Risk assessments webinar: Wednesday 20th January 2021 2pm - 3pm

Officers from the council’s safety services and education infrastructure teams will be holding a webinar for schools next Wednesday 20th January 2pm-3pm to discuss risk assessments.

Please book places at this link https://risk-assessment-200121.eventbrite.co.uk and a Teams link will be sent to you ahead of the session.

The webinar will also be recorded so that any schools unable to attend are able to watch it afterwards.

Public Health lateral flow testing webinar: Wednesday 20th January 12pm – 1pm

Schools are invited to a webinar with Birmingham Public Health regarding lateral flow testing on Wednesday at 12pm.

Please book places at this link https://lft-200121.eventbrite.co.uk and a Teams link will be sent to you ahead of the session.

The webinar will also be recorded so that any schools unable to attend are able to watch it afterwards.

Audit visits

The council’s audit team will be contacting the schools who had been selected for an audit visit this term to discuss with school leaders whether a visit is suitable at the moment. If any school leader does not feel they are able to support an audit, visits will be postponed.

Spring Term Early Years Census

We have received confirmation from the DfE that the census should include all children on-roll within schools and registered PVI providers; extract below:  

In summary we have taken the view that where a child is reasonably expected to attend Early Years provision, and that provision is made available to them by the provider, their expected hours should be recorded in the Early Years Census. This means children who, were it not for the impact of coronavirus on either their own personal circumstances or on the operation of their Early Years setting, would be attending Early Years provision. This includes children who have previously attended the provision and children who were expected to start attending the provision in January.

We have incorporated these changes into our procedures and will release our detailed guidance today. Please check your emails for an email from the NEF team.

If you have any queries please contact NEF@birmingham.gov.uk.

Early years foundation stage

Government guidance has been updated to provide information regarding the arrangements for the early years foundation stage profile (EYFSP) assessment in 2021, which will not be mandatory but which providers will be required to use ‘best endeavours’ to complete.