10th January 2022

10th January 2022

Dear Colleagues,

Following feedback from school leaders recently, we are aiming to keep the weekly briefing more concise to aid schools to find the key information needed. Therefore, we will no longer attach the summary of DfE guidance as we know all schools will receive this directly.

Changes to Admissions & Participation Service and Other Staffing Changes

We are writing to let you know that Laura Palmer, Head of Access to Education, left the council at Christmas to move to a new role. We wish her well in her new endeavours.  We have set out below interim arrangements that have been made to manage the services that sat within Laura's remit. The Admissions service has moved to sit under Abi Preston along with Post 16 functions and Alternative Provision.  Laura Baldry has stepped up to lead the team as the Admissions Manager during this time. The Participation service is now reporting to Kathryn Angelini, along with Exclusions, Children Missing in Education and Elective Home Education. Abi's title has changed to Head of Education & Learning and Kathryn's title has become Head of Education for Vulnerable Learners.

Dale Hughes has now moved into his new role as Post 16 Coordinator within the EIP team. He will be offering support and advice for exclusions to schools. For any enquiries regarding exclusions, schools should contact exclusionsupport@hillingdon.gov.uk.

Rob Wratten (LADO) has now left the council and is working for another council. We are grateful for the support he has offered in his role as LADO. Hannah Ives is now the substantive LADO and we will update schools in due course regarding the new Child Protection Lead to replace Hannah. If you need to contact the LADO or need safeguarding support, please contact Hannah Ives: hives@hillingdon.gov.uk

Recruitment is underway for the new Lead Education Advisor. In the interim, we have Gareth Thomas joining us to support the schools Wendy was advising. He is an experienced Headteacher joining us from Slough.

You can still contact services via their normal emails:

Admissions: admissions@hillingdon.gov.uk

Participation Service: participationteam@hillingdon.gov.uk

Exclusions: exclusionsupport@hillingdon.gov.uk

Early Years Reforms - Ofsted Briefing - 1st February 2022

We have organised a briefing by Ofsted for school leaders and Early Years leads to share more information on what Ofsted is looking for when it comes to Early Years, following the reforms. This will be delivered virtually on 1^st February at 4pm-5pm.

If schools have any specific questions that they would like addressing in the meeting, please email these to earlyyears@hillingdon.gov.uk and we can forward these to Ofsted prior to the meeting to ensure the queries are addressed in the session.

Tuesday 1^st February 4pm via Teams.

You can click this link to access the briefing.

REMINDER - Fully Funded Mental Health Support Offer to Schools in the London Borough of Hillingdon

• Mental Health First Aid Training: fully funded and accredited

The Education Improvement and Partnerships Service is offering one member of staff in each of our schools/Trusts to attend training to support the mental health provision in schools across the Borough. This is aimed at Senior staff, who are charged with the responsibility of overseeing mental health and wellbeing in schools. Our aim is that there will be a trained professional in each setting to support the mental health provision Borough-wide. The training is accredited by MHFA England. Please see the table at the bottom of this article for eligibility for settings.

Training is being delivered over two full days by Gemini Training and is available on the following dates (course dates must be adhered to - candidates cannot attend Day 1 from one course then Day 2 of another):

Please book your place using the following registration form by Friday 14^th January 2022.

• Mental Health & Wellbeing Lead Support for Schools: fully funded

The Education Improvement and Partnerships Service have recruited a Wellbeing and Mental Health Lead on a fixed term basis until July 2022, who is available to support schools as part of this initiative. Lildonia Lawrence is a qualified Wellbeing Advisor who has a coaching and psychology background, as well as running wellbeing workshops and supporting wellbeing in the workplace.

Fully-funded support is available in the two following ways:

• Creating centralised template policies, resource, signposting etc which will be shared on LEAP for schools to access, in order to support the strategic development of provision and support for wellbeing and mental health within schools. All schools can access this and new resources will be added over the coming months.
• Allocated time directly working with schools to support individual whole school needs. Schools will be able to book one day of support from the Wellbeing Advisor to support the strategic work of developing support for wellbeing and mental health in their school. The support is not for the advisor to work with children directly but instead focusing support on upskilling the Mental Health lead in the school or other Senior Leaders. Our advisor can provide staff training, guidance, personalised recommendations and ideas for supporting the school's provision.

In order for schools to book in their entitlement to their day of support from the Wellbeing Advisor, please complete this expression of interest form to arrange this support. Lildonia will then be in touch with schools directly to confirm dates. Schools can use this support in part days (e.g. 2 hour training session for staff, half day support for SLT etc).

Any enquiries about the offer or to contact Lildonia directly for support or queries, please email EducationalWellbeing@hillingdon.gov.uk.

Spring Census 2022 

This is a reminder that the School Census database opens on Thursday 20th January 2022.  For Maintained Schools your DfE COLLECT returns will be checked by Steve Buckingham and Marc Sherman prior to approval.

Autumn Year 2 Phonics Screening Checks  

This is a reminder to all Primary and Special Schools with eligible Year 2 pupils that, if you haven't already done so, your returns must be uploaded on the S2S website as soon as possible as the deadline for authorisations is 20th January.  

If you have any queries on either, please contact SBuckingham@hillingdon.gov.uk. 

COVID Guidance

COVID Operational Guidance:

Further the recent concerns around the Omicron variant, we are reattaching the latest COVID School Operational Guidance.

On 29^th November the guidance was updated on contact tracing and isolation, travel and quarantine, face coverings and vaccination of under 18 year olds to reflect new measures announced on 27 November 2021.

On 2^nd December, this was updated further to have added clarification on the use of face visors and face shields by those who are exempt from wearing face coverings and what guidance children and staff must follow when travelling to England from abroad.

Actions for schools during the coronavirus outbreak:

Please see the following link to keep up to date with developments of actions for schools: Actions for schools during the coronavirus outbreak - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

This document was updated on 9^th December - Following the Prime Ministers announcement on 8 December 2021, they have updated guidance on tracing close contacts and isolation, ventilation, asymptomatic testing, mandatory certification, recommendation to work from home if you can and clinically extremely vulnerable children and adults.

Secondary Schools - Asymptomatic Testing Guidance:

Secondary school pupils should undertake one test on-site at the start of term in their school asymptomatic test site (ATS) followed by one LFD self-test at home 3-4 days after their on-site test. They should then continue to test in line with government guidelines.

Please see the following Google Drive link for documentation, including FAQs, relating to the testing expectations for secondary schools for the return to school in January.

Rapid Symptomatic testing in specialist settings:

Please see the following link: Rapid asymptomatic testing in specialist settings - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

What does plan B mean for schools, colleges, universities and early years:

Please see this link for a summary of what Plan B means for settings: What does Covid Plan B mean for schools, colleges, universities and early years? - The Education Hub (blog.gov.uk)

Contingency Framework:

Schools can access the contingency framework by clicking on this link: Contingency framework: education and childcare settings

All education and childcare settings should already have contingency plans (sometimes called outbreak management plans) describing what they would do if children, pupils, students or staff test positive for COVID-19, or how they would operate if they were advised to reintroduce any measures described in this document to help break chains of transmission.

It was updated as follows:

• updated advice to the face coverings section and Annex B to reflect that face coverings are now temporarily recommended in communal areas in all settings for adults and for pupils from year 7 onwards
• updated advice on tracing close contacts and isolation to reflect the change in measures for close contacts of suspected or confirmed Omicron cases
• amended Annex A to reflect the latest advice for testing for HE students

Other useful links:

• further education COVID-19 operational guidance
• providing apprenticeships during the COVID-19 pandemic
• COVID-19: actions for out-of-school settings
• SEND and specialist settings: additional COVID-19 operational guidance
• higher education COVID-19 operational guidance

Partnership Model Updates - SAVE THE DATE - 28th January 10am - 12pm

We would like to invite all Headteachers in the Borough to a meeting on 28^th January 10am - 12pm to share the proposal for the Partnership Model. We would love to have as many Headteachers present as possible. The steering group, which has consisted of a number of primary and secondary Headteachers, ISOS and the LA have been working hard to develop an offer which we hope will be attractive to our schools in the Borough and we look forward to sharing more details with you at the meeting.

It is currently scheduled to take place in the Council Chambers at the Civic Centre, however, we will assess this closer to the time depending on the restrictions that may be in place. If it is not possible to meet in person, we will aim to hold the meeting remotely.

We hope to see you there!

Drug and Alcohol Services for Parents

The link below is a useful resource for parents of school age children looking for advice and information.

There is a specific young person's Drug and Alcohol clinically trained member of staff,  who will be a reference point for parents seeking support and information.

Arch | Addiction Recovery Community Hillingdon (archhillingdon.org)

In addition, Hillingdon Council also have a service called SORTED who offer a similar service and work directly with parents and young people. SORTED is a confidential service for 11 to 25-year-olds in Hillingdon who are experiencing a drug or alcohol-related problem.

Sorted offer a range of support and treatment options, such as one-to-one counselling, relapse prevention, general health care, and family support.

You can contact SORTED as follows:

• 01895 250 721
• sorted@hillingdongrid.net

Support for LGBTQ+ & Young People 

Please see attached poster from the Adolescent Development Services for display. 

LGBTQ_ Group (PDF) [57KB]

New Guide for Parents on Talking to Children about Online Sexual Harassment 

Last week the Children's Commissioner published a new guide for parents on how to talk to children about online sexual harassment. The guide includes tips from young people about how parents can open earlier conversations about sexual harassment, nudes, sexualised bullying, photo editing, body image and peer pressure. A list of organisations is provided for further help and support.

The Sex Education Forum warmly welcomed the report in this response. 

If you are involved in RSE policy do consider becoming a member of SEF. Here's more information about the benefits. 

Free Author and Illustrator talks for KS1, KS2 & KS3 for World Book Day 

Hillingdon Libraries are delighted to offer a range of free virtual author & Illustrator talks for schools in Hillingdon in the run up to world book day. The talks are suitable for KS1, KS2 and KS3, and will be running the week of 21st February via Microsoft Teams.  

Authors and Illustrators we have booked are: 

• Tuesday 22^nd - Rikin Parekh (Illustrator) -9.30 am or 11 am - suitable for years 3, 4 & 5 Rikin Parekh Illustration illustrator of world day book -The worst class in the world.  
• Wednesday 23rd - Jenny Pearson - 9.30 am or 11 am - suitable for years 3, 4 & 5 About Jenny (jennypearsonauthor.com) author of 'The super miraculous journey of Freddy Yates'. 
• Thursday 24th - John Dougherty - 9.30 am or 11 am - suitable for reception & years 1 & 2 JOHN DOUGHERTY, Author, poet, songwriter (visitingauthor.com) author of 'There's a pig up my nose'. 
• Friday 25th - Sharna Jackson - 9.30 am or 11 am - suitable for years 5, 6, 7  &  8 Books — SHARNA JACKSON author of world book day book 'Peak Peril'. 

To book a place, or for more information, please email rwhittle@hillingdon.gov.uk with your school, the session you would like and the number of classes.