20th February 2023

Dear Colleagues,

Welcome back!  We hope you had a restful half term break. Please find our weekly briefing below and share with any colleagues who can respond on behalf of your school or setting.  Many thanks.

Thematic Review of Pupil Premium Funding in Schools 

The Council's Internal Audit team will be conducting a Thematic Review of Safeguarding in Schools as part of the 2022/23 Quarter 4 Internal Audit Plan. The review is due to take place from 27th February 2023 and will require assistance from some schools. 

The audit will be identifying and assessing controls that are in place to manage key risks around Pupil Premium Payment Funding arrangements in schools. The nature of a thematic review means that results will be collated from all of the schools in our sample and summarised into key themes, enabling an overall assurance opinion to be given. 

Each of the schools involved will receive a copy of the Terms of Reference prior to any fieldwork. This will contain specific information about the areas that will be considered. 

Assistance with the review would be greatly appreciated, alternatively if you have any questions about the review please do not hesitate to contact the Internal Audit Team at internal-audit@hillingdon.gov.uk. 

Safeguarding 

The Safeguarding Partnership is launching a series of Contextual Safeguarding Multiagency Awareness Raising Workshops. These workshops are free and are suitable for all practitioners that work with children in education. 

The workshops will be face to face, the first one will take place on Thursday 30th March at 10 am - 1 pm, to coincide with National Child Exploitation Awareness Day. The second workshop is on 28th September. You can book on to the workshops via the Learning Zone. 

Please share this widely within your settings.

New Online Elective Home Education Referral Form 

The Elective Home Education team are changing the way referrals are received from schools.   From 20th February 2023 the EHE School Referral Form will be replaced with an online version which can be accessed here and through the EHE page on LEAP here. 

Please ensure your Attendance Officers and any other relevant staff are made aware of this change in process. 

Below is a PDF version of the online for users to preview. 

Elective Home Education School referral form preview (PDF version) (PDF) [289KB]

Health & Safety Updates 

Schools must use their delegated budgets to ensure that H&S is managed on their school sites. If advice is needed, please contact healthandsafetyadvisory@hillingdon.gov.uk / 01895 250866. 

Achieving excellence through compliance 

Congratulations to all community schools for achieving 100% compliance in Quarter 3, with the requirement to investigate all work-related incidents within 10 days of occurrence. Compliance with this requirement helps ensure the Council can fulfil its legal obligations with regards to reporting serious work-related incidents to the HSE. This isn't possible without the assistance and commitment of the schools.  All work-related incidents must be recorded and investigated via Assure within 10 days of occurrence. Keep up the good work! 

Safety alerts

We are resharing this Green safety alert as a reminder of the risks associated with trees:  OHS 0144 - GREEN alert re Managing the risks associated with trees (PDF) [77KB] 

This safety alert follows a report that the HSE are prosecuting a City Council following the death of a young girl after she was hit by a falling tree on a school's grounds. The alert details what a simple tree inspection regime should look like and where to obtain professional advice. The LA is circulating this alert directly to all schools for action. Please also cascade through your SLTs as appropriate to raise awareness.  

Training 

The H&S team have started running their training courses for premise managers. These have not been running since before the start of the pandemic. We recommend all managers attend these courses every three years. Booking is via the Learning Zone. 

Inspection Training 

Thank you to those schools who have attended so far.  The sessions have been recorded and uploaded to LEAP along with the slides used, which you will find here. 

If colleagues wish to sign up to the remaining sessions, please use this booking form. 

LA Schools' Governance Service Event - All Clerks  

This virtual session for all Clerks is taking place on Tuesday 21st March 2023 from 10 am - 11 am.  No pre-registration is needed.  Please click here to join the meeting 

If Clerks would like any specific areas or questions covered, they should submit this to schoolgovernance@hillingdon.gov.uk by 14th March. 

LA Schools' Governance Service Event - All Governors - 8th February 2023 

Following on from the event held on 8th February for governors, please see link below to slides used during the briefing session from Early Years, Admissions and Finance.   

Please click here to view. 

LA Assessment & Moderation Training Reminder - please forward to assessment leads 

Teachers from maintained schools are invited to attend the following funded virtual LA briefing sessions. Academies can join if they have purchased Hillingdon's moderation offer.  

KS1 LA Assessment and Moderation Briefing Session 2  

• Thursday 23rd February 2023  

• 11:00 -12:30 - KS1 writing briefing session for all Y2 teachers 

• MS Teams Link: Click here to join the meeting  

 KS2 LA Assessment and Moderation Briefing Session 2  

• Thursday 23rd February 2023  

• 13:30 -15:00 - KS2 writing briefing session for all Y6 teachers  

• MS Teams Link: Click here to join the meeting  

Suitable for: all Year 2 and Year 6 teachers.  

Content: refresher STA guidance and requirements for writing. This second briefing session will be similar to the first one and teachers are welcome to attend both sessions to embed their understanding. Teachers don't need to attend the first session in order to attend the second session.   

Preparation: have access to a copy of the KS1 TAF or KS2 TAF.  

LEAP: have this link open to access resources which will be uploaded on the day of the session. Please test that your device can open LEAP in advance to avoid disruption during the session. If you can't then you will not be able to participate in the session and documents will be emailed to you afterwards. 

No registration needed, please use the links above to join the sessions. 

We understand that the briefing session dates and times are not always suitable for some teachers however these are scheduled based on external resource availability. For teachers that cannot attend, the presentation used at the sessions will be shared after the event on LEAP.  

Supporting New Arrivals in Schools and Colleges with Dr Karen Treisman - NEW DATE 

This event was postponed due to the Teacher Strike which took place on 1st February. 

We are delighted to share that Dr Karen Treisman will be hosting a one-off webinar focussing on supporting New Arrivals to the country within our schools and colleges. 

The day will provide an overview on how schools can support young people who are new to the country.  It will allow colleagues to think about and reflect on, how they can best understand and work with unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC), refugee, and trafficked young people within the school environment. 

Please do share this with colleagues who you feel will be interested in attending this webinar. 

This will be held on Monday 13th March at 9.30 am to 4 pm via Zoom. If you wish to attend, please complete this FORM no later than Thursday 9th March. 

Please note that there are limited spaces available. If you signed up originally for the 1st February, then your place has already been confirmed and you should have received a confirmation email.