Director's Message - 1st February 2021

Dear Colleagues,

Please see our weekly    Education Executive Summary [210KB]  round-up of schools' guidance update.

Updated Four Tier Categorisation & Support Models - From Abi Preston - HoEIP

Thank you to the Headteachers who have made contact with me since we released our updated models of working. It has been a pleasure speaking to those Headteachers and I would like to say a big thank you to those of you who shared such positive feedback on how we are working moving forward. I will look forward to speaking to more Headteachers over the coming months and I look forward to the day when I can come out and meet you all in person.

Contact Details of Education Advisors (EAs)

Both of our EAs now have their allocated mobile phones. You can contact your allocated advisors as follows:

Wendy Todd - 07707 269198

Jacqueline Laver - 07707 269203

Regional Schools Commissioner (RSC)

The RSC are looking for a couple of small schools or special schools in Hillingdon who have strong remote learning practice. They are keen to do a short case study on these schools to share as good practice on DfE blogs and other publications. If you are interested in being part of this, it shouldn't involve much time and the RSC will give your details to the relevant person who will be in touch. This is a fantastic opportunity to share good practice and recognise schools for the hard work they have been investing into their remote learning support. Please contact education@hillingdon.gov.uk if you are interested in taking part by Wednesday 3^rd February.

School-to-School Support COVID-19 Recovery Offer

The RSC would like us to share with our schools the offer of FREE support to an experienced system leader will provide time-limited school-to-school support (up to 5 days - possibly NLE support) to schools and trusts to help them to overcome the challenges they face or that may have been exacerbated as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Please see   Recovery Offer 2021 [136KB]  leaflet

This support offer can be accessed free of charge by any school who may-

• have educational issues that have either been caused or exacerbated by COVID-19 or,
• would benefit from additional leadership capacity including help with their remote learning offer.

Safeguarding:

Operation Encompass- I am aware there has been a good uptake of schools who have signed up to the Operation Encompass initiative to support our families who are suffering with Domestic Abuse. We are keen to ensure all of our schools are part of this initiative, especially given the rates of Domestic Abuse during lockdown rise so much. Please see  Domestic abuse schools Information Handout. [292KB] for details to find out more about how to sign up. Stella Anaxagorou is our Domestic Abuse link at Hillingdon - you can contact her to find out more by emailing: sanaxagorou@hillingdon.gov.uk.

Safeguarding Briefings

You can sign up to weekly briefings, to keep up to date with safeguarding matters, via the following links:

Andrew Hall Safeguarding Briefings: https://www.safeguardinginschools.co.uk/

NSPCC's CASPAR Briefing: https://learning.nspcc.org.uk/newsletter/caspar

Vulnerable Children

Please find guidance on  how to support vulnerable children during lockdown [55KB]  and guidance on what to consider with remote learning, from a safeguarding perspective.

Reminder Action: Free School Meals for out of term time Winter Grant Scheme

Hillingdon's Winter Grant Team need information relating to children entitled to free school meals attending your school. This information is being gathered to ensure all families entitled to free school meals receive their meal vouchers (out of term time) from the Winter Grant Scheme and have made an application for the Winter Grant utilities payment.

Thank you to the schools who have sent back their data. Please could all schools complete and return the attached FSM Winter Grant Scheme data excel document by the end of today, Monday 1^st February. If you have any queries relating to the Winter Grant Scheme please contact: wintergrant@hillingdon.gov.uk.

Regards,  

Dan