16th October 2023

Dear Colleagues,

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

We wish you a restful half term when it comes. 

Gaza - Guidance from DfE and Home Office 

Please see below details of guidance being issued from DfE and the Home Office with regards the current situation in Gaza.  Please share with appropriate colleagues.  If you have any concerns please contact Fiona Gibbs, Stronger Communities Manager and Prevent Lead: Email: fgibbs@hillingdon.gov.uk Mobile: 07946714637. 

Top Lines 

• The DfE are actively engaging with the sector, local authorities and the Community Security Trust (CST) to monitor and respond to concerns regarding an increase in antisemitic incidents effecting young people in education. Officials from the DfE are meeting with Jewish faith school providers tomorrow, to offer support and to discuss current concerns. 

• We expect schools to deal with anti-Semitic incidents at school with all due seriousness, in line with their behaviour policy. Teachers also have powers to discipline pupils for poor behaviour which takes place outside of the school. 

• This year the Government is providing £14 million through the Jewish Community protective Security Grant to provide protective security measures at Jewish schools, colleges, nurseries and synagogues.  

• The Educate Against Hate website provides support for schools to safeguard pupils from radicalisation and challenge racist and discriminatory beliefs.  

• We are urgently reviewing whether additional support, advice and guidance is needed for faith settings as well as all schools and colleges.  

• CST has a national emergency number which should be used to report antisemitic attacks, alongside calling 999: 0800 032 3263. 

• Tell Mama is a confidential support service for those suffering from anti-Muslim hate and discrimination across the UK. Their website features a number of different ways to report anti-Muslim incidents, including via phone or WhatsApp: Report in Anti-Muslim Hate or Islamophobia (tellmamauk.org).  

• The DfE Counter-Extremism helpline and online referral form to ensure those working in the sector and the public can report extremism concerns directly to the department to be investigated where appropriate 

Prevent Referrals (Home Office Lines) 

• Lawful non-violent protest or activism does not meet the threshold for Prevent referrals.  Holding legitimate political views is not an indicator for extremism provided they are not expressed or furthered by statements, deeds or actions which result in harassment, intimidation or threats of violence against individuals or society itself.  

• Hamas are a proscribed terrorist organisation in the UK, and professionals are right to be concerned where learners might express sympathies or outright support.  

• In this instance, professional judgement and adherence to the 'notice, check, share' process, is required to warrant whether a referral to Prevent is relevant in such cases.  

Prevent & Schools 

• Many young people will have a strong personal interest in these issues, and we are aware that in some schools this may lead to political activity by older pupils.

• Schools are expected to ensure that political expression by pupils is done sensitively, avoiding disruption and feelings of intimidation or targeting for other pupils and staff.   

• Schools should also make every effort to ensure that this activity does not extend to discriminatory bullying or involve the expression of antisemitic, anti-Muslim, or other discriminatory views.   

• Where this does happen, the Department for Education expect schools to deal with these incidents with all due seriousness, in line with their behaviour policy. 

• Depending on the circumstances, safeguarding leads may also look to determine whether abusive and discriminatory views expressed or shared by pupils are representative a wider susceptibility and consider the appropriateness of engaging with support through the Prevent programme.  

• We trust teachers and other staff to exercise their professional judgment about whether a referral is appropriate, as they do for all other safeguarding risks.  Further training and more discussion around radicalisation will help in addressing this, and advice and guidance is available on Educate Against Hate and GOV.UK to support safeguarding leads in making these decisions. 

Teacher Support Notes for the Israel Palestine Crisis

We have collated a range of reliable resources to support teachers in tackling some of the issues raised with pupils in their schools during this time.

Teacher briefing for Israel Palestine Resources SB October 2023.v3 (PDF) [560KB]

SEND Parents and Carers Survey 

Please can all settings share the link below with parents and carers to gain feedback on SEND services and provision in Hillingdon. The survey is live until Tuesday 31st October 2023. 

 Special educational needs and disabilities: Parents' survey - Hillingdon Council 

Reminder - Primary Assessment and Moderation 2023/24 

Please forward this Briefing Paper to your Assessment Leads. It contains important information relating to statutory guidance, training opportunities for KS2 teachers, along with a CPD offer to act as an LA Moderator. 

If you have any queries regarding assessment and moderation or require further support, please email schoolimprovementadmin@hillingdon.gov.uk 

Autumn School Census - Correcting Errors 

The deadline for maintained schools census returns is fast approaching.  As of Thursday 12th, October, 32% of maintained schools have not submitted their return.  From the COLLECT reports we can see only 8% of non-maintained schools (typically academies) have had their returns authorised.  Please could all schools submit their returns as soon as possible. 

We know the DfE will not Authorise census returns unless all errors or queries are properly addressed; therefore, we will not Approve those returns.  Error codes 4007Q, 4015Q, and 4017Q are prevalent.  Every school that has submitted their return has encountered 4015Q.  If you do not have any AP pupils, please enter a return level note of "4015Q - Confirmed as correct".  Anything else will fail the DfE automatic checks, and so delay authorisation of your return.  Please refer to the LEAP website for full set of the DfE and LBH guidance and specification documents at this URL: School Census - Leap (hillingdon.gov.uk). 

A quick analysis of the confirmed school errors is attached here  Autumn School Census - Correcting Errors doc (PDF) [127KB]

Please contact schoolcensus@hillingdon.gov.uk with any queries. 

Business Performance & Intelligence Team  

Reminder - Hillingdon Health Related Behaviour Survey 2023 

You are invited to participate in an important school-based survey focusing on the health and wellbeing of children and young people in Hillingdon.  As stated at the Headteacher Conference, this will be fully funded by the Council this year. 

The survey questions range widely over several health and lifestyle topics, including wellbeing, relationships, bullying diet and oral health, safety and school life. Schools will receive their own profile report and you will find out things like: 

• Whether boys or girls report more bullying behaviour in your school 

• If pupils in your school have better emotional wellbeing than those in the rest of Hillingdon 

• If pupils qualifying for free school meals who have SEND feel differently about your school than do others 

Your school profile report will provide broad and current evidence to inform self-evaluation and school improvement priorities and to plan health education and support based on the needs of your school.   

The survey is intended for use in Years 4 and 6 in primary schools and Years 8 and 10 in secondary schools. The responses collected from the young people are anonymous and confidential.  Your school profile will be kept confidential. 

There is no cost to schools and the survey period will take place in November 2023. Registration closes on 20th October. 

Please see this information sheet for more details:  Hillingdon Health-Related Behaviour Survey 2023 (PDF) [164KB] 

To register, please use https://www.sheu.org.uk/register and If you have any queries, please contact Julia Heggie, Public Health Team by email jheggie@hillingdon.gov.uk 

Religious Education in Hillingdon 

Ofsted have reiterated in their revised Education Inspection Framework Handbook (September 2023) that schools should be providing "a broad and balanced curriculum" with "a full range of subjects for as long as possible" to all pupils. This should include Religious Education in accordance with the statutory Agreed Syllabus with a time allocation of at least 5% of the curriculum. 

We keen to work with Hillingdon SACRE to support schools in delivering high quality RE, and this year will be supported by an experienced and enthusiastic specialist Advisor running bespoke CPD for our schools with the HLP. Stacey Burman has over 20 years' experience making a positive impact on the learning of pupils of all ages in a wide range of schools, including SEND, faith and PRUs, and across the spectrum of State, MAT and independent schools. These RE CPD sessions will include the collaborative sharing of evidence-informed classroom strategies, progressive curriculum materials, and subject knowledge development. Subject Leads will be supported to plan, deliver and monitor effective teaching and learning of RE across the school with measurable impact. 

The first of these sessions will be held for primaries on Monday 27th November 3.45  - 5.30pm and for secondary Heads of Department will be in person at Northwood Schol on Monday 4th December 3.45 - 5.30pm. These sessions will be available to all RE leads in schools, whether current members of the HLP or not. 

To help us boost your teachers' confidence and subject knowledge in delivering high-quality Religious Education, we would like to get in touch with your school's RE Subject Leader. We kindly ask you to complete this FORM with their details so that we can notify them of CPD support, keep them updated about free resources and any developments in the subject from Ofsted and beyond. 

We therefore look forward to hearing from you and seeing your RE Leads at the training in November.  

Learn Hillingdon Adult Community Learning 

We are here to support you to grow a talented workforce.  We have lots of professional development qualification courses to support your support staff including:

• Understanding Autism Level 2 Certificate 

• Understanding Adverse Childhood Experiences Level 2 Certificate 

• Understanding Specific Learning Difficulties Level 2 Certificate 

• Understanding Safeguarding and Prevent Level 2 Certificate 

• Understanding Domestic Abuse Level 2 Certificate 

• Understanding Children and Young People's Mental Health Level 2 Certificate 

Most of these qualification courses are delivered online (via google meet) in the evening, Please contact tdonnelly@hillingdon.gov.uk for more information or check out our website. 

We still have some places available on Level 2, 3 and 4 for teaching assistance and early years professionals. 

Remember to send us a copy of any job adverts for support staff, so that we can share this directly with our learners by contacting zwilson@hillingdon.gov.uk 

Adult Education Team

HLP - HFL KS1/2 Reading Fluency Project  

Date: 11th December 2023 

Time: 13:00 - 16:15 Via Zoom  

The KST English Hub is delighted to be partnering with HFL to bring you the highly successful HFL Reading Fluency Project. The Project incorporates the strategies of modelled expressive reading, echo reading, repeated re-reading, skilled questioning, challenging text selection and modelling comprehension skills, to improve the trajectory of pupils towards the expected standard in reading at the end of KS2. These sessions will provide an overview of the project and usable strategies to take back into your schools. 

Please note delegates will be required to complete the first interactive E-Learning module ahead of the session. 

Please click this LINK to book. 

NEW DATE ADDED! HFL Reading Fluency Project (PDF) [675KB]

Your Help to Support West London's Young Entrepreneurs 

The WLB Awards are now open for submissions.  One of the awards clusters - Next Generation - has dedicated categories focussed on supporting young entrepreneurs (under 12's; 13-18; 19-24) and Amazon will be providing a package of support worth over £1,000 to help them take their initiatives to the next stage.  This is a great prize for the winners (and potentially something for the runners up) which we are keen to promote to our schools and colleges. 

  You can read more  here.

Regards,

Abi Preston

Director of Education & SEND

Children's Services, London Borough of Hillingdon, 4E/07, Civic Centre, Uxbridge UB8 1UW