LA Education Weekly Update
16th December 2024
This email can also be viewed online here
Dear Colleagues,
As we approach the end of another remarkable year, I want to take a moment to express my heartfelt gratitude for your dedication and efforts in leading our schools. Your commitment to excellence and the wellbeing of our students has been truly inspiring.
I cannot believe it's that time of year again. I know in schools it's an incredibly busy time for school staff but also one that is often filled with joy and excitement. It's certainly the time of year where I miss being in schools the most.
Firstly, I wanted to acknowledge and thank the leaders who have put in considerable time and effort to develop the new mainstream SEND banding framework with the support of Helen Redding. It's an impressive example of co-production and we are grateful to all of you for investing your time in this and being part of something that will likely be in Hillingdon for some years to come. This piece of work has been key to ensuring we have a fair and transparent funding approach that is consistent across the borough. We look forward to seeing the outcomes of the work the special school banding group have been developing soon.
A new SEND sufficiency strategy will be shared with you shortly, along with the new education strategy. Whilst strategies are not the be all and end all, they are important to have in place to set the direction of travel for partners and share common goals that we can all work together on. We hope you find these useful documents to support your strategic plans.
Schools have been experiencing quite a number of Ofsted inspections this term and we are really proud of the outcomes achieved. Hillingdon has fantastic schools for our residents and we are appreciative of all the work you and your teams are doing to deliver a high quality education (and so much more) to your children.
I understand that all of this has been achieved in challenging times with financial constraints and recruitment challenges in some areas. As a borough, we are on a journey. We have come a long way in developing partnership working and appreciate we have a way to go working in partnership with each other, health and various other stakeholders. The team and I have high aspirations for where we are heading and we hope you are equally as aspirational about what we can achieve together. One message I wanted to make clear is that we want to hear more about what we can do to support schools further, how we can work together more and collectively improve outcomes together. Please do share with us your views and thoughts on what would be helpful.
As we look ahead, I am confident that we will continue to build on these successes and achieve even greater heights. Thank you once again for your exceptional leadership and dedication. I am truly grateful for all that you do, and I look forward to another year of collaboration and success.
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: |
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Governors can register to attend the 'Achievement for All' Session HERE | on 21/01/25 |
| Development Day for DSLs - further details to be shared soon | 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 |
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For Action All Schools: | ||||||||||||
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Schools Forum Meeting - 5th December 2024 Papers from this meeting can be accessed here: Hillingdon Schools Forum - Hillingdon Council
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Early Support Funding (ESF) We are pleased to announce that the working group has convened over the past term to discuss the ESF banding review. As a result, the guidance has been updated to reflect these changes, which will be shared with schools in January.
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Understanding Adverse Childhood Experiences (Online course) Please see details of this course below to share with your staff. If you have any queries or questions please contact Tracey Donnelly at TDonnelly@hillingdon.gov.uk _PLDO1003 Understanding Adverse Childhood Experiences (Word doc, 2 MB)
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Learn Hillingdon Adult Community Education We are here to support you grow a talented workforce. Our skills assessments for new course starting in the Spring Term are now open. You can choose at date for a skills assessment here Skills Assessment Booking Form You can look at all our courses including qualifications and short learning programmes here Learn Hillingdon Adult Community Education If you have an inquiry, please complete this form and we will get back to you Enquiry Form And to share with your parents / carers: Need something to do with your child/children before Christmas?
Book onto one of these free sessions! You will complete an activity with your child/children and meet other parents/children. The sessions are for one adult with up to two children age 5+. Parents are responsible for their child/children. To book onto a session (maximum of 3) please email: familylearning@hae-acl.ac.uk or call 01895 556252.
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Team Teach Courses Team Teach Level 1 & 2 To view the Team Teach Level 1 and Level 2 agendas please see the links below: Click here to view Team Teach Level 2 agenda.pdf Team Teach Level 1 To view the Team Teach Level 1 agenda please see the link below: To reserve your space or simply find out more please email info@changing-behaviour.co.uk
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Mental Health Festival for Schools For the last 12 years Young Minds have provided schools with live performances along with strong PSHE messages that take place on the school premises. They are currently orchestrating their first inaugural event, "Mental Health To Last," which is a blend of live music performances and insightful discussions on mental health. This event will take place on Tuesday 1st July 2025 at the 02 Indigo at the 02 Arena in Greenwich. Headliners of the show will be X Factor winners Rak-Su. Numerous other artists will also be performing which you can see in the attached flyer. This pioneering event aims to merge enthralling musical performances with vital PSHE themes, emphasising mental health. Mental Health To Last - Promo Video Designed as a seated experience, there will be two sessions on the day, at 11am and 1:30pm, each accommodating up to 1,600 students. It promises to be an unforgettable field trip, showcasing a variety of musical talents while conveying crucial messages on mental health from the artists and our charity partners. They are expecting this event to sell out very fast, but wanted to offer this to schools first before advertising it out to everyone. At this stage schools can reserve a number of tickets with payments being taken in February. Ticket prices are tiered dependent on how many tickets each school buys:
Coach parking: £19 per coach which covers 6 hours at the venue. If your school is interested in this opportunity, please contact Lee White at mentalhealthtolast@theprimeagency.com or call on 07921195659. Website details: www.theprimeagency.com/events
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Please share with your parents / carers Brilliant Parents - Parent Carer Champion Programme Dear Parents and Carers, We are currently in a transitional period with the Parent Carer Champion programme to facilitate work on improving the service, to better support Hillingdon families. However, please know we are here and will be continuing our Parent Carer Champion Programme in the New Year. A huge part of the programme is the delivery of the peer-to-peer support which exists through our amazing volunteers who want to give back, as they themselves are experiencing or have experienced the myriads of challenges faced by parents and carers today. We are currently recruiting for our next cohort of volunteers and are reaching out to see if you would like the opportunity to receive training that will benefit you and your family, whilst also providing emotional support to another parent. Please see the attached and get in touch for any further information: PCC register interest QR (PDF, 387 KB) In the meantime, if you would like to join our WhatsApp Community to receive announcements for Parenting support in Hillingdon, you can join by following the link below. https://chat.whatsapp.com/LrCaAhhPwBf2eewMyy7T7U Best Wishes, Raj Soor, Volunteer Coordinator for Brilliant Parents
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Please share with your parents / carers Fire Safety - E Scooters and E Bikes - Charge Safe Campaign London Fire Brigade are undertaking some awareness raising activity around fire hazards associated with charging e-bikes and e-scooters. You can get a sense of the severity of the fires in this 30s video: Lithium Battery Scooter Fire Please share this document with your wider community: Reducing Fire Risk E-Scooters & Bikes (PDF, 450 KB)
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Warm regards,
Abi Preston
Director of Education & SEND
Children's Services, London Borough of Hillingdon, 4E/07, Civic Centre, Uxbridge UB8 1UW
For previous LA Education Weekly Updates please click here
