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Health and Safety

Winter-readiness pack for schools

As winter approaches, it is important that schools are reminded and updated on important health considerations for their pupils/students, parents/carers and staff.

Pupils and staff in schools are particularly susceptible to infections which increase over the winter months such as seasonal influenza (flu) and stomach infections (such as norovirus). These can be very infectious and cause outbreaks in school settings due to the close contact amongst pupils and staff. The spread of these illnesses can be limited by improving infection control practices within the school.

Young children and/or those with chronic illnesses are also at risk of developing complications from certain vaccine preventable infections such as measles and flu. It is important that they are immunised to prevent any complications and to reduce the likelihood of outbreaks in a school setting.

The Winter-readiness pack for schools (PDF, 3MB) provides:

  • key messages for care head teachers on winter preparedness
  • two checklists on flu and norovirus readiness and when and how to report outbreaks
  • leaflets and further information on flu, norovirus and meningitis
Categories
Schools

Silver Healthy School Award

The Willow Primary school join a handful of primaries who have attained a silver award from BOTH the Healthy schools London programme and Healthy Schools National Programme.

The Willow Primary school is officially a Healthy Schools Silver award winner AND Healthy School London Silver school winner too!

Headteacher, Dawn Ferdinand, said,

I am of course so proud that our school’s vision to provide a good all round healthy experience for children has been recognised at both this national and London-wide level. We are so very proud to be a Silver status Healthy school!

Categories
Events

Haringey Careers and Employment Fair (Yrs 10-12)

routes

On the evening of 16 November 2016, wewill be hosting a careers fair at Alexandra Palace. 

The event is designed to showcase the breadth of opportunities open to young people in education and employment and will show case a range of: schools, colleges, training providers, employers and universities. At the event, there will also be a range of short talks for parents and young people on topics including: finance, apprenticeships, the local curriculum offer and the employment landscape.

Careers advisers will also be on hand to support young people and 121 or group sessions can be arranged at pre-booked sessions during the day.

For more information, including to book a stand, please contact Sean May, Strategic Lead for Young People and Post 16, tel: 020 8489 5044, email sean.may@haringey.gov.uk

If you would like a stand on the evening you can register here: please complete the registration form (external link).

Young People can register here: www.haringey.gov.uk/routestowork

All registrations received before 15 October will be put in a prize draw to win £100 of high street vouchers.

Categories
Health and Safety

BEH launches new service on October 3

choices-logo-final

Barnet Enfield and Haringey (BEH) Mental Health NHS Trust will provide a new service to support children and young people  who may be experiencing emotional and well-being difficulties.

The service, named CHOICES, is available for people in Haringey.

Staff will provide an initial one-to-one session to establish the appropriate support that will help children and young people self-manage their emotional wellbeing.

It’s free and confidential and can really make a difference. This is being delivered via Bruce Grove Youth Space as an accessible and non-stigmatising location for young people, and as part of the council’s wider Early Help offer.

Children are able to self-refer, as are parents who may be concerned about their child. Referrals can be made either by telephoning 020 8702 3405  or visiting the CHOICES website (external link) and completing the online web form.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be sending you some leaflets about the service, please display these in the schools  and hand them out to parents and young people who you think the service could help.

If you want to find out more, please visit the BEH website (external link) or call 020 8702 3405 to speak to a member of the team.

 

Categories
Governance

Government launch ‘Schools that work for everyone’ consultation

The Education Secretary, Justine Greening, has announced a consultation (external link) which covered a range of proposals for creating an all-inclusive school system for the 21st century. The most publicised and controversial of these relate to grammar schools:

  • Allowing existing grammar schools to expand (dedicated funding of up to £50 million a year would be made available)
  • Permitting the establishment of new selective schools
  • Allowing existing non-selective schools to become selective
  • Require all selective schools to engage in outreach activities and prioritise the admission of pupils from lower income houses

In order to take advantage of these proposed freedoms, schools would have to meet specified conditions: for example, taking a proportion of pupils from lower income households, supporting a local non-selective or primary school, or ensuring that there are opportunities to join the selective school at different points in a pupil’s education.

There are also proposals to require universities and independent schools to provide support to state-funded schools, such as through sponsoring or setting up an academy.

The final section of the consultation relates to faith schools. The government is proposing to remove the restriction that new faith schools can admit a maximum of 50% of pupils on the basis of faith when oversubscribed. A variety of alternative proposals are posited, including placing an independent person who is of “different” or “no faith” on the governing board of new faith free schools.

The consultation is open until 12 December. 
 

Categories
Governance

Autumn timelines for schools and colleges: mandatory and useful information

The Department for Education publishes a timeline of forthcoming mandatory legal requirements (external link) to be implemented. This should help your governing board to plan ahead for the year. They also publish a timetable of other useful information. Both of these are broken down by school type.

The latest timelines were published on 15 September.
 

Categories
Governance

Ofqual outline how progress 8 and attainment 8 will be measured

On 12 September, Ofqual released information on how the Progress 8 performance (external link) measure will be calculated and how the 2016 results will be taken forward to 2017 and beyond.  The document reminds governors and trustees that the headline measures for KS4 in DfE performance tables and RAISEonline will be:

  • Progress across 8 qualifications
  • Attainment across the same 8 qualifications
  • Percentage of pupils achieving the threshold in English and mathematics (currently a C grade, grade 5 when new GCSEs in English and mathematics are first reported in performance tables in 2017)
  • Percentage of pupils achieving the English Baccalaureate

The 8 qualifications that will count in the measure are mathematics; an English qualification; the three highest scoring EBacc qualifications in science subjects, computer science, history, geography, and languages; and the three highest scores across other subjects, including non-GCSE subjects.
The document gives worked examples of how progress 8 and attainment 8 will be calculated, including information on how the old GCSE scores will correlate with the new number system.
 

Categories
Governance

New: 2016 KS2 Self-Evaluation Dashboard from FFT

Fischer Family Trust, the school performance evaluation expert, has released its new 2016 KS2 governor dashboard. As this is a key tool for governors, the National Governors’ Association and the Wellcome Trust were also involved in its development.

The online analysis tool has a number of key features, including:  

  • Summary of your 2016 performance including key strengths and weaknesses using new DfE indicators
  • All the latest 2016 DfE measures – scaled scores, expected and higher standards
  • Grammar, punctuation and spelling now included in dashboards
  • Calculate whether your school is at risk of being below the new DfE floor standards using the latest 2016 attainment and progress data
  • Your performance over time compared to the national average for all pupils or any group of pupils
  • Comparative analysis of key pupil groups (pupil premium, low/middle/high attainers and SEND)
  • Performance analysis and review of each individual KS2 subject, together on a single page
  • Compare the context and attendance of your Year 6 cohort against the national picture (external link)

See the KS2 dashboard (external link) for more information. Talk to your senior leadership team to obtain log in details for this useful resource.
 

Categories
Governance

Free webinar: FFT Aspire overview for school governors

FFT Aspire (FFT’s reporting and data tool) is available for schools, local authorities and academy trusts and includes the FFT Governor Dashboard.

FFT is inviting school governors to access free webinars (covering all key stages), taking place on:

  • Thursday 24 November at 8pm
  • Friday 25 November at 12 noon
  • Thursday 26 January, 2017 at 2pm and 8pm

Click here to book a place (external link).
 

Categories
Governance

Mapping the school system – SchoolDash launch Explorer

A new tool from SchoolDash, an independent website exploring education data, allows governors, parents, and other stakeholders to visualise the education provision in a region or local area.

Explorer allows users to sort schools by various characteristics, as well as attainment, progress, inclusiveness and Ofsted rating.

Find out more on the SchoolDash website (external link).