Director's Message - 29th March 2021

Dear Colleagues,

Please see our weekly   Education Executive Summary [310KB]   round-up of schools' guidance update.

Matters the council are currently looking into. For these matters, we will be in touch when we know more:

New Early Years Mailbox

We have now set up a new Early Years mailbox for leaders or school staff to use to contact the Early Years team. The new email is: earlyyears@hillingdon.gov.uk. Please share this with relevant staff.

Please see our latest contact list for the EIP team at the end of this briefing.

Transition Workshops for Year 6 - Managing Anxiety & Change

Preparing children for their transition to secondary is very important, especially in a year where there has been unprecedented change and disruption. Nurture my Potential is offering a programme of five workshops to develop resilience and equip children with the tools and strategies to support their emotional mental health and wellbeing during transition, adolescence and beyond.

The Transition Journey Programme includes a webinar for Year 6 staff to outline the programme, a webinar for parents on how to support their child during the transition period and all the resources needed to deliver the workshops. Please see   flyer [282KB] for details.

For the Attention of Early Years Leads - the EYFS reforms, preparing for September

I am sure you are aware that the DfE are making changes to the Early Years Foundation Stage and these are due to implemented and become statutory from September 2021. We have now had information and guidance through from the DfE and would like to offer you the opportunity to hear about these changes and to consider how you can implement the changes and prepare for September.

We are offering two sessions for you to choose from in the first instance, but further sessions may be planned later in the year. Initially we will only be able to accept a maximum of two attendees from each school. However, the event will be recorded and will be available for schools to use for dissemination to your Early Years Teams.

Wednesday 21^st April from 10:00 - 12:00am

Wednesday 28th April from 3:30 - 5:30pm

Both of the events will be offered virtually through Microsoft Teams. To book a place at either session could you please email Sue Hynds -shynds@hillingdon.gov.uk  with your name, email address and the session that you would like to attend.Once this information has been received a link to the event will be sent out to you closer to the event.

Easter holiday activities

The council is offering a programme of fun, free activities for the Easter holidays at a range of venues across Hillingdon for young people aged between 4 and 12 who receive free school meals. Please share this   flyer [238KB]  with relevant parents - it contains more details and information on booking. We are also delivering a variety of free online activities for all children and young people in school years 1 to 13 - more information can be found at www.hillingdon.gov.uk/easter-activities

Optional Multiplication Tables Check in June 2021

The multiplication tables check (MTC) is a digital assessment intended to support teachers in ensuring that all pupils know their multiplication tables by the end of primary school. It will enable schools to identify those pupils who may need more support with their times tables. Schools can choose to administer the optional MTC to Year 4 pupils, between Monday 7th June and Friday 25th June and the check will take most pupils no longer than 5 minutes to complete. This is an opportunity for schools to familiarise themselves with the nature of the check before its planned introduction as a statutory assessment in the 2021/22 academic year.
Further information will be available in the MTC administration guidance, which will be published for schools at the start of the summer term. The STA has published a Multiplication tables check information video, which demonstrates what pupils and schools can expect along with a leaflet for schools to share with parents.

(note: this has been put on LEAP in the primary assessment and moderation page)

Polling Stations

Democratic Services have now completed their work to finalise the sites which will be used as polling stations. They have worked incredibly hard to find alternative venues to schools and managed to find alternative settings for almost 40% of the schools that were originally listed to be a polling station. There are more limitations this year than usual, as a result of COVID, as many buildings that the council could use are in use for testing and vaccinations, so it has been a particularly challenging task. Thank you to Democratic Services for doing all you can to find alternative settings.

The schools which will continue to be used as polling stations for this year are as follows:

• Grange Park Infant School
• Rosedale College
• Cherry Lane Children's Centre
• Cranford Park Academy
• Harlington Young People`s Centre
• West Drayton Academy
• Brookside School
• Coteford Infants School
• Haydon School
• Bishopshalt School
• Ryefield Nursery School
• St Bernadettes RC School
• Colham Manor

School Trips - Latest DfE Guidance Updates

Please see this link from Evolve Advice Ltd regarding the latest news on school trips.

Educational Day Visits -Schools can resume educational day visits no earlier than 12th April 2021.

UK residential educational visits- In line with the roadmap, DfE advise against domestic residential educational visits until at least step 3, no earlier than 17 May 2021.

Reading Sparks

Reading Sparks is a new project to engage children and families with science through reading from The Reading Agency and is delivered in partnership with public libraries, the British Science Association, and NUSTEM at the University of Northumbria.

Reading Sparks will harness the proven power of reading to engage families with STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and bridge the gap in science capital for families from lower socio-economic groups, teenage girls and BAME communities.

We are one of 11 library services across England to pilot the Reading Sparks project, which will run from 2021-23. The project has two main elements:

• Reading and science activity bags for loan to disadvantaged families with children aged 4-11.
• Science and reading engagement small group work with disadvantaged young people, both virtually and in-person when permitted.  

I am pleased to confirm, that we have received our activity bags and are ready to loan them to children who are in the aforementioned target groups.

Therefore, would you be interested in collaborating with us and signpost four children and their families who would be interested in joining the project? I strongly believe that partaking in Reading Sparks can help increase family's science engagement and positively influence the long-term development of participating children, as reading can spark enjoyment, greater empathy, academic attainment, and therefore better life chances.  

I hope that you find the Reading Sparks project worthwhile and look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible.  Please see the Reading Agency's link for more information attached.

LTA School's Tennis Programme - including £250 resources

The LTA (Lawn Tennis Association) have launched their LTA Youth Schools Programme. Schools are being offered online teacher training, resources and a £250 voucher which can be used to fund LTA coaches coming into school to deliver lessons or clubs or it can be used to purchase tennis equipment.  Several staff members may register and undertake the training but only one voucher per school will be allocated. For more information look at the info below and  flyer [622KB] . To register please click here. 

We hope many schools in Hillingdon will sign up and this will be a useful socially distanced activity for pupils to take part in during the summer term. There are many LTA coaches in the borough who are trained to deliver the LTA Youth programme in schools and these can be found on the LTA website coach search. Simply look for those offering LTA Youth programmes. 

Free SPRING into Work Experience with the NHS

Providing work experience for young people is an embedded part of the Careers guidance that should be offered during year 10 and beyond. It has commonly been agreed that dealing with the pandemic for the past year has made it very challenging for schools to secure enough work experience for the young people.

Springpod is a company that talk about the world of work with the NHS, with pupils from as young as Year 4. They also offer work experience on the behalf of the NHS for young people that are mainstream and for young people with SEND.  For mainstream students, they are offering virtual work experience which lasts for ten hours over two weeks. The great thing about the work experience being virtual is that you are no longer limited to the ancillary roles that were 'safe' to accommodate young people, they are now able to offer work experience for roles such as a Doctor, Nurse, Speech Therapist, Administrators, and everything in between.  The offering for SEND is currently being piloted and will be available in the latter part of April. It is very similar to the offering for mainstream; however, they also offer some face-to face work experience.  

Springpod is looking forward to partnering with schools in Hillingdon and are very open to coming into schools to discuss their offering. 

For more information please contact: 

Lindsay McCafferty lindsay.mccafferty@hee.nhs.uk for SEND 

Carol Plows Carol.Plows@westlondon.nhs.uk for mainstream 

View Springpod's presentation: Post-16 Partnership - Leap (hillingdon.gov.uk) 

Or visit: Springpod. Take control of your future | Springpod 

We would like to invite the young people you work with (aged 11+) to take part in our consultation to help us find out how we can improve music opportunities in our area. We have commissioned Sound Connections & Wired4Music to help make our work more relevant, responsive and relatable. They have put together the following for you to share with your young people and networks, and the attached youth consultation image to accompany posts on social media. Music Hub Survey - Extension to Deadline

Can you spare 10 minutes to make music opportunities better in your local area? Fancy winning £100 donation towards your school, music or community group? Then take part in Hillingdon Music Hub's youth consultation (ages 11+).

Watch this YouTube clip to explain more about the consultation and take part in the survey here:www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/hillingdon-music-hub-survey

EIP Contacts at LBH

Now we have a permanent team in place, we would like to share with you the best contacts for different matters within our Education Improvement Team.

Regards,

Dan