Noticeboard - 29 February 2024

This week's noticeboard contains information on The Bring it on Brum! Spring holiday activities programme, Petty Cash Reconciliation, the CYPTS Travel Assistance Policy Consultation, training opportunities and more!

Included in this week's noticeboard:

Bring it on Brum! is back for Spring 2024!

Full details on the Spring Holiday Club Activities have recently been sent to schools, including:

  • Letter template for parents/carers
  • HAF Code for distribution
  • Detailed mail merge guidance

The Bring it on Brum! free holiday clubs will run from Monday, 25 March to Friday, 5 April 2024, for young people aged 4-16 who are eligible for benefits-related free school meals.

Bookings for spring holiday clubs will open from Monday, 4 March 2024 at www.bringitonbrum.co.uk

Activity packs are available on a first come first served basis, for those children and young people unable to attend face-to-face activities with registrations open from Wednesday, 28 February 2024 at www.bringitonbrum.co.uk/activity-packs-and-food-boxes.   

Any queries concerning the distribution of the code and letter to parents of eligible children, should be directed to schoolcensus@birmingham.gov.uk  

For all queries related to the Holiday Activities Programme please contact birminghamholidayactivities@streetgames.org

2023-2024 Petty Cash Reconciliation

At the end of each financial year, the Chief Finance Officer has the responsibility for preparing the annual accounts for the City Council, this includes consolidating school accounts. 

It is a requirement of final accounts preparation that a reconciliation of petty cash accounts is completed by all establishments as at 28th February 2024 to meet the council’s annual accounts compilation deadline.

Full guidance on Year End Procedures can be found here: Reconciliation of petty cash accounts for the financial year 2023 to 2024 | Birmingham City Council

For any queries please contact: SchoolsYEAccountsClosedown@Birmingham.gov.uk

Children and Young Peoples Travel Service – Travel Assistance Policy Consultation

As part of the consultation process for the proposed changes to Birmingham City Council’s Travel Assistance Policy, the Children and Young People’s Travel Service will be hosting in-person consultation sessions as follows:

Session 1

Date:                   Tuesday 5th March 2024
Time:                   5.30pm
Location:            Orange Leaf Café, Calthorpe Academy, Darwin Street, Highgate, Birmingham, B12 0TP

Session 2

Date:                  Tuesday 5th March 2024
Time:                  2pm
Location:          Community Room, Kings Norton Library, Pershore Road South, Kings Norton, Birmingham, B30 3EU

Session 3

Date:                   Thursday 7th March 2024
Time:                   1.30pm
Location:            Main Hall, Braidwood School for the Deaf, Bromford Road, Birmingham, B36 8AF

Please note:       No parking will be available on site at Braidwood School for the Deaf     

Session 4

Date:                   Thursday 7th March 2024
Time:                   5.30pm
Location:            Main Hall, Braidwood School for the Deaf, Bromford Road, Birmingham, B36 8AF

Please note:       No parking will be available on site at Braidwood School for the Deaf     

These sessions will ensure that everyone who wishes to engage with the consultation process is clear on the proposed policy changes and has the opportunity to provide their views and feedback in a more personal setting.

The sessions, hosted by Adrian Weissenbruch, Assistant Director for the Children and Young People’s Travel Service, are for students, parents and carers, and particularly those families with children who are in Year 11 or of sixth form age.

The policy consultation can be found at this link. Please note the closing date of 15 March 2024.

Thank you for your support in sharing this communication as widely as possible.

Spring Term WellComm Data Return.

FAO: Primary schools and Nursery Schools

Thank you for using the WellComm Toolkit to improve Speech Language and Communication (SLC) outcomes in schools and settings. The WellComm data collection returns are demonstrating that targeted interventions offered by early years providers have improved children's level of SLC development. Therefore, we request that every early year's provider returns their Spring Term WellComm screening results by Friday, 22 March 2024. 

If you have not had the capacity to screen all of the children during the term, then please send us the results that you have.

To complete the survey, please follow this link    

If you have any questions please contact Leesa Heeley at Leesa.heeley@birmingham.gov.uk

National Careers Week – 4-9 March 2024

National Careers Week is taking place from Monday, 4 March to Saturday, 9 March 2024. The week aims to celebrate and promote careers guidance and offers free resources to schools. Birmingham Careers Service is focusing on ‘Skills for Life’ and encouraging young people to think about employability skills and linking these to future careers ideas. The service is also taking a look at growth sectors in Birmingham.

For full details of these and other events, please take a look at the National Careers Week web hub https://www.birminghamcareersservice.co.uk/ncw/

Other useful resources:

Birmingham Community Healthcare Plus School Nursing Service

FAO: SENCO/Head Teacher

Do you need additional School Nursing input? If so Birmingham Community NHS Foundation Trust can help.

Through its Birmingham Community Healthcare Plus (Traded Services) School Nursing service, BCHC can provide additional education focused services that supplement the NHS ‘core’ school nurse service.

The link between educational attainment and positive health is well documented; however sometimes schools find that incidence of health-related needs amongst their pupils requires more clinical support. We offer schools the opportunity to buy additional dedicated school nurse time to address health needs that lie beyond the scope of the core service.

School health topics that we provide support for include:

  • Curriculum input focused on health and wellbeing
  • Issues arising in school that may have a link to health
  • Dedicated support addressing a school’s wider health related challenges
  • Liaison with GP’s Health Visitors and other professionals
  • Health education and promotion activities

To find out more about how BCHC Plus (Traded Services) can benefit your school, pupils, families and staff, please contact the BCHC Plus team on 0121 466266 or e-mail bchc.bchcplus@nhs.net  

The Healing Together Programme for Parents and Carers

An evidence-based programme created by clinical and trauma informed experts to ensure that parents and carers, children and young people affected by domestic abuse are able to access early trauma informed help.

Six sessions (delivered via Zoom) have been carefully designed for parents and carers to learn about how the body and brain works together when they are feeling safe and unsafe. The strategies that can be used to help themselves and the children they care for.

More information on the Healing Together programme can be found at this link, or please contact Sharmina Akhtar on 07947 991209.

Flavoured e-cigarettes/vapes – young people’s survey

The number of young people who’ve tried e-cigarettes has increased over the last 10 years and research suggests that flavoured e-cigarettes may be encouraging young people to use them.

Public Health are seeking the views of young people aged 16 to 18 and who live in Birmingham by completing a short survey which can be found at this link.

The survey takes less than 10 minutes to complete and closes on 8 March 2024.

For any queries or further information, please contact Stacey Gunther at Stacey.Gunther@birmingham.gov.uk

Free Air Quality Monitor and Education Resources

The SAMHE project is seeking more schools! Schools receive a FREE indoor air quality monitor linked to an interactive Web App where teachers and pupils can view the data in a range of formats and use it in curriculum-linked activities and experiments.

SAMHE (pronounced ‘Sammy’!) stands for Schools’ Air quality Monitoring for Health and Education and is an important research study on indoor air quality in UK schools. It was co-designed with schools to ensure that it supports learning and is fun and engaging.

SAMHE helps pupils to learn about air quality, the interdependence of organisms and their environment, the causes and impacts of climate change and much more. It also provides opportunities to practise skills central to the curriculum, including measurement and calculation, data logging, identifying data patterns, working with large datasets, scientific enquiry, communicating data and persuasive writing.

Perhaps most importantly, SAMHE gets pupils excited about learning through directly investigating their immediate environment and their interactions with it and empowers them to make or suggest changes based on their understanding.

You can find out more and register for your free air quality monitor at this link  

Open to all UK schools except Early-Years only settings.

Launch of the Birmingham Maths Education Development Partnership 

Friday, 22 March 2024 - Thinktank, Millennium Point, Curzon Street, Birmingham B4 7XG 

This launch event will enable senior executives from businesses and schools to find out about and discuss opportunities and funding to improve maths education across Birmingham. 

The Birmingham Maths Education Development Partnership (MEDP) will enable schools, colleges, universities, and businesses to work collaboratively to improve attainment in mathematics for young people across Birmingham, helping to address the skills needs of businesses and supporting social mobility. 

Aston University, the Central Maths Hub, the Advanced Maths Support Programme and the educational charity, Mathematics In Education and Industry (MEI), invite you to take part in the partnership launch.

Please find key details and a link to RSVP below.   

  • Where?  Getting Here | Millennium Point 
  • When?   22 March 2024, from 0830 to 1015. 
  • What?  A breakfast event joining with 80 education and business leaders to discuss the challenges faced by schools, colleges and businesses in Birmingham, and commit to working together to improve maths education outcomes for young people. 

You can book your place by following this link  

This event is for business leaders, headteachers and senior leaders from schools and colleges. If you are not able to attend, please pass on the invitation to a colleague. For further information please get in touch with Nicola Claridge at nicola.claridge@mei.org.uk 

Looking for a German Pen Pal?

The students at Freie Christlichen School Frankfurt aged 10-12 years old are seeking pen pal opportunities with a Birmingham School.

This is a chance for students to discover more about each other’s culture and everyday life, while improving their language skills and written communication.

If schools would like to find out more, please contact English Teacher Anna Schuette at anna.schuette@fcsf.de.

Summertime Advanced Aerospace Residency (STAAR)

The STAAR (Summertime Advanced Aerospace Residency) Programme is brought to schools 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 and TA Education.

STAAR will run on Monday 22 – Friday 26 July 2024 and Monday 29 July – Friday 2 August 2024. Students who wish to apply must be available for these dates. There are 20 spaces available for each week of the residential - with 40 spaces available overall.

STAAR is designed for Year 9 students who demonstrate an interest or aptitude for one or more STEM subjects. The STAAR programme is open for students nationwide and all spaces are fully funded. Find out more information and how to apply at this link

Please note that students must complete the application form in conjunction with a teacher, school representative or organisation leader.

For any queries, please contact STAAR@rafmuseum.org.

Services for Education - Training Opportunities

Interim Writing Moderation at KS1 – For Year 2 Teachers: Thursday, 7 March 2024

This shared moderation will be an opportunity for Year 2 teachers to ensure that assessments of writing are secure. Although now non-statutory, it is best practice to continue using the 2019 KS1 Teacher Assessment Framework to maintain rigour and make robust and accurate judgements at KS1. Book your place by following this link

Interim Writing Moderation at KS2 – For Teachers New to Year 6: Monday 11 March 2024

This course will provide an early opportunity for Year 6 teachers to review writing evidence against the 2019 KS2 teacher assessment framework standards to inform next steps in the teaching, learning and assessment process. Book your place by following this link

Teachers & Assessment Leaders Experienced in Year 2 – Essential Assessment Processes at the End of KS1: Monday, 18 March 2024

In today’s climate of non-statutory assessments at KS1, how do we ensure that our pupils remain on track, and that we assess accurately, fairly and in line with national expectations? This half day online course will provide an overview of the essential, still recommended assessments, which need to be conducted at the end of the key stage.  Let our experienced moderators and advisers ensure that your pupils remain on-track with accurate assessments as they leave KS1. Book your place by following this link

This entry was posted by Jaspal Shambi on 27/02/2024.