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Update Letter to Schools, Summer Term 2023
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Level Up and Young Minds mental health
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Cost of Living Funding Opportunity
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Governor Training
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Ramadan You’re Invited
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Funding Bulletins – April 2023
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Maths Hub Newsletter
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Coronation Creative Challenge
Update Letter to Schools, Summer Term 2023
Dear Headteachers,
Welcome back to the summer term and I hope you all had a wonderful Easter break?
Firstly, I am pleased to share that Amanda Lewis has joined Halton as our new Interim Executive Director for Children, Families and Education. Amanda is a very experienced Children Service’s lead and has most recently been working across Luton Local Authority. Amanda is keen to work closely with schools/colleges, educational and wider stakeholders and is looking forward to working with you all to support you in the very important work you all undertake to make a difference every day to the lives of children and their families in Halton.
I will be in contact with the Exec HAPH and Exec HASH leads to organise an introductory meeting with Amanda and know that Amanda is also looking forward to meeting school leads at Primary Headteacher and HASH events. Amanda is fulfilling the Director of Children’s Services role and will be leading the improvement journey across Children’s Services.
I would also like to take the opportunity to thank schools for your support and commitment to inclusion. As you will know, in Autumn term 2022, the SEND sufficiency Strategy was shared with schools outlining the areas of need and projected demand for specialist and resource placements across Halton both now and in the future. Requests were made for schools to submit expression of interest if they were able to consider opening a resource base provision or AP offer on their school site. I am delighted to share that we received lots of interest and have spoken to and met with many headteachers and school leads. There are also some schools that we are yet to visit but will be in contact with following the Easter break. Expressions of interest have been considered against the needs outlined within the Sufficiency Strategy and where the SEND Capital Fund could be used to best effective to meet need. A summary of proposals has been shared with the Executive board of the council for their consideration at the end of April. As soon as decisions have been made, I will be sharing further updates with yourselves regarding next steps which for approved projects will include commissioning and procuring of works, with a plan to commence building works as soon as possible. The aim is for some of the placements to be ready within Autumn term (dependent upon building work timescales) and further works to be phased across the academic year 2023-2024. There will still be some remaining capital which will be available for a further Expression of Interest opportunity aligned to updated needs analysis.
Some colleagues may have seen a press article this week regarding the proposals for the above resource base provision. This has raised questions regarding the DFE SEMH Free School bid planned for the Naylor Road site on Widnes. I can confirm that the use of capital fund for specialist resource placements is in addition to the planned SEMH Free School and not an alternative option. Unfortunately there have been considerable DFE delays regarding the building of the new SEMH Free School and this is now scheduled to open for September 2024. I have had recent contact with DFE regarding the progress of this project and following Easter break will be re-commencing regular meetings with DFE and our Local Authority partners in St Helen’s to pursue the development of this resource as soon as possible.
As you will know, as a Local Area Partnership, Halton Local Area Partnership will be due a SEND inspection very soon. Our last SEND inspection occurred in March 2017 so based on chronology and inspection timeframes anticipate an inspection in the near future. The Local Area Partnership SEND inspection new framework was published on 29th November 2022 with the first inspections under this framework to be inspected from January 2023. This framework evaluates the effectiveness of the Local Area Partnership and the impact of the joint working of all partners has on the lived experience of children and young people with SEND in the area and how this impacts on their outcomes and preparation for adulthood. In order to support our joint working, during the summer term we will be planning events with schools to share further information about the inspection process and how jointly we can celebrate all the excellent, inclusive work that school/ colleges and all our partners are having and impacting positively on children and young people’s lives.
Halton have recently experienced an increased interest in fulfilling governor roles within our schools and is wonderful to see such commitment from our local communities to people wishing to make a positive difference to children and young people’s educational experiences. If you are keen to recruit new governors or have any governor vacancies, please do email Mike (Mike.stapleton-chambers@halton.gov.uk) as he has a number of applications to fulfil governor roles across Halton schools.
I would like to wish you a happy and successful summer term and look forward to working with you on our exciting plans moving forwards together.
Best wishes
Jill Farrell
Level Up and Young Minds mental health
We are reaching out to you on behalf of YoungMinds, a UK charity that advocates for the mental health of children and young people. YoungMinds are collaborating with Level Up Lead Provider Collaborative (LPC) to gather the views of young people aged 13-18 on how mental health services can effectively communicate with communities.
We are keen to hear the views of young people on the following questions:
- What information would young people like to receive about Mental Health services?
- How would young people like to receive information about Mental Health services?
- What does “good communication” look like to young people?
Please share this link to the survey or the attached poster.
Cost of Living Funding Opportunity
Please find attached cost of living related funding opportunities.
Governor Training
Governor Training – Ofsted Inspection Offering Support and Challenge to your setting
Wednesday 4th October 2023 1pm-2pm
@DBCL Stadium
Audience: Governor & Headteachers.
How Governors can effectively offer challenge and support
- What Governors might expects from their Ofsted meeting
Delivered by Jonathan Smart, Senior HMI, maintained schools and academies
Jonathan Smart is assistant regional director for the North West and a member of the quality assurance team. He inspects a range of provision, including primary, secondary, special and independent schools and also regularly leads initial teacher education inspections. Before working for Ofsted, he gained extensive senior leadership experience across a number of educational organisations and also had experience working outside of education. Jonathan was a headteacher and executive headteacher of 2 schools in challenging circumstances. He has particular expertise in leadership, curriculum, and teaching and learning.
To book : https://forms.office.com/e/ZLk1sbyveM
Ramadan
Ramadan You’re Invited, see here for more information.
Funding Bulletins – April 2023
Please find attached the latest funding and cost of living bulletins.
Maths Hub Newsletter
Please see attached newsletter from the maths hub.
Coronation Creative Challenge
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has launched a national creative challenge to encourage children, young people and adults to join in the celebrations.
Creative Challenge creations will be featured on the Coronation website and on social media channels.
They are inviting people to share their creations and Coronation celebration ideas by emailing coronation@dcms.gov.uk or by tagging DCMS on Twitter or Instagram.
To find out more visit https://coronation.gov.uk/coronation-creative-challenge/