21st February 2022

Dear Colleagues,  

Partnership Model Update Meeting - Thursday 24th February 10 am - 12 pm 

We would like to invite all Headteachers in the Borough to a meeting this coming Thursday 24th February 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. 

The meeting will take place in the Council Chamber at the Civic Centre, we hope to see you there!  

REMINDER - Determined Admissions Arrangements 2023-24 

All admission arrangements must be determined by the 28th February in each year. This also applies if there have been no changes to the arrangements and a consultation has not been required. Own admission authority schools must provide their determined arrangements, including any supplementary forms that apply (schools with religious affiliation) to Hillingdon School Placement and Admissions team before 15th March 2022. They can be sent to the generic email admissions@hillingdon.gov.uk. Admission Authorities for faith schools must also send a copy of their arrangements to the body or person representing their religion or religious denomination (i.e., Diocesan board). 

Admission arrangements must be published on schools' individual websites by 15th March 2022. 

Please ensure that you have recorded the minutes from the meeting where the admission arrangements have been determined by your admissions committee. This may be requested by the Office of the School Adjudicator at a later stage.  

In Year Application Outcomes - Non-Community Schools  

Reminder to non-community schools of the requirements of the School Admissions Code 2021 in relation to in year applications and the notification of their outcomes.  Please see paragraph 2.30 of the code below:  

2.30 Parents must not be refused the opportunity to make an application or be told that they can only be placed on a waiting list rather than make a formal application. Upon receipt of an in-year application, the admission authority, or the local authority if it is co-ordinating the admissions authority's in-year admissions, should aim to notify the parents of the outcome of their application in writing within 10 school days, but they must be notified in writing within 15 school days62. Where an application is refused, the admission authority must also set out the reason for refusal and information about the right to appeal in accordance with paragraph 2.32. Where an admission authority manages its own in-year admissions, it must also notify the local authority of every application and its outcome as soon as reasonably practicable, but should aim to be within two school days, to allow the local authority to keep up to date figures on the availability of places in the area and to ensure they are aware of any children who may not have a school place.   

Please ensure that you notify the local authority of the outcome to all applications received so we can update our database. We are happy to receive your application responses via email, document exchange or letter format, which ever approach is most convenient for your school, however it must be received within the 15 school days.    

LA Moderation Update 

After a successful application process, the LA has sourced 40 teachers from across Hillingdon Infant, Junior and Primary maintained and academy schools. These KS1 and KS2 teachers are currently undertaking national STA training, working on behalf of the LA to deliver STA moderation boroughwide. The first national STA Exercise was extremely complicated. The STA confirmed that they had provided complex pupil scripts to judge due to the difficulty in sourcing live pupil samples during the pandemic. The teachers will undertake a second Exercise after half term. On 4th April, the STA will confirm which teachers are to be approved as 'LA Moderators' and they will receive 'approval to moderate' certificates valid for 2022. We will provide you will a further update when we reach this stage of the process.  

In the meantime, if you have any queries, please email: schoolimprovementadmin@hillingdon.gov.uk FAO Rani Dady. 

Head Teachers Termly 

This session for all Headteachers is taking place virtually on Thursday 10th March from 2 to 4 pm.  Agenda and link to join the meeting will follow shortly.

LA Schools' Governance Service Event - All Clerks 

This session for all Clerks is taking place virtually on Tuesday 22nd March from 10 to 11 am.  Agenda and link to join the meeting will follow shortly.  No registration needed. 

New Post-16 Email for Education, Employment or Training Information - Please share with relevant colleagues 

There is a new email post16eet@hillingdon.gov.uk. This is live now and replaces the previous post16 inbox. 

Please use this inbox to make enquiries regarding post-16 opportunities for young people or to share information about young peoples' destinations or suspected NEETs. 

 Childcare Choices Webinar 

This is a free webinar to raise awareness of Tax-Free Childcare to professionals who work with families. Tax Free Childcare can support parents with the costs of childcare for children up to the age of 11 (or 17 if they have a disability), including out of school childcare.  Please see attachment for further details and booking link. 

Webinar promotion and booking for LAs and FFPs (PDF) [186KB]

Foundation Years: Getting the new EYFS and EYFS Profile Right in Schools 

Join the Department for Education (DfE) and the National Children's Bureau (NCB) to Learn, Explore and Debate the key early years policy and practice developments that matter to school-based staff.  The agenda has been developed in partnership with the DfE and will include a focus on: 

• Early Years Foundation Stage Profile (EYFSP)

• Early Years Education Recovery Programme 

Who should attend?  

These events are aimed at school-based early years practitioners in England, including those working in nursery and reception classes, as well as headteachers, school leaders and governors. Places will be allocated on a first come first served basis. In order to offer the opportunity to attend to as many schools as possible, we are initially restricting bookings to one per school so please check with colleagues before booking. 

Due to the popularity of the events, we kindly ask that you do not book a place if you are not a school-based early years teacher, teaching assistant, headteacher, school leader or governor, or if someone in your school has already booked, otherwise your booking will be automatically cancelled. 

The presentations will be recorded and will be available on the Foundation Years website after the last event. 

When are the events? 

The events will be held on Microsoft Teams and will last 2 hours.  Joining instructions and the agenda will be circulated to delegates nearer the event.  The agenda will be the same at each event and will include a mix of presentations, case studies and opportunities for discussion.  For further information, please contact the Foundations Years team at foundationyears@ncb.org.uk 

MyHealth Asthma & Eczema Workshops - Please share with your parents 

MyHealth are running Asthma workshops for parents who have children with Asthma, run by the Hillingdon hospital Asthma team.  During these sessions you will have a chance to spend time asking questions and learning from the asthma team in a group setting learning about topics such as: 

• Asthma attacks  
• Asthma triggers  
• Inhaler techniques  
• Asthma action plans  

The workshop is run online via ZOOM from 4pm - 5pm.  You can register your FREE place by clicking this link https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/myhealth-asthma-workshop-for-parents-children-tickets-191548726397  

You can also contact the MyHealth team on tel: 01895 543 437 or email: nhsnwlccg.myhealth@nhs.net for further information. 

Cancellation of FFT Training Session for Secondary Schools 

The proposed training session on 22nd February has been postponed until later in the school year.  Please let any staff planning to attend know.  We will be in contact again once there is a date for the new session.  FFT then also plan to cover the services they will offer the Secondaries for the KS4 & 5 exams in the summer.  

FFT Aspire Attendance Tracker  

At the recent FFT Training session for Primary Schools there was a discussion about the new FFT attendance tracker.  FFT have now provided us with more details and on the attachment below you will find a link with an introduction to the new system.

TEN Reports (PDF) [144KB]

Free Governor Briefing Sessions 2021/22  

Please be reminded that you are invited to book onto the LA governor briefing sessions. There are a variety of sessions for key service areas and will allow you to gain a better understanding of the processes and responsibility of schools.   

To book your place onto any of these sessions please click here or to see the brochure with details of the briefings here [305KB].   

Regards,

Abi Preston