20th March 2023

Dear Colleagues,

Please find our weekly briefing below and share with colleagues who can respond on behalf of your school or setting.  Many thanks.

Tell us How the ULEZ Expansion Would Affect You - please share with staff / parents / carers

Did you know that if TfL's Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) is expanded to cover Hillingdon and you own a non-compliant car, it could cost you £12.50 a day just to do the school run?

While we encourage people to use sustainable transport for the school drop-off and pick-up, we understand some people have little alternative but to use their cars.

That's why Hillingdon Council has launched a survey to measure the probable impact of the expansion of the ULEZ on the borough's families and businesses.

The council is also keen to find out how many vehicle owners will be making use of TfL's scrappage scheme. The survey includes links for those taking part in the survey to check if their vehicle is ULEZ compliant.

The survey will run until Sunday 16th April. To share your views, visit www.hillingdon.gov.uk/ulez-survey.

ULEZ survey poster (PDF) [509KB]

Working Together to Improve School Attendance

Please see below details of the training being offered for all staff that support pupils and families with school attendance. The sessions will cover a range of topics all relevant to addressing attendance concerns, outlining schools and the local authority's responsibilities under the 'Working together to improve school attendance' guidance. Please share with all relevant staff. It is recommended that schools attend all 5 sessions if possible.

Session 1: 19th April - An overview of the Attendance Support Team, function and targeted support meetings (60 minutes) 

Session 2: 26th April - Parent Contracts/Panel Agreements, Education Supervision Orders (ESO) to be attended and booked with session 3 (90 minutes) 

Session 3: 3rd May - Witness Statements, to be attended and booked with session 2 (60 Minutes) 

Session 4: 10th May - Holiday Penalty Notices (HPN) (60 minutes) 

Session 5: 17th May - Children Missing Education (CME) & School Attendance Orders (SAO) (60 minutes) 

Please sign up here by Thursday 30th March 2023.

Table of responsibilities for school attendance (PDF) [95KB]

FFT Subscriptions

During the recent Head Teachers' Termly meeting a request was made to explain the approach to the subscription charges.  The document below contains the explanation.

FFT Subscription Explanation (PDF) [142KB]

We also have access to FFT Usage Statistics for each school.  If you wish to see your usage data, please send a request to Marc Sherman (msherman@hillingdon.gov.uk).

Perspective Lite - Presentation and Demonstration

Hillingdon's Business Performance & Intelligence Team are excited to invite you to join us for an important 60-minute online Perspective Lite Showcase for schools.

11.30am-12.30pm on 24 March 2023 [Primary] Confirm Your Place Now

12-1pm on 28 March 2023 [Secondary] Confirm Your Place Now

This showcase is specifically designed for Headteachers, SLT, and school assessment/data leads, empowering all Hillingdon's schools with user-friendly interactive self-serve reports, as we look to upgrade our services to you in 2023. We are partnering with Angel Solutions to show you all the tools and benefits you can expect. In just 60 minutes, we will demonstrate how schools can quickly:

• gain insight into detailed performance data with readymade analyses
• use interactive data reports and real-time data dashboards, before the DFE statistical first release
• turn census data into instant shareable infographics, with just one click
• access all the latest information on Ofsted and its Inspectors
• additionally, you will learn how to pick up key announcements, download visit reports, and send and receive files securely.

In England there are 20,000 schools benefitting from Perspective Lite, including having early benchmark data to see the bigger picture and turn data into simple, actionable insights, all in one place and Hillingdon schools are part of that community. Accessible 24/7, Perspective Lite can also support you when you need it, giving you quality information and extra time to focus on what really matters.

You will receive an email on the morning of the event with a live link to join and a reminder 15 minutes before the start time.

Add events@angelsolutions.co.uk to your address book to avoid information getting blocked or put in a spam folder.

The Data Team

Health Insert for Nursery and Reception - please add to any new parent / carer communication

As your child starts school soon, now is the ideal time to get school ready. It is important that your child is up to date with their vaccinations, especially their pre-school boosters to avoid illness from preventable infections. With recent alerts about the increased numbers of children being unwell through vaccine preventable infections, such as measles, polio, and influenza, protecting your child through vaccination not only reduces their risk of illness, it also helps reduce infection transmission to the small number of children for whom vaccinations cannot be given.

For more information on why getting your child vaccinated is important, please go to: https://www.hillingdoncyp.cnwl.nhs.uk/0-4-years/health-care/getting-your-baby-vaccinated

Please contact your GP surgery to check your child's vaccination record and book an appointment for vaccinations.

2023 TCS Mini London Marathon in Schools Guinness World Record Attempt

As part of the 2023 TCS Mini London Marathon in schools, we want to inspire your children to be active and give every one of them the opportunity to achieve a Guinness World Records title and set a new world record.  The challenge this year is to: 

• Complete one mile in your school between Monday 17th April and Friday 12th May. Children can run, jog, walk or wheel the distance - it's open to everyone 
• Be part of a world record attempt! 

The world record the children in your school can break is: 'The most pledges received for an exercise campaign in one month'.

Step one - Sign up your pupils to run, jog, walk or wheel one mile as part of the TCS Mini London Marathon in schools. This is the same as in previous years - one entry per school with an estimate of the number of children taking part.  Please sign up here.

Step two - To break the record, every pupil in your school will need to pledge to take part in the TCS Mini London Marathon in schools. From Monday 17th April we will send every registered school a special link to do this with full instructions. Pupils will need to take the pledges by Friday 12th May.  

 Don't worry, we will make this as easy as possible for you and your children. It won't take too long - pupils can do this in their classrooms, and it will take less than 10 minutes for a class of 30 or so to make their pledges (they just need access to an interactive screen).   

A child can only pledge once and they will submit their pledge by making a mark on the interactive screen so it's suitable for children of all ages and abilities. We will not need to collect any personal information about your children - we do not need their names or date of birth.  

Step three  - Head outside and complete the one-mile distance between Monday 17th April and Friday 12th May. 

And that's it! 

We will collect all the pledges and see if we've broken the world record. We should be able to let you know by the end of May.  If we are successful, then every registered school will receive a certificate from Guinness World Records completely free of charge. It will be yours to keep and display in school. There is no charge to enter the event.  

One last message: if your school does The Daily Mile, then World Daily Mile Day takes place on Thursday 27th April. It's a perfect fit so you can take part in both if you want to. We'll share more details about World Daily Mile Day soon.  

We hope that this inspires your children to be active this year and - who knows? - maybe they could help break a world record and achieve a Guinness World Records title.  Any questions? Please email schools@londonmarathonevents.co.uk

Sport and Physical Activity Team