Director's Message - 2nd September 2020

Dear Colleagues,

I hope you all have had a summer break and I'm sure that you are ready to welcome back all pupils for the new academic year.

We understand that this will be a unique transitional period, not only for the children starting a new school, but also for those children who would not have been in school since the end of March. The Council will continue to support all settings and provide regular DfE updates on guidance via our FAQs on LEAP. The key areas of most recent development are:

School Improvement Team Update

We are very pleased to welcome two interim School Improvement Leads while we are in the process of moving into a permanent structure.

Adrian Percival will be our Lead of Secondary, Post 16 and AP. With a track record of school leadership, Adrian has a strong background of leading an Academy Trust in London until this Summer as the Trust's CEO, achieving excellent outcomes for the learners in the Trust's schools. This Trust has been considered a model of success by the DfE. Adrian is also a published writer on education.

Wendy Todd will be our Lead of Primary and Special Schools. Wendy is a successful ex-Headteacher and SENCO with extensive experience of leading, managing and securing change in schools causing concern. Wendy is an accredited School Improvement Partner, operating in Ealing, Surrey and Buckinghamshire.

Adrian and Wendy will be allocated to RI maintained schools and will be in contact with Headteachers shortly. All schools will get an opportunity to meet Adrian and Wendy during various school improvement initiatives and meetings. The rest of the team remain in place - Ming Zhang, Iris Cerny, Rani Dady, Nav Minhas and Chan Ahluwalia. To get in contact with the School Improvement Team please email education@hillingdon.gov.uk

New Local Lockdowns Guidance (Plan B)

The government has now published its long-awaited 'plan b' setting out what schools must do in response to different "tiers" of local lockdown. Schools must refer to the DfE guidance for details. However, there are two important changes regarding face coverings I would like to draw your attention to:

Following the announcement on 25 August regarding the wearing of face coverings in secondary schools, it is for each secondary headteacher to decide when and where they should be worn (if at all). The face coverings in education guidance gives key considerations for headteachers to assist in decision making.
The DfE is now taking a more permissive approach to staff in primary schools using face coverings. This means that in primary schools in communal areas where social distancing is not possible, head teachers will have the discretion to decide whether to ask staff or visitors to wear face coverings.

Ofsted Visit in Autumn Term

Full Ofsted inspections will not resume until at least January 2021. However, Ofsted will conduct school visits during the Autumn term. The Council's Education Services maintain contact with Ofsted for updates. The key points are as follows:

Ofsted will pilot the visits in September 2020, with a full roll out in October. Ofsted will still conduct registration visits and regulatory activity in early years settings. Pre-registration visits and emergency section 8 inspections in maintained schools and academies will also continue to be undertaken.
All 'inadequate' schools will be visited, alongside a sample of schools with other grades.
Some details have been released about how the visits will be conducted and Ofsted will publish a short operational note in September.

Ofsted Visits will focus on:

Attendance - identifying the barriers schools have faced and are still facing in managing the return to full-time education for pupils.
Curriculum and blended learning - how leaders are ensuring pupils resume learning the school's curriculum, including the blend of classroom teaching and remote learning (where remote learning is required).
Behaviour management - how pupils are helped to settle back into expected routines and behaviours for learning.
Health and wellbeing - how any specific health and wellbeing issues that have been identified in pupils are being addressed and what local and national support may be needed.
Safeguarding.

No preparation is required in advance of these face to face visits as Ofsted would like to see normal operation; no classroom observations, paper review or meetings with governors. No judgement will be formed as an outcome of the Visits. There will be 14 schools in London taking part in the pilot visits during the second week of September. The pilot is to help shape the draft Ofsted Visit guidance which will initially be shared with soft pilot schools before it is made public.

School Transport

The Council's Education and Transport Services are working closely with TfL to support the full return of pupils to school that need to access public transport. There will be no change to free travel for Under 18s until the October half-term. It has been confirmed by TfL that there will be enhanced and designated bus services for school pupils (School Services) from this week. Further details have been communicated with schools last week. The key points of the development are:

Designate some existing regular buses as School Services on high frequency routes, which are prioritised for school travel and can operate at full seated capacity consistent with Government guidelines;
Add extra buses as School Services to bolster some of the busiest lower frequency routes that are highly used by schoolchildren, including adding more vehicles to its existing school bus services.

Local Outbreak Control Plan

Schools are encouraged to review the Local Outbreak Control Plan via this link.

Free School Meals

The guidance for schools and councils on free school meals arrangements during the outbreak has been updated. This now reflects the increase in the income threshold from £16,190 a year to £31,500 a year for London.

Flu vaccination in Schools

Resources for Headteachers on the flu vaccination are available here.

Penalty Notice Policy and Procedures Consultation

Headteachers are invited to share any comments using the consultation document attached for this year's Penalty Notice Policy and Procedures.

Link Officers

We are pleased to confirm that our Link Officers will remain in place to support schools during the Autumn term. Schools are able to contact their allocated Link Officer to discuss issues however specific queries should be emailed to education@hillingdon.gov.uk for a direct response. Please use the attached spreadsheet to access your allocated Link Officer's contact details.

Best wishes for a safe return.

Dan