LA Education Weekly Update

24th June 2024

Dear Colleagues,

Please find our weekly briefing below to cascade to your colleagues who can respond on behalf of your team, school or setting.

Reminders:
Schools can participate in the Gypsy, Roma, Traveller History Month competition. Full details can be found here	by 28th June
Schools are asked to complete the Music In Schools Survey. Thank you to those schools who have already	By 28^th June
Schools and Colleges are invited to participate in the Whole School SEND Professional Development Group. Click here to sign up	By 4th July
All primaries should complete the School Food Matters Survey for Headteachers	By 19^th July
Hillingdon LEAP can be accessed for information and guidance for all settings	Ongoing
Notification of Critical Incident & contacts can be found here	Ongoing
Education Services contacts can be found here	Ongoing
The SEND & Inclusion Training Brochure can be viewed here	Ongoing
The HLP Brochure can be viewed at Hillingdon Learning Partnership	Ongoing

For Action All Schools:

Headteachers Termly Summer 2024

Thank you to those who were able to attend the meeting last week. Please see pdf of slides used in the session:

Headteachers Termly Summer 2024 slides (PDF) [2MB]

Assure Updates (Reducing administration)

Assure has changed to reduce the administration associated with non-work-related incidents. Incidents reported as 'non-work-related' now auto submit and approve. Incidents reported as 'work-related' will follow the current process of being investigated by managers and approved by senior managers.

Employees who report incidents will need to use the guidance within Assure to determine if the incident is 'work-related' and check a box within the report if they believe it is.

Just because an incident occurs at work does not always mean it is work-related. A work-related incident means 'arising out of or in connection with work.' Some examples are provided below:

*Non Work Related*	*Work Related*
An employee's shoelaces were loose. As they were moving, they tripped over these which led to them falling and sustaining an injury.	An employee tripped and fell over an electrical cable running along the floor (which was not covered or protected) sustaining an injury.
Two pupils in the playground are fighting, one ends up with a bloody nose.	A pupil verbally threatens a member of staff.
An employee crashes their car on the way to work in the morning, they are unhurt, but the car is damaged.	An employee crashes their car on the way back to the school from a meeting at another site, they are unhurt but the car is damaged.

Updated 'how do I' guides can be found on the school's portal - Schools (sheassure.net)

School MIS Systems - Latest version of CTF template - please share with Data leads

There has been an issue with some schools using out of date CTF templates. This results in uploads to the Nexus system (the LA's equivalent to Perspective Lite) failing.

The latest version is 23, and from 01/09/2024 it to will be superseded by Version 24. Could we please ask you contact your MIS support organisation to ensure they will be updating your system appropriately?

As far as we know out-of-date versions are not impacting CTF files used for pupil transfers between schools. We have only seen this impact submission of early years assessment data.

Marc Sherman, Business Intelligence Team

Learn Hillingdon Adult Community Education

Hillingdon Council's Learn Hillingdon Adult and Community Education prospectus for 2024/25 will be available shortly with hundreds of part-time day and evening courses to help your staff gain new skills or gain a qualification.

Learn Hillingdon can help develop career paths such as an early years' practitioner in nurseries or pre-schools, or for support roles in primary and secondary schools, including learning support assistants, teaching assistants or learning mentors.

Please keep an eye on our website for more information: Learn Hillingdon - Hillingdon Council

Please share with parents / carers / staff / students

The Mayors Picnic in the Park

This free entertainment event for all residents is being held on Saturday 29^th June at Barra Hall Park. Please share the link below and display the poster around your setting.

The Mayor's Picnic in the Park - Discover Hillingdon

POSTER Picnic_in_the_Park_A3_poster (PDF) [873KB]

Please share with parents / carers / staff / students

New Council E-Newsletter for Children, Young People and Families

Please sign up to our new e-newsletter here: https://www.hillingdon.gov.uk/enews

For Action Primary Schools:
Lowering School Age Range to Take 2 Year Olds From April 2024, working families with two-year-olds who meet income criteria have been able to receive up to 30 hours of funded childcare. In Hillingdon, this has meant that an additional 1,044 two-year-olds received funded childcare hours this term, compared to last term. The LA needs to check if any schools wish to lower their age range to take two-year-olds in to their school nursery. There is a process that schools need to follow to do this and therefore, please can you complete the enclosed short online form, so we can be aware of which schools they need to work with for this. If your school has already notified the local authority that it intends to lower its age range in this way, you do not need to complete this form. If you have any queries, please email fis@hillingdon.gov.uk.
Data for School Nursery Attendance In addition to the termly schools' census, primary and infant schools submit a spreadsheet to the LA monthly, for children attending their school nursery classes. From September, the method of returning this data will be change. Instead, schools will submit this data on the Provider Portal, an online secure means of transferring the information. This is the same system that 81% of primary and infant schools in the borough already use to submit funding claims for children who can access up to 30 hours nursery provision. Schools will also need to return this information once a term, rather than each month. Guidance and a timetable for the return of the data will be sent to all primary and infant schools before the end of term. If you have any queries, please email fis@hillingdon.gov.uk.

For Action Primary Schools:

Lowering School Age Range to Take 2 Year Olds

From April 2024, working families with two-year-olds who meet income criteria have been able to receive up to 30 hours of funded childcare. In Hillingdon, this has meant that an additional 1,044 two-year-olds received funded childcare hours this term, compared to last term.

The LA needs to check if any schools wish to lower their age range to take two-year-olds in to their school nursery. There is a process that schools need to follow to do this and therefore, please can you complete the enclosed short online form, so we can be aware of which schools they need to work with for this. If your school has already notified the local authority that it intends to lower its age range in this way, you do not need to complete this form.

If you have any queries, please email fis@hillingdon.gov.uk.

Data for School Nursery Attendance

In addition to the termly schools' census, primary and infant schools submit a spreadsheet to the LA monthly, for children attending their school nursery classes. From September, the method of returning this data will be change. Instead, schools will submit this data on the Provider Portal, an online secure means of transferring the information. This is the same system that 81% of primary and infant schools in the borough already use to submit funding claims for children who can access up to 30 hours nursery provision. Schools will also need to return this information once a term, rather than each month. Guidance and a timetable for the return of the data will be sent to all primary and infant schools before the end of term.

If you have any queries, please email fis@hillingdon.gov.uk.

For Action Secondary Schools:
*Please share with your students* Volunteers Needed Every year, Hillingdon Libraries deliver the Summer Reading Challenge from July to September. We need young people (aged 14-years-old and over) who are reliable, enthusiastic, organised, creative, enjoy working with children, and speaking with members of the public of all ages and backgrounds. It's a great opportunity to gain experience working in a library, work as part of a team and engage with members of the public. Find out more here: Summer Reading Challenge volunteers - Hillingdon Council Library Summer Volunteering A4 Poster (PDF) [1MB]

For Action Secondary Schools:

Please share with your students

Volunteers Needed

Every year, Hillingdon Libraries deliver the Summer Reading Challenge from July to September. We need young people (aged 14-years-old and over) who are reliable, enthusiastic, organised, creative, enjoy working with children, and speaking with members of the public of all ages and backgrounds. It's a great opportunity to gain experience working in a library, work as part of a team and engage with members of the public.

Find out more here: Summer Reading Challenge volunteers - Hillingdon Council

Library Summer Volunteering A4 Poster (PDF) [1MB]

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