27th January 2025

Dear Colleagues,

Please forward this email to the leads in your settings or team members who might be interested in the content, so they can follow up the relevant offers. Thank you in advance.

Reminders:
Year 6 teachers can sign up to KS2 Writing Assessment and Moderation Briefing Session 2 HERE	on 13/02/25
DSLs can sign up to attend 'Strengthening Safeguarding: Best Practices for School Leaders' HERE	on 04/04/25
Schools' Forum meeting papers can be accessed here	Ongoing
Emergency closures of all schools must be reported to education@hillingdon.gov.uk	Ongoing
Notification of Critical Incident can be found here	Ongoing
Education Services contacts can be found here	Ongoing
Hillingdon LEAP can be accessed for information and guidance for all settings	Ongoing
HLP Course Booking	Ongoing

For Action All Schools:
School Census Update Thank you all for your patience concerning the recent census specification issues. These have been addressed and schools should resume submitting their returns. As of 23^{rd of} January, the submission status for maintained schools was: image 40% of schools have not submitted their returns, please remember the Reports Query adds 3-days to the processing time. If you reload your return or make any amendments in COLLECT the 3-day cycle starts again. For the maintained schools that have submitted or loaded their returns there are 108 errors/queries. Please log into COLLECT and resolve these errors/queries -this is your return, your funding, your pupils, and your data. Our role is to only Approve your return. Please make sure your Notes are in the DfE Acceptable format and content. Authorisation will take longer if your notes do not conform to the DfE's standards. Duplicate pupils - there are 2 reports that identify potential duplicate pupils. We are finding some schools generate new UPNs when a child joins them. This has the potential to impact the new school's funding. The DfE can split the funding across both schools. The old school is then receiving funding for a pupil who has left them. This also happens where schools do not off-roll children. Marc Sherman, Business Intelligence Team
LA Schools' Governance Support Helen Boundy has recently been appointed as the Governance Support Officer within the Education Improvement & Partnerships Service. A key part of Helen's role will be to strengthen the relationship between schools, governors and the LA. We are looking to provide more governor development and training opportunities throughout the year and will keep you updated when these will be. If you have any suggestions as to what specific areas you would like covered, please do let us know. Helen can be contact at schoolgovernance@hillingdon.gov.uk and can support with governance advice and guidance or any governance related issues you may have.
'Achievement for All Session' for Governors Governors were invited to attend this recent session to look at the Council's new Education Strategy and the area wide priorities for the next few years, with a particular focus on disadvantaged children. Discussions were around the Hillingdon picture and ways governors can challenge and support the key actions schools are involved in. A recording of the session and slides used can be found on LEAP here.
Recycling Toolkit To support the council's ambition to reduce contamination in dry mixed recycling, we have launched a children-focused campaign, called 'That's not my recycling bag'. Using a format most children will recognise from the popular book series, the campaign highlights the top contaminants found in dry mixed recycling across our borough and encourages children to make sure the adults in their home 'take two seconds to check whether items can or can't be recycled in Hillingdon'. In this Recycling Toolkit, you'll find a short video for you to show in class, featuring the top items children need to keep an eye out for and help make sure they are not going into the recycling - at home or at school. You'll also find some fun, recycling-themed activities for you to print off as and when you need them, as well as some top tips to help your school recycle as much as possible and a printable certificate for any standout performers in your classes. We'd really love it if you can accommodate some of this into your lessons during the term and help with our ambition for educating children and their families and creating a greener future. If you'd like to arrange a visit to your school from our recycling team to talk about this in more depth, please email recycling@hillingdon.gov.uk Find out more about what you can and can't recycle in Hillingdon at www.hillingdon.gov.uk/dry-mixed-recycling
The Great Cable Challenge Hillingdon Council's Recycling team is inviting primary and secondary schools across the borough to take part in the Cable Challenge - to see how many unwanted old cables they can recycle. The challenge starts on Monday 10^th February and finishes on Friday 14th March. We will deliver 240L pink electrical recycling bins to all participating schools the week of 3^rd - 7^th February and collect them the week after the competition closes. The competition is free to enter and encourages your school to increase its recycling and compete with other schools across the borough to see who can recycle the most! The winning school will be determined by how many kilograms of cables they've collected (our team will weigh the bins at Harefield Civic Amenity Site) and will be offered £100 towards purchasing repairing kits from Team Repair. Many schools have already signed up, so you won't want to miss out! Please fill in your information using this link: https://forms.office.com/e/JH9rDfJSqk Deadline for entry is 31st January 2024. Please contact the recycling team at recycling@hillingdon.gov.uk for further advice or information.
*Please share with parents / carers* Learn Hillingdon - Childminding Training Since the pandemic the number of trained childminders has significantly dropped across the borough. Add to this the need for more wrap around care and the changes in childcare funding we are now facing a 'crunch' point. Here at Learn Hillingdon we offer Childminding Training including support from the Childminding team within the council. CHO1039 - Introduction to Childminding is an 8-week course to help prospective childminders understand: About the course \| ontrack: Learner Hub Safeguarding and welfare, including the new EYFS Framework and ELG's Observation and assessment and planning for development opportunities Planning for their business Planning for registration and initial Ofsted visit The course starts Tuesday 25th February (online) 6.30 pm - 9.30 pm. Becoming a childminder offers: Flexible working hours that suit you and your family Working from your own home Making a positive impact for children, parents and the wider community For more information, including how to attend one of our childminding briefings, please email tdonnelly@hillingdon.gov.uk
Register your School's Defibrillator Has your school registered its defibrillator yet? If not, please do so now! The Department for Education rolled out defibrillators to state-funded schools throughout 2022-2023. With over 8 million pupils and staff in schools nationwide, and one-third of cardiac arrests occurring within 300 metres of a school, your school's defibrillator could save many lives. Please spend 5 minutes registering your defibrillator, this will ensure emergency services can locate it quickly. Please support your local community and don't let an unregistered defibrillator be the missing link in an emergency.
Cheque Fraud Alert Please see an intelligence alert from NAFN regarding a school, elsewhere in the country, being a victim of cheque fraud. Please be mindful if receiving cheques. Cheque_Fraud_Alert_Children_in_Need_24012025 (PDF, 125 KB)

For Action All Schools:

School Census Update

Thank you all for your patience concerning the recent census specification issues. These have been addressed and schools should resume submitting their returns. As of 23^{rd of} January, the submission status for maintained schools was:

image

40% of schools have not submitted their returns, please remember the Reports Query adds 3-days to the processing time. If you reload your return or make any amendments in COLLECT the 3-day cycle starts again.

For the maintained schools that have submitted or loaded their returns there are 108 errors/queries. Please log into COLLECT and resolve these errors/queries -this is your return, your funding, your pupils, and your data. Our role is to only Approve your return. Please make sure your Notes are in the DfE Acceptable format and content. Authorisation will take longer if your notes do not conform to the DfE's standards.

Duplicate pupils - there are 2 reports that identify potential duplicate pupils. We are finding some schools generate new UPNs when a child joins them. This has the potential to impact the new school's funding. The DfE can split the funding across both schools. The old school is then receiving funding for a pupil who has left them. This also happens where schools do not off-roll children.

Marc Sherman, Business Intelligence Team

LA Schools' Governance Support

Helen Boundy has recently been appointed as the Governance Support Officer within the Education Improvement & Partnerships Service. A key part of Helen's role will be to strengthen the relationship between schools, governors and the LA.

We are looking to provide more governor development and training opportunities throughout the year and will keep you updated when these will be. If you have any suggestions as to what specific areas you would like covered, please do let us know.

Helen can be contact at schoolgovernance@hillingdon.gov.uk and can support with governance advice and guidance or any governance related issues you may have.

'Achievement for All Session' for Governors

Governors were invited to attend this recent session to look at the Council's new Education Strategy and the area wide priorities for the next few years, with a particular focus on disadvantaged children. Discussions were around the Hillingdon picture and ways governors can challenge and support the key actions schools are involved in.

A recording of the session and slides used can be found on LEAP here.

Recycling Toolkit

To support the council's ambition to reduce contamination in dry mixed recycling, we have launched a children-focused campaign, called 'That's not my recycling bag'.

Using a format most children will recognise from the popular book series, the campaign highlights the top contaminants found in dry mixed recycling across our borough and encourages children to make sure the adults in their home 'take two seconds to check whether items can or can't be recycled in Hillingdon'.

In this Recycling Toolkit, you'll find a short video for you to show in class, featuring the top items children need to keep an eye out for and help make sure they are not going into the recycling - at home or at school.

You'll also find some fun, recycling-themed activities for you to print off as and when you need them, as well as some top tips to help your school recycle as much as possible and a printable certificate for any standout performers in your classes.

We'd really love it if you can accommodate some of this into your lessons during the term and help with our ambition for educating children and their families and creating a greener future.

If you'd like to arrange a visit to your school from our recycling team to talk about this in more depth, please email recycling@hillingdon.gov.uk

Find out more about what you can and can't recycle in Hillingdon at www.hillingdon.gov.uk/dry-mixed-recycling

The Great Cable Challenge

Hillingdon Council's Recycling team is inviting primary and secondary schools across the borough to take part in the Cable Challenge - to see how many unwanted old cables they can recycle.

The challenge starts on Monday 10^th February and finishes on Friday 14th March. We will deliver 240L pink electrical recycling bins to all participating schools the week of 3^rd - 7^th February and collect them the week after the competition closes.

The competition is free to enter and encourages your school to increase its recycling and compete with other schools across the borough to see who can recycle the most!

The winning school will be determined by how many kilograms of cables they've collected (our team will weigh the bins at Harefield Civic Amenity Site) and will be offered £100 towards purchasing repairing kits from Team Repair.

Many schools have already signed up, so you won't want to miss out!

Please fill in your information using this link: https://forms.office.com/e/JH9rDfJSqk

Deadline for entry is 31st January 2024.

Please contact the recycling team at recycling@hillingdon.gov.uk for further advice or information.

Please share with parents / carers

Learn Hillingdon - Childminding Training

Since the pandemic the number of trained childminders has significantly dropped across the borough. Add to this the need for more wrap around care and the changes in childcare funding we are now facing a 'crunch' point.

Here at Learn Hillingdon we offer Childminding Training including support from the Childminding team within the council.

CHO1039 - Introduction to Childminding is an 8-week course to help prospective childminders understand: About the course | ontrack: Learner Hub

Safeguarding and welfare, including the new EYFS Framework and ELG's
Observation and assessment and planning for development opportunities
Planning for their business
Planning for registration and initial Ofsted visit

The course starts Tuesday 25th February (online) 6.30 pm - 9.30 pm. Becoming a childminder offers:

Flexible working hours that suit you and your family
Working from your own home
Making a positive impact for children, parents and the wider community

For more information, including how to attend one of our childminding briefings, please email tdonnelly@hillingdon.gov.uk

Register your School's Defibrillator

Has your school registered its defibrillator yet? If not, please do so now!

The Department for Education rolled out defibrillators to state-funded schools throughout 2022-2023. With over 8 million pupils and staff in schools nationwide, and one-third of cardiac arrests occurring within 300 metres of a school, your school's defibrillator could save many lives.

Please spend 5 minutes registering your defibrillator, this will ensure emergency services can locate it quickly. Please support your local community and don't let an unregistered defibrillator be the missing link in an emergency.

Cheque Fraud Alert

Please see an intelligence alert from NAFN regarding a school, elsewhere in the country, being a victim of cheque fraud. Please be mindful if receiving cheques.

Cheque_Fraud_Alert_Children_in_Need_24012025 (PDF, 125 KB)

For Action Primary Schools:
LA KS2 Writing Moderation Cluster Session This session, suitable for Year 6 teachers, will be held in Committee Room 5 at the Civic Centre, Uxbridge on Thursday 6th March 2025 at 9 am - 12.30 pm. The session will provide teachers with the opportunity to work together with our LA Moderators to explore standards and expectations in KS2 writing. Register to attend here Benefits of a Nutritious Breakfast Webinar - Hillingdon Schools only Thursday 6th February 2025 4 - 5 pm Ahead of the national rollout of the Government's school breakfast programme, this webinar will explore the benefits of a nutritious breakfast, how to apply school food standards throughout the school day, and a range of breakfast club models that work in different settings. There will also be a Q&A about delivering great breakfasts during the webinar. Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1152514063589?aff=oddtdtcreator
My First Love: FREE Maths Event Big Ideas is holding a primary school Maths event for Valentine's Day and would love for some Hillingdon primary schools to take part. Celebrate Maths with special guest computer scientist Dr Herb Daly. Fun and interactive, this free online workshop is open to upper primary school classes. Book your place here: https://www.big-ideas.org/live-projects/my-first-love-maths/ My First Love Maths Flyer 2025 (PDF, 1 MB)

For Action Primary Schools:

LA KS2 Writing Moderation Cluster Session

This session, suitable for Year 6 teachers, will be held in Committee Room 5 at the Civic Centre, Uxbridge on Thursday 6th March 2025 at 9 am - 12.30 pm. The session will provide teachers with the opportunity to work together with our LA Moderators to explore standards and expectations in KS2 writing.

Benefits of a Nutritious Breakfast Webinar - Hillingdon Schools only

Thursday 6th February 2025 4 - 5 pm

Ahead of the national rollout of the Government's school breakfast programme, this webinar will explore the benefits of a nutritious breakfast, how to apply school food standards throughout the school day, and a range of breakfast club models that work in different settings. There will also be a Q&A about delivering great breakfasts during the webinar.

My First Love: FREE Maths Event

Big Ideas is holding a primary school Maths event for Valentine's Day and would love for some Hillingdon primary schools to take part.

Celebrate Maths with special guest computer scientist Dr Herb Daly. Fun and interactive, this free online workshop is open to upper primary school classes. Book your place here: https://www.big-ideas.org/live-projects/my-first-love-maths/

My First Love Maths Flyer 2025 (PDF, 1 MB)

For Action Secondary Schools:
Opportunity for Year 13 Students to apply for Environmental Health (EH) Apprenticeship at Middlesex University This opportunity is conditional on meeting entry requirements and University enrolment (for the Level 6 Apprenticeship) Tuition fees paid for through Apprenticeship Levy Salary to be paid with annual leave Advertising in run up to Easter Based at the Civic Centre in Uxbridge. On days and periods where there are no taught classes at the university or programmed study periods, the successful candidate will undertake work in the Public Protection and Enforcement to develop the practical skills of an Environmental Health Practitioner. Becoming an Environmental Health Practitioner is a rewarding career path, as it involves ensuring public health and safety through environmental protection and food regulation. Please see: Apprenticeships in environmental health If any students would like to discuss further or would like to join the team for work experience, please contact Oliver at odarius@hillingdon.gov.ukor alternatively call 01895 277475.

For Action Secondary Schools:

Opportunity for Year 13 Students to apply for Environmental Health (EH) Apprenticeship at Middlesex University

This opportunity is conditional on meeting entry requirements and University enrolment (for the Level 6 Apprenticeship)

Tuition fees paid for through Apprenticeship Levy
Salary to be paid with annual leave
Advertising in run up to Easter
Based at the Civic Centre in Uxbridge.

On days and periods where there are no taught classes at the university or programmed study periods, the successful candidate will undertake work in the Public Protection and Enforcement to develop the practical skills of an Environmental Health Practitioner.

Becoming an Environmental Health Practitioner is a rewarding career path, as it involves ensuring public health and safety through environmental protection and food regulation. Please see: Apprenticeships in environmental health

If any students would like to discuss further or would like to join the team for work experience, please contact Oliver at odarius@hillingdon.gov.ukor alternatively call 01895 277475.

Warm regards,

Abi Preston

Director of Education & SEND

Children's Services, London Borough of Hillingdon, Civic Centre, Uxbridge UB8 1UW