Director's Message - 29th June 2020
Dear Colleagues,
Education structure update
As many of you know, our education structure plans were placed on hold during Covid-19. I am pleased to update that these are now moving forward. I would like to welcome Ming Zhang, who has been appointed as our (Interim) Deputy Director for Education. Ming has previously worked with the LA and has led other LAs' education services, including a leading role in working with the Kent Association of Headteachers and Kent County Council in reshaping the local partnership system in the 12 Districts, as well as transforming and leading the County-wide strategy and operations of Education Inclusion Services, Alternative Provision, Health Needs Schools and School Improvement.
Iris Cerny will continue as our Senior School Improvement Lead and support Ming with the transition into the new structure over the Autumn term.
Paul Wiggins and Maria Coles, our Primary School Improvement Links (SILs), will end their roles in July as we recruit permanent SILs to start in September. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Paul and Maria for their commitment and dedication in supporting schools over the last 5 years and wish them well in their next venture.
I will keep you updated with the education structure changes as they develop.
School closures
We have had a few queries relating to school closures for 2020/21, mainly on the legal position of starting a few days later than originally planned to support with preparing for the start of the new academic year. Legally schools must meet for at least 380 sessions or 190 days during any school year to educate their pupils. If a school is prevented from meeting for one or more sessions because of an unavoidable event, the school should find a practical way of holding extra sessions. If it cannot find a practical way of doing this then it is not required to make up the lost sessions. In the current circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic, only the Central Government has the authority to make or change the rule on the statutory school days while a school governing body may make a decision to close a school if an unavoidable event has prevented schools from opening. The Local Authority's advice is that all schools should now prepare for reopening to receive all pupils in September.
Pupil data collation offer
We have previously shared a solution from the NCER which will allow schools to upload their provisional data. If your school hasn't already done so, could you please confirm whether you would like to take up this offer by emailing SBuckingham@hillingdon.gov.uk.
In the absence of statutory returns for 2020, the NCER has been working with LAs to facilitate a non-statutory collection for schools. A system has been devised whereby we can assist schools to upload their predicted outcomes into KEYPAS (similar to what has been done in previous years for the statutory collections for Primaries). Once complete we will then be able to generate and distribute NOVA reports for schools similar to those that have been produced over the last 3 years. The data will also feed into Insight and analysis for schools and Head Teachers can view this via Perspective Lite. NCER have already worked on returns for Primaries and the options for schools are either to use the spreadsheet attached or to use the CSV files generated by their own MIS systems. The one spreadsheet can be used for all returns (EYFSP, Phonics and Key Stages 1 & 2).
Benefits of the school assessment primary reporting service include:
• 2020 data collected from schools will populate Perspective Lite Reports (Nova) and Analysis (Insight).
• It will be used to produce Summary Reports for schools, including vulnerable group analysis.
• 2020 LA, NCER Regional and NCER National comparators will be available across Reports (Nova) and Analysis (Insight) in Summary Reports.
• 2020 Progress data will be included in Perspective Lite reporting - methodologies used in these reports will be available.
It is essential to highlight that 2020 data collected and analysed using NCER systems (Nexus and Perspective Lite) is for the primary purpose of supporting schools in their self-evaluation. 2020 data collected using this optional service is not to be used for accountability purposes by the LA, DfE or Ofsted in line with current DfE guidance. Results for individual schools will not be shared with other schools within Hillingdon.
Safeguarding guidance
Please accessSafeguarding DSL guidance for pupils returning to secondary school and Prevent Referrals Process - 2020 LB Hillingdon and referral form.
Covid-19 FAQs
This week's DfE updates are available via our FAQs. There have not been any significant changes from last week and we are expecting further guidance on the new academic year to be released shortly. Currently the DfE has confirmed that schools may not need to stay open during the summer break for critical workers and vulnerable children if providers running clubs and activities for children over the summer holiday are able to open. They need to wait for scientific clearance first.
School Leaders' Briefing
This fortnight's School Leaders' Briefings articles are:
- National Tutoring Programme - Education Endowment Foundation toolkit
- Year 6 Transition to secondary school - resource pack for all pupils
- LGfL - Bridge the Divide
- RSHE for SEND pupils
- Silly Squad Summer Reading Challenge 2020
- 2019-20 Thematic Review of Pupil Premium Funding in Schools
- Teach Computing
- NGA Learning Link brand new - free trial
- Support Offer - Remote Learning with Repurposed Devices
- Hillingdon Clinical Commissioning Group - School Support for wellbeing, bereavement and loss
Please continue to email education@hilingdon.gov.uk for any support.
Regards
Dan
