Select Page

LA/ Schools E-Circular Monday 24 May 2021

  • Attendance Recording

  • Skype Meetings with Head Teachers

  • Condition Data Collection Programme

  • Ofsted’s Research Review in RE

  • Research review series: science

  • Geography in Outstanding Primary Schools

  • Community Business Crowdmatch

  • #BridgeTakeover

  • Become a UK  Young Advisor

  • Generate Teaching Hub Update 19th May 2021

  • STEM Person of the Week

 

Attendance Recording

The DfE have asked that all schools be reminded to continue to complete the daily attendance details via the portal.

 

 

Skype Meetings with Head Teachers

 

It appears that recently there has been an increase in the number of Head Teachers being invited to Skype meetings by HBC staff. As you are aware Schools are not part of the Councils Skype for Business network and therefore do not have the facility to either join or setup these meetings via their school laptops/desktops in the same way corporate staff do.

It has been suggested that the best way for Head Teachers, or indeed any other school staff, to join a Skype meeting is to use the phone number which is listed on the Skype invite, see here, and enter the Conference ID when prompted. This would allow the member of staff to join the meeting on audio only. If the invitee wanted to take part in a video call and has the facility on their laptop/desktop e.g. camera and speakers etc., then they should be able to use the Skype Web App version and instructions to support this are attached 

 

 

 

Condition Data Collection Programme

 

Head teachers of all Halton Schools

Further information has been received from DfE regarding the next round of Condition Data Collection (CDC) Surveys.

CDC2 is the successor to the CDC programme which ran from 2017 to 2019 and aims to visit every government funded school in England and collect information about the condition and management of school buildings. Data from CDC2 will directly inform future investment in the condition of school buildings and will provide an evidence base to support the successful delivery and development of education capital policy.

CDC2 will be delivered over 5 years, from 2021-2026. The CDC2 pilot visits were successfully completed in February, 2021. The DfE are now moving into the delivery phase for the main CDC2 programme and surveying organisations (Aecom, Faithful & Gould or Rider Levett Bucknall) have held preliminary virtual meetings with the first schools and site visits will start from w/c 5 April.

The DfE have also published the provisional timescales that all schools will be visited across the programme to help responsible bodies with their local condition survey planning. The provisional visit dates are scheduled into tranches that span 6 months. The full provisional tranche list is subject to change and they will publish the confirmed list of schools included in each tranche on GOV.UK every 6 months. The confirmed school visits for tranches 1 and 2 are already on GOV.UK and they will let the LA know when each finalised tranche list is published.

They recognise that there are still challenges visiting schools over the coming months during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and will continue to work closely with local authorities, multi-academy trusts, dioceses and schools to ensure the CDC2 site visits cause minimal disruption to schools.

Further information regarding the programme and provisional timescales can be found here CDC2 guidance. The CDC Programme Guide is also attached, for information.

If you have any questions regarding the CDC surveys, please email dfe.cdcprogramme@education.gov.uk.

 

 

 

Ofsted’s Research Review in RE

 

FAO All Headteachers , Religious Education Coordinators, Secondary Heads of Religious Education and teachers of RE

Please see attached information Ofsted research in RE.

Please see attached  Ofsted review statement

 

 

.

 

Research review series: science

 

FAO ALL Headteachers, Science coordinators, Secondary Heads of Science and all teachers of science.

Please see attached for more information.

 

 

 

 

Geography in Outstanding Primary Schools

FAO All Primary Headteachers and Geography Coordinators

Please see attached for more information

 

 

 

 

Community Business Crowdmatch

 

Please see attached a  funding opportunity which might be of interest, Community Business Crowdmatch

 

 

 

 

#BridgeTakeover

 

Come and play on the Silver Jubilee Bridge for one day in June….

A Life in a Day: #BridgeTakeover on Saturday 26 June, 12 noon – 6pm. See attached for more information

We’re looking for people who live, work or play in Widnes and Runcorn to take part in an extraordinary journey…across the Silver Jubilee Bridge on one Saturday afternoon in June.

Imagine an afternoon shaped like a lifetime – with each hour representing Rites of Passage moments. What better way to celebrate the easing of lockdown than by being outdoors, doing something that will give you memories that last a lifetime?

 

 

 

Become a UK  Young Advisor

 

Opportunity for 16-25 year olds to become UK Young Advisors

See attachments for more information

Young Advisor flyer attached

Final Expert Organisations information attached

UK Young advisor opportunity information attached

UK Young advisor application form attached

 

 

 

Generate Teaching Hub Update 19th May 2021

 

Dear colleagues

It has been a couple of weeks since our last partner update; activity in the Hub has continued at pace.

See attachment  Generate teaching hub introduction

See attachment ECF brochure Generate

See attachment Generate teaching Hub ECT introduction

We’ve also had a number of expressions of interest from colleagues with questions and requests, to which we are responding, via the following forms:

Recent Hub activity has included:

  • Being delighted to confirm three local area leads in our Hub structure. In Halton the lead is Wade Deacon Trust, in Warrington it is The Challenge Academy Trust and in Wigan it is Golborne High School. We will be working together as we communicate with each area and our leads will act as a point of contact for local schools.
  • We now have a core team in place and alongside Louise Smith, CEO the team is: Bernard Clarke, Director; Carl Bennett has joined as a Senior Project Manager; and, Helen Simms is our Administrator. The whole team can be contacted via hub@wpat.uk or 01925 202255.
  • Our engagement with the 9 national providers of the reformed NPQs was completed at the end of April and we have agreed to work with Best Practice Network. The DfE is now in the process of confirming all the national arrangements for this. We also know the two start dates for these reformed NPQs in 2021/22 will be November 2021 and February 2022. More details on content and how to book will follow.
  • Our initial website is operational www.generateteachinghub.org and more detail is added to it weekly – next to be shared online will be a FAQs response to questions from partners and schools; a full site will be online in June.

 

You will see below we are also running several open webinar events from today around the ECF and we would welcome you highlighting this to your partners.

Finally, if you are aware of networks or forums that would like a presentation on Generate Teaching Hub and the wider teacher development reforms, please do request our attendance as we are open to joining meetings, answering questions and sharing our vision.

 

 

 

STEM Person of the Week

 

For Primary schools – STEM activity to reduce children’s stereotypes of science and scientists

Welcome to STEM Person of the Week – a STEM engagement activity that’s been shown to reduce children’s stereotypes of science and scientists by providing counter-stereotypical character attributes through a set of diverse STEM role models. This resource aims to equip teachers with everything they need to effectively run this 5-week intervention in their school setting. The resource is simple to use and suitable for children in years 1 through 6.

From the link below you can access:

  • Links to the resources which you can download and print
  • Aims, background and research
  • Guidance for teachers who want to deliver in their school

https://nustem.uk/stem-person-of-the-week/