Transition days: Guidance from Dr Justin Varney, Director of Public Health

Earlier today we shared Dr Justin Varney’s advice that secondary transition days for new intake should take place virtually. This advice is for secondary school transition days only and will confirm if this extends to primary transition days tomorrow (Friday 11th June).  

We know this will be disappointing for schools, pupils and families but Dr Varney’s advice is following a rise in cases in the city over the last week. To support schools with planning for transition, we have published an ideas document at this link.

Any schools with queries can contact edsi.enquiries@birmingham.gov.uk  

Risk assessment template for schools

Today we published an updated risk assessment template at this link. The changes (and pages) of refreshed items following the latest guidance:

• 9-10 Pupils who are abroad
• 15 Use of face coverings
• 16 Music and Performance
• 19 Educational Visits
• 20 Wraparound provision and extra-curricular activity
• 22 Pupil wellbeing and support
• 26-27 Transition days
• 42 Transport

Any schools with queries about risk assessments should contact edsi.enquiries@birmingham.gov.uk  

Reminder of Public Health processes

Schools should continue to use the processes set out in the Birmingham Public Health flowchart to notify Public Health of any suspected or confirmed cases. As set out in the flowchart:

• schools with one positive case of Covid-19 in the setting should email a completed checklist to the BCC Public Health Team at contacttracing@birmingham.gov.uk and not contact Public Health England.
• schools with two or more positive cases of Covid-19 in the setting should email a checklist to contacttracing@birmingham.gov.uk as well as contact Public Health England on WM.2019CoV@phe.gov.uk or 0344 225 3560 and press 0 then option 2.

May half-term free school meal vouchers

Following the recent free school meal voucher code distribution, we have now made available to schools on Perspective a report which will show voucher codes redeemed and not redeemed.  Please can you use this report to identify parents who have yet to redeem their vouchers and then encourage them to redeem the vouchers as soon as possible, as they will not be able to convert them to vouchers beyond 20th June 2021.

Please note, the redemption report from Sodexo is as at 8th June 2021, you may find some voucher codes marked as unclaimed have now been redeemed.

You will now be able to find your school’s redemption report via Perspective (Lite), the online system we usually use as a local authority to securely distribute attainment data to all schools within Birmingham. 

To log in to your Perspective Lite account visit: https://perspective.angelsolutions.co.uk/Perspective/Login.aspx. Perspective has a built in forgotten password feature, the user name will be your school’s URN number (Ofsted reference).

Please navigate to ‘LA Documents’ and Select folder ‘FSM Vouchers’, from here you will be able to download report for Reception to Year 14 called ‘R-Y14RedeemedReport080621’ and Early Years called ‘EYRedeemedReport080621’

Vouchers marked as ‘Dispatched’ have been claimed, vouchers marked as ‘Ready’ have yet to be redeemed online by parents. If a voucher is marked as ‘Not Known’ we do not currently have a redemption status for this voucher. Please note we will not be accepting any additional voucher requests as the deadline has now passed.

• If you have unused voucher codes please can the voucher codes be returned by completing this Reception to Year 14 online form.
• To return unused Early Years voucher codes please complete this form Early Years online form.
• For queries regarding downloading the vouchers from Perspective or about the number of vouchers allocated for Reception to Year 14, please contact educationdata@birmingham.gov.uk
• For queries related to Early Years voucher codes allocation, please contact familyinformation@birmingham.gov.uk

Upcoming Education Safeguarding training courses

Please see below for details of training courses taking place in June for subscribers of BCC’s Education Safeguarding Service as well as links to book places.

1. Early Help System: Friday 11th June, 11am-12pm  

This session will provide insight into Birmingham Children’s Partnership’s Early Help System, information on Team Around the School database and how schools can access further, more in-depth support and training on Early Help. 

To book visit https://www.birminghameducationsupportservices.co.uk/Event/143202

2. What’s new in Keeping Children Safe in Education: Monday 14th June, 11am – 12.30pm

This briefing will summarise the changes to the Keeping Children Safe in Education government guidance as updated in 2019, 2020 and updates made in January 2021 to reflect legal changes following the UK's exit from the European Union.

To book visit https://www.birminghameducationsupportservices.co.uk/Event/143849

3. Safeguarding children with SEND and specific needs: Wednesday 16th June 3pm – 4pm

This session will cover:

• learning from local and national case reviews
• understanding risks and vulnerabilities for children with SEND
• effective use of statutory assessments to inform support plans/ECHPs for students with additional needs who are demonstrating challenging behaviours and struggling to access education.
• what young people said about exclusions and emotional health & wellbeing. 

To book visit https://www.birminghameducationsupportservices.co.uk/Event/143880

For queries about safeguarding training please contact SSI@birmingham.gov.uk

REMINDER: Birmingham Children’s Partnership Peer to Peer Abuse survey for schools and colleges

As part of Ofsted’s review of safeguarding policies in relation to sexual abuse, inspectors will now interrogate schools that fail to provide a log of sex abuse cases and speak to pupils about such issues.

Schools will be aware that Ofsted is currently undertaking a review of safeguarding policies in schools and colleges in relation to sexual abuse which will look at whether schools and colleges have appropriate processes in place to allow pupils to report sexual abuse concerns freely, knowing these will be taken seriously and dealt with swiftly and appropriately. As has been reported recently, Ofsted inspections will have more of a focus on a schools’ approaches to tackling sexual harassment and sexual violence.

In order to ensure that schools and colleges are adequately supported to put appropriate processes in place, Birmingham Children’s Partnership is asking for this survey to be completed by the deadline of 25 June 2021. This survey does not replace the s175/155.

Any schools with queries can contact Micho Moyo, Head of Education Safeguarding (Micho.H.Moyo@birminghamchildrenstrust.co.uk).

Post 16 settings can contact Hannah Redfern, Acting Head of Service, 14-19 Participation and Skills Team (hannah.redfern@birmingham.gov.uk).