support_service

Winter Flu Vaccination – FREE Voucher for Birmingham Community School Employees

This is a reminder, that as in previous years – if you do not usually qualify for an NHS free flu vaccination, but you work for a Birmingham Community School, you are eligible to claim a free voucher for the flu vaccine. 

The flu vaccination programme aims to protect people from serious illness and reduce hospitalisations from flu.  Also, research shows that if you get both flu and COVID-19 or other respiratory viruses at the same time you may be more seriously ill.  So, vaccination is important. 

A link will shortly be made available to complete a simple application form to receive a voucher, which will entitle you to a vaccination at one of almost 2,000 UK branches of Boots Pharmacy.

School Suspensions and Permanent Exclusions – New Statutory Guidance September 2022

New Department for Education statutory guidance concerning suspensions and permanent exclusions has been released from 1 September 2022. The September 2022 document replaces the 2017 guidance and applies to any suspension or permanent exclusion that occurs on or after 1 September 2022.

The new exclusion guidance should be read alongside the DfE Behaviour in Schools guidance – both sets of guidance are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-exclusion

Key changes/updates are outlined below:

  • Headteachers may continue to revoke or rescind a suspension or permanent exclusion if it has not yet been considered by governors. This option remains following a suggestion during the consultation exercise that it should be removed.
  • When headteachers suspend or permanently exclude a pupil they must, without delay, notify parents. Legislative changes mean that if a pupil has a social worker, or if a pupil is looked-after, the headteacher must now, also without delay after their decision, notify the social worker and/or Virtual School Head, as applicable.
  • When headteachers suspend or permanently exclude a pupil, they must also notify the local authority, without delay. Legislative changes mean that this must be done regardless of the length of a suspension. Any permanent exclusions should be notified to the Exclusions Team (contact details below). Schools should continue to log suspensions on their management information systems and this information will be extracted by the City’s data team.
  • Guidance on the role of a social worker and VSH, during governing board meetings and IRP meetings is included in the document.
  • Some additional guidance/clarification on managed moves, what they are and how they should be used has been added.
  • Clarified guidance on the use of off-site direction as a short-term measure that can be used as part of a school’s behaviour management strategy.
  • Further guidance on the practice of involving pupils so that any excluded pupil is enabled and encouraged to participate at all stages of the suspension or permanent exclusion process, considering their age and ability to understand.
  • Guidance for governing boards to ensure that they review data to consider the level of pupil moves and the characteristics of pupils who have been permanently excluded to ensure the sanction is only used when necessary, as a last resort.

The new guidance requires the opportunity of in person attendance for exclusions meetings taking place after 25 March 2022.

If you require any further advice or guidance the Exclusions Team is available to help on 0121 303 2685 or exclusions@birmingham.gov.uk.

Education Leadership Masters Degree Apprenticeship Programme 2022/23

University of Birmingham School of Education

Monday 10th October 2022, 4pm - 5pm

You are invited to attend this information webinar to find out more about the Masters in Education Leadership with Professor Colin Diamond CBE; the programme commences in January 2023. 

This is an opportunity for senior leaders in schools to gain an MA in Education with the University of Birmingham via the degree apprenticeship route. 

Lectures are supported by a combination of ELA academics, colleagues and serving head teachers. 

Funding is provided via the BCC apprenticeship levy fund. 

Enrolment is for a January 2023 start.

For more information, please register here Education Leadership Masters Degree Apprenticeship Programme 2022/23 or contact c.diamond@bham.ac.uk

Are Parents Eligible for Tax-Free Childcare?

As a childcare provider you can help be more affordable for parents by checking if they’ve signed up to Tax-Free Childcare and ensuring that you are also signed up for Tax Free Childcare.

Working parents or carers can receive up to £500 every three months (up to £2,000 a year per child) or if their child has a disability, they can get up to £1,000 every three months (up to £4,000 a year per child) to help with the costs of childcare.

Parents can use Tax-Free Childcare to pay for childcare including before and after school clubs, holiday clubs and playschemes as well as their Nursery, Childminder or Nanny fees.

Most schools in Birmingham are already signed up to be a Tax Free Childcare provider, but anyone who is unsure can check by following this link: www.gov.uk/guidance/sign-up-to-tax-free-childcare-if-youre-a-childcare-provider - it will take approximately 10 minutes to register.

To encourage take up of Tax-Free Childcare, providers can:

  • Find out the families in their area who are not using Tax-Free Childcare and support them to understand its benefits and how to apply for it.
  • Update websites with information about Tax-Free Childcare, and include links to useful sources of information such as:

Parents who have signed up for Tax-Free Childcare will be able to find their childcare provider on the system in approximately two working days and can then pay the provider direct from their tax free childcare account.

To find out more about Tax-Free Childcare and how you can support parents, simply register for one of our ‘free’ information sessions: Tax-free Childcare Awareness Session.

Co-Production Framework and Charter (Agreement) Published as Part of SEND Improvement

We are delighted that the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Local Area Partnership (Birmingham City Council, Birmingham ICS (NHS), Birmingham Children’s Trust, Parent Carer Forum and RISE Youth Group) has now published a Co-Production Framework and Charter (or Agreement) in response to an Ofsted revisit last year.

The key thinking about co-production is ‘nothing about us without us.’  Involving children, young people and their families in service improvements from beginning to end, ensuring their voices can be heard and they are playing a more powerful role in service design, and delivery leads to better outcomes for all.

You can find a Co-Production Poster by following this link and full details of all co-production work can be found here: www.localofferbirmingham.co.uk/ofsted2021/co-production/

We would be grateful if you would share these links across your organisations and social media to ensure everyone is aware of co-production and what it means as we start to make it business as usual.

If you’d like to know more about Co-Production or SEND services in Birmingham please visit the SEND Local Offer website for more information: www.localofferbirmingham.co.uk

Parents and Carers – join the Birmingham Parent Carer Forum: www.birminghampcf.org

Children and Young People contact:  SENDImpComm@birmingham.gov.uk

Invitation to Join the Services for Education Moderation Teams 2022-23 – KS1 & KS2

Services for Education, School Support Service is inviting formal applications to become a Services for Education Teacher Moderator for Key Stage 1 statutory teacher assessments or Key Stage 2 statutory TA writing assessments in 2023.

Services for Education, School Support Service, work on behalf of Birmingham Local Authority to organise, manage and deliver statutory assessment duty for KS1 and KS2. The local authority has a responsibility to conduct moderation of teacher judgements in at least 25% of its schools and settings each year and in at least 25% of those academies and free schools that choose Birmingham as their moderation provider.

Full details of the invite can be found by following this link and please note that the deadline to submit applications is 4.00pm on Friday, 30 September 2022.

For more information or any queries please email denise.harris@servicesforeducation.co.uk or telephone 07766 923204.

Getting Behaviour Management Right in the Primary School

This half day, on-line course delivered by Services for Education will build teachers’ confidence and competence in dealing with behaviour issues. A range of strategies to ensure behaviour does not impact negatively on teaching and learning will be explored.

Course Dates: 

  • 12 October 2022 – 09:00-12:00
  • 8 February 2023 – 09:00-12:00

Places can be booked by simply following this link.

For more information or any queries please email Simone.whitehouse-james@servicesforeducation.co.uk or telephone 0121 366 9950

Standards and Testing Agency Stakeholder Information – 20 September 2022

The information sent to schools is as follows:

Primary assessment general

  • Reminder: national curriculum assessments in 2022/23
  • Reminder: end of KS1 assessments
  • Reminder: KS2 science sampling tests
  • Reminder: complete the 2021/22 test cycle lessons learned survey by Wednesday 21 September
  • Reminder: participate in national curriculum assessment expert review panels

Key stage 2

  • Reminder: last chance to view and download June 2022 multiplication tables check results by Friday 30 September

Reception baseline assessment

Reminder: administer the reception baseline assessment

Standards and Testing Agency
Tel: 0300 303 3013 (Monday-Friday 8.30am-5pm)
Email: assessments@education.gov.uk
Web: https://gov.uk/sta

Free Junior Peacemaker Workshops - Available to Schools in Autumn Term

The Junior Peacemaker workshop being offered this term has the theme ‘Creating a Healthy School: wellbeing & relationship-building’ and looks at the connections between wellbeing and peace. It offers frameworks for exploring wellbeing and promotes spending time in green space, or bringing nature into everyday life, to benefit both mental and physical wellbeing.

The workshop is suitable for a whole Key Stage 2 year group (up to three forms) and takes place over a day.

There are three spaces available for Primary Schools in the West Midlands during the Autumn Term so please email Libbs Packer as soon as possible to book your school a workshop - Libbs@peacemakers.org.uk

Junior Peacemaker will bring the trainers and resources needed to introduce the theme to your school.  The day is linked to the UNICEF Rights Respecting Schools Award and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. 

The workshops are externally funded and provided free of charge for schools, however Peacemakers will contact you after the workshop to ask for a donation to their work. This contribution will help them make this workshop available to another school. 

The Junior Peacemaker workshop guide is available to view or download here: Junior Peacemaker Workshop Guide March 2022

Any queries should be directed to Libbs Packer - Libbs@peacemakers.org.uk

 

 

 

This entry was posted by Dawn Evans on 15/09/2022.