30th September 2024

Headteachers and Chair of Governors can sign up to LADO / Managing Allegations Training HERE

All Schools can register for 24/25 Educational Visits Coordinator Training HERE

Governors can sign up to Safeguarding Training HERE

Secondaries should share the Hillingdon Post 16 Prospectus 2024/25  with students, parents / carers, staff and governors

Schoos can sign up to discounted membership for The National College CPD Package & The School Bus. Please see The National College

Hillingdon LEAP can be accessed for information and guidance for all settings

Ongoing

Notification of Critical Incident  & contacts can be found here

Education Services contacts can be found here

HLP Course Booking

Ongoing

School Census Dates for Academic Year 2024/25

School Census Webinar

On Wednesday 2^nd October at 8:30 to 9:30 am we will be running a School Census webinar via MS Teams.  Please ask your Data Managers/School Business Managers to either attend or ask a colleague to attend in their place.  The purpose of this is:

• Introduce this year's changes.
• Attendance Code Changes.
• Using the DfE's software COLLECT.
• How to identify errors and queries.
• How to enter Return Level Notes.
• When to submit your return.
• Where to find supporting information.
• COLLECT Reports.

This webinar will be recorded, the recording will be stored on the LEAP website as soon as possible after the meeting closes. Please click here to join the session: School Census Webinar - Teams Meeting

DfE Autumn 2024 School Census Readiness Bulletin 2

The DfE sends bulletins to LA's, MIS suppliers, and service children education suppliers.  There are some important topics that are relevant to schools:

• Funding update & COLLECT funding Reports
• COLLECT duplicate reports
• New reports validation
• Known Issues, and
• Term-on-term validation

Please take a look at this PDF, which is a printout of the email sent to the LA, so please excuse any formatting anomalies:  School Census Readiness Bulletin (PDF) [772KB]

School Census - Changes to Absence Codes & New Ethnicity Codes

Absence Code Changes - the DfE has retired the Y, H, and J absence codes for the new academic year 2024/25 and introduced the following new absence codes:

• C1 - Absent with leave for the purpose of participating in a regulated performance
• C2 - Absent with leave, of compulsory school age and temporary reduced timetable does not require them to attend
• J1 - Absent with leave for the purpose of attending an interview for employment or for admission to another educational institution
• K - Attending a place, other than the school or another school at which they are a registered pupil, for educational provision arranged by LA.
• Q - Unable to attend because of lack of access arrangements by LA to facilitate their attendance
• Y1 - Unable to attend because school is not within walking distance of pupil's home and transport to and from school normally provided is not available
• Y2 - Unable to attend due to widespread disruption to travel caused by a local, national, or international emergency
• Y3 - Part of the school premises is unavoidably out of use and pupil cannot be accommodated in parts of the premises that remain in use
• Y4 - Whole school closed when school was due to meet for a session, but session has been cancelled
• Y5 - Unable to attend because pupil is subject to a sentence of detention
• Y6 - Travel to or attendance at school would be contrary/prohibited by guidance/law relating to incidence or transmission of infection or disease
• Y7 - Unable to attend because of any other unavoidable cause
• Z - Pupil's name entered in advance of start date

New Ethnicity Codes - Another change that the DfE has implemented in their 2024/25 data collections is the introduction of new ethnicity codes. They are:

• ABRI - Asian -British
• AWEL - Asian- Welsh
• BBRI - Black - British
• BWEL - Black- Welsh
• ORAB - Arab

The first data collection that will include these new ethnicities is the Autumn School Census.

If you have any census queries please contact schoolcensus@hillingdon.gov.uk

Consultations for School Place Planning

Please see the following consultations that went live on 25th September; details of which have been shared with schools.

Coteford Infant School consultation  - changes to Specialist Resourced Provision

Ruislip Gardens Primary School consultation - increase in age range of Assessment Base to include 2 years

The consultation period will end at 5pm on 25th October.

Consultations for 3 Schools to Lower their Age Range

Hillingdon Council proposes to lower the age range of children who can attend Colham Manor Primary School, Field End Infant School and Minet Infant School, in order that they can offer places to two-year-olds. These places would be available no later than September 2025.

To participate in the consultations, please read the statutory notice and full information on these webpages:

Colham Manor Primary School consultation

Field End Infant School consultation

Minet Infant and Nursery School consultation

You can respond to the consultations by completing the questionnaires or emailing fis@hillingdon.gov.uk. The consultation period will end at 5pm on 25th October.

Vulnerable Learners' Support Clinics

This academic year we are continuing to run our Vulnerable Learners' Support Clinics (VLSC). These virtual sessions will take place via MS Teams and open to all schools. The sessions will provide an opportunity for professionals working with our most at-risk young people to discuss concerns and receive advice.   

During the session you and the Vulnerable Learners Support Manager (VLSM) will explore useful strategies, interventions, opportunities for training and, if available, access to additional resources to support the pupil and school.

To register for a clinic please complete this online form. Once received, the Vulnerable Learners Support Manager will be in touch to arrange a meeting. We will aim to respond to a referral within 5 school days. 

M-PACT Programme

We are pleased to announce that the M-PACT programme launched in Hillingdon in September 2023 is now accepting referrals for Cohort 4 which will be delivered October - December 2024.

What is the M-PACT programme? How can it help the families you work with? 

M-PACT (Moving Parents and Children Together) is an evidence based whole family programme It is now one of the longest standing interventions for parental substance misuse in the UK and continues to be a unique and innovative programme, which puts children at its heart.

The overall objective of the programme is to improve the physical and psychological health of the children /young people effected by parental substance misuse. M-PACT supports families to address areas such as communication and coping strategies as well as educating family members on what addiction is and its impact on children and family life. M-PACT focuses on helping and supporting families to make positive changes. It puts children at its heart and ensures that children and young people living with parental substance misuse are safe, visible and their voices are heard. 

(524) The M- PACT Programme - YouTube 

Referral criteria: 

M-PACT is for families affected by parental substance misuse (illegals and/or prescribed substances) it offers a ten-session brief intervention that is suitable for families with children aged 8-17 years. Families work together in a friendly, safe, multi-family group environment.

Who can attend? 

• substance misusing adult (in treatment, recovery or willing to address the substance issue- must be sober on the days of delivery of the programme) 
• not substance misusing adult affected by drug and/or alcohol use of another adult in the family  
• all children in the family age 8-17 years old  
• a guardian or grandparents 
• in some cases, with parental consent, child can attend on their own   

Please be advised that the programme can accept a combination of any of the above  

Who cannot attend?  

• someone with diagnosis of serious mental health problems  
• family member where there is a possibility of increased risk of domestic violence to others due to taking part in the programme  

What is the family commitment? 

The programme structure consists of 10 sessions. An individual family assessment is followed by 8 core sessions and an individual family meeting to review the programme and make plans for the future. On week 10 families will be invited to an end of programme event. 

Referral process 

To refer to the MPACT in Hillingdon please click here: MPACT Referral Form

On completion of your referral the MPACT team will contact you to discuss the referral further. Selected families will be offered individual family assessment following which a decision will made as to their suitability for the programme. 

If you have any questions, please contact mpact@hillingdon.gov.uk.

Parents leaflet (PDF) [2MB]

Childrens leaflet (PDF) [1MB]

Gardening Training for Teachers

This year School Food Matters have been working with schools in Hillingdon as part of the School Garden Grants programme which promotes and encourages school garden projects. As part of the programme, we are delighted to invite schools to a fully funded half-day Gardening Training for Teacherssession.

The sessions are fully funded by the Whole Kids Foundation, so there is no cost to your school.

An overview of what will be covered:

• 3-hour training offers a unique opportunity for primary and secondary school staff to gain practical skills, tips and knowledge on how to use their school's green spaces for growing fruits and vegetables
• Inventive ways of how to teach children about food growing, with minimal equipment and maximum impact.
• Choosing and preparing your growing site
• What to grow and equipment
• Planting seeds including a practical activity
• How to care for your incredible edible plants as they grow

Two delegates from each school are encouraged to attend this unique course. Details are:

Date: Friday 18th October,

Time: 12.30 - 3.30 pm

Venue: The Douay Martyrs School, Edinburgh Drive, Ickenham, Uxbridge UB10 8QY

Please register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1022392773307?aff=oddtdtcreator to secure your place.

Circular Economy Week 2024

Hillingdon's Waste and Recycling Team is inviting Hillingdon Schools to support Circular Economy Week by educating pupils of all ages (and school staff) the meaning of a circular economy and how our actions can help to transition from the current 'take, make, use, dispose' (also called linear) economy to a circular one where everything is reused over and over again, repaired and recycled, minimizing the use of new resources and not harming the environment.

You can use various online sources, such as National Geographic for Kids.

Please encourage pupils living in Hillingdon to use the free services available in the borough, including free home textile (clothing and shoes) collections with TRAID, recycling small electricals in the pink bins located in all Hillingdon Libraries, recycling their food waste at home, etc.

You can email the recycling team for further guidance and advice at recycling@hillingdon.gov.uk.

Free Breakfast Clubs for Primary Schools - Early Adopter Opportunities Available

The Chancellor has announced that up to 750 state funded schools with primary aged pupils will begin delivering free breakfast clubs from April 2025. Funding will allow these schools to run free breakfast clubs for their pupils in the summer term (April to July 2025) as part of a test and learn phase to inform delivery of a national rollout.  HMT press notice.

Schools that are interested to find out more about becoming an early adopter can sign up here to be notified as further information is available.

If you have any queries please email breakfastclubs.earlyadopters@education.gov.uk.

The Skills Hub Primary Provision Commissioned Places Register of Interest

TSH Primary Provision opened after October half term 2023.  We are looking to extend our offer of Primary Commissioned Placements to all schools in the Hillingdon Borough.  We ran a successful six-week pilot programme in the summer term.  Last week an email was sent to all primary heads with a view to collating a register of interest so that we can identify need and devise a plan for Autumn 2024.  

Key Placement Information:

Duration:  Six weeks (consecutive block)

Cost: £2,500

Unfortunately, we do not have any capacity to fund transport.

PLEASE NOTE:  This is for children who do NOT have an EHCP.

If you are interested in an Autumn six-week placement, please contact Sandra Solomon at ssolomon@theskillshub.org or phone: 01895 447 102.

Sandra Solomon
Behaviour Support Team, Re-integration & Primary Provision Lead, The Skills Hub

The Daily Mile

In Hillingdon 38% of children in Year 6 are classified as overweight or very overweight, making childhood obesity a Public Health priority.

The Daily Mile provides a fun, social and regular opportunity for children of all ages and abilities to get outside in the fresh air to walk, run and jog for 15 minutes. Evidence shows The Daily Mile has a positive impact on childhood obesity as well as improved focus and concentration.

The Public Health Team are supporting schools to implement this through training, access to resources and support to evaluate the impact.

Please complete this short FORM by 11th October to help us plan our support to start after October half term.

We are particularly keen to hear from schools who have:

• A commitment and aspiration to implement The Daily Mile on at least 3 days a week across the school and conducted almost all year-round by March 2025.
• A member of the Senior Leadership team within the school to support implementation
• Identified how The Daily Mile will impact pupils' health and wellbeing.

Please contact Mekaya Gittens, Sports and Physical Activity Officer,Public Health Team at mgittens@hillingdon.gov.uk if you have any queries.

Free Interactive Event with Author Joseph Coelho For Years 4, 5, 6

Authors Aloud UK and Walker Books invite your school to have a bonfire night sparkler and join award-winning and bestselling children's author Joseph Coelho to celebrate publication of his new book Relic Hamilton - Genie Hunter, the first in an exciting new series.

This FREE event for schools will take place on Tuesday 5^th November 10 - 11am and will include a quiz and the chance to help build a poem on genies together.

Please register to attend here.

Please share with parents / carers

Learn Hillingdon Wider Family Learning Autumn Workshops 2024

WFL Autumn 24 Programme (PDF) [76KB]

What About SEND?

A virtual session for SENCos and Career Leads to discuss guidance on preparing young people for adulthood when it comes to careers leaders and SENDCo's working in unison. 

What about SEND (PDF) [50KB]

KISS LGBTQ+ Group

KISS LGBTQ+ group information sheet (PDF) [2MB]