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OFA 2019 promotional poster
Dear Head teachers and Chairs of Governors
Nominations are now open for the seventh annual Haringey Outstanding for All awards! The awards celebrate the fantastic achievements of teachers, students, staff and governors whose phenomenal efforts have helped make education in Haringey such a positive and successful story. Accolades are up for grabs in twelve categories that highlight exceptional achievements in teaching, learning and all aspects of our schools’ work and support to our children, young people and our families. I invite you to think about outstanding achievement within your school and make a nomination in one of the categories:

• Support Staff of the Year Award
• Overcoming Adversity Award
• Early Years Champion Award
• Achievement in Sport Award
• Achievement in the Arts Award
• Governor of the Year Award
• Community Hero Award
• STEM Achievement Award – Primary
• STEM Achievement Award – Secondary
• Teacher of the Year Award
• The Councillor Egan Achievement Award

For more information about the categories and to make your nominations, please visit our award categories and nominations page. Nominations will be open until Friday 18 October 2019 with the invitation-only award ceremony taking place on 2 December 2019.
This is a fantastic opportunity to acknowledge the work in our schools and we look forward to receiving your nominations.  You can read about our winners in 2018 here.
Kind regards
Eveleen Riordan, Assistant Director, Schools and Learning
 
 

Kids – we need you! The council, police, fire brigade and lots of other organisations all work hard to keep where you live safe. This team is called the Haringey Community Safety Partnership. We know this sounds a bit official, so we’re looking for you to design us a logo to bring this to life.
There aren’t many rules – it just needs to include the letters CSP or the words Community Safety Partnership somewhere. Other than that, use your imagination!
The logo will be used on posters, on the internet and on social media any time this partnership wants to tell people about the good work we are doing.
 The partnership wants Haringey to be – and feel like – a safe place for people to live, work and visit.
 Design your logo and email it to us at events@haringey.gov.uk
 Parents – you can also share your kids’ ideas with us on social media, using #IAmHaringey
Send your ideas in by the end of 21 October and we will show off some of the best on social media and maybe even in the news.  So, get your ideas over to us now, and help us tell everyone about what we’re doing to help keep Haringey safe.
A message to young people from Cllr Mark Blake, Cabinet Member for Community Safety and Equalities, and Borough Commander DCS Treena Fleming:

“We are here to make you feel safe and we want everybody in Haringey to know about the work we are doing. Kids – we really need your help, ideas and your creativity. We can’t wait to see all the great entries we get for the new Community Safety Partnership logo.”

Fraudsters are calling schools, claiming to be ‘from the Department of Education’. They then ask to be given the personal email address or phone number of the head teacher, or the school finance manager.

The fraudsters claim that they need to send guidance forms to the head teacher (examples to date have varied from exam guidance, to mental health assessments); they will claim that they need to send these documents directly to the head teacher or finance manager and not to a generic school inbox, as the email or documents contain sensitive information.

The emails which they have then sent include an attachment:  a ‘.zip’ file, potentially masked as an Excel or Word document. This attachment will contain ‘ransomware’, that once opened, or downloaded, will encrypt files. At this point, the fraudsters will demand money – up to £8,000 in some cases – to recover the files.

Similar ‘ransomware’ attempts have been made recently by fraudsters claiming to be from the Department for Work and Pensions and telecoms providers: in this case they have claimed that they need to email the head teacher about the school’s ‘internet systems’.

Schools should take the following actions:

• Although the fraudsters may know the name of the head teacher and use this to convince the school they are a real employee of a government department or telecom provider, be mindful of where these have been obtained from, usually these are listed on the school or Council’s public facing website.
• Fraudsters have been saying they are from the “Department of Education” rather than the “Department for Education”.
• Don’t click on links or open any attachments you receive in unsolicited emails or SMS messages. Remember that fraudsters can ‘spoof’ an email address to make it look like one used by someone you trust. If you are unsure, check the email header to identify the true source of communication.
• Always install software updates as soon as they become available. Whether you are updating the operating system or an application, the update will often include fixes for critical security vulnerabilities.
• Create regular backups of your important files to an external hard drive, or online storage provider. It’s important that the device you back up to aren’t left connected to your computer as any malware infection could spread to that too.
• Do not pay extortion demands as this only feeds into criminals' hands, and there's no guarantee that access to your files will be restored if you do pay.
• If you think your bank details have been compromised, you should immediately contact your bank.
• If your school has been affected by this, or any other scam, report it to Action Fraud by calling 0300 123 2040, or visiting the Action Fraud website (external link)   

A new series of in-school training sessions has been announced by FFT Education.  

Ideal for inset or training days, an expert FFT associate can present practical and in-depth modules focused on any Key Stage(s) performance data.  The new sessions include: 

• Enhancing leadership with FFT Aspire (KS1, KS2, KS4 or KS5)
• An introduction to FFT Aspire  (available for KS1, KS2, KS4 or KS5)
• Step-by-step Aspire dashboard analysis with an FFT expert (available for KS1, KS2, KS4 or KS5)
• Life beyond levels: Welcome to scaled scores (Available for KS2)
• Unpacking Progress 8: Getting to grips with your 2016 results (available for KS4)
• The Complete Guide to School Performance Data (Including sources such as FFT Aspire, RAISEonline, Ofsted Inspection Dashboard and the DfE school performance tables – available for KS1, KS2, KS4 or KS5)

The new series of training sessions are designed to help you understand how FFT Aspire can help schools to raise pupils’ achievement, support schools’ self-evaluation and target setting.  In addition to exploring FFT Aspire, these sessions will also focus on the importance of developing teachers’ data literacy throughout schools.

Bespoke training is also offered. To receive a copy of our new booklet explaining the options available or to discuss event requirements for FFT’s in-school training, please email events@fft.org.uk.

We would like to bring to your attention recent school incidents in England related to the improper storage of A-level chemistry substance 2,4-DNP (called 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine) where bomb disposal teams have been called in and consequently carried out controlled explosions.

• The product has been identified as being used in some A-level chemistry lessons.
• The problem result from allowing the product to dry out and therefore making it dangerous.

Haringey Council and the Department for Education would like to remind all schools and post-16 institutions of the importance of ensuring all chemicals used for practical science activities are stored safely.

CLEAPSS, is the recommended competent advisory service and you are advised to follow their recommendations regarding the named chemical – 2,4-DNP (2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine).

• For advice on safe storage of chemicals, institutions should check the CLEAPSS website (external link). If you have further questions please contact the CLEAPSS helpline on 01895 251496.
• Specific advice on 2,4-DNP can be found on the CLEAPSS website (external link).

Recommended Action:

1. Circulate this Alert Note to your relevant school staff i.e. science technician, science teacher, site managers.
2. Assess your chemical storage and determine if this issue is relevant to your setting.
3. Follow CLEAPSS advice (see attachment) and seek further advice from them if unsure.

A company called ‘European Database Services Limited’, based in Vienna, have been sending out letters offering a service whereby organisations can have their corporate information (business name, address, VAT number etc) published on a website.

The company’s letter states that the service is a voluntary, non-official fee based service at a cost of £960 per year. The letter also quotes European legislation in an attempt to convince the organisation that it is a legal requirement to register their information. There is no such requirement, so schools should exercise caution if they receive any correspondence like this.

If schools have any concerns about possible fraudulent invoices, please contact the Head of Audit and Risk Management.

The POW project is an educational training programme focusing on the different strands of Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG). The name ‘POW’ (Protect Our Women) was given by the young people of Haringey who also helped to shape the content and design of the project.

The topics covered are:

• Domestic Abuse
• Sexual Violence
• Stalking & Harassment
• Trafficking for Sexual Exploitation
• Prostitution
• Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)
• Forced Marriage
• Honour Based Violence (HBV)

POW is delivered under Solace Women’s Aid and funded by Haringey Council. The project is for all young people aged between 11-25 years and professionals and volunteers who work directly with young people. Each workshop lasts for an hour and by the end of the project every young people will have the opportunity to gain an AQA award in ‘Understanding the different strands of Violence Against Women and Girls.’  All workshops are adjusted where necessary to cater to the audience we are delivering to. We have delivered this project to a large number of young people across different schools, sixth forms and youth community groups and we have seen how beneficial it is for the young people who attend.

These are the outcomes that the programme delivers to meet:

1. Young people can identify all eight types of violence against women and girls and are aware of situations where someone may be at risk of violence.
2. Young people are confident in challenging someone’s abusive behaviour/ language where safe and appropriate to do so.
3. Young people understand the legal implications of each type of violence
4. Young people are aware of suitable sources that offer support after abuse.

There is a Training for Trainers (T4T) aspect to the programme as well. Anyone aged 16 plus can be trained to become a volunteer group facilitator themselves and go on to co facilitate future projects. They will be given the title ‘POW Champion’ within their organisation for violence against women and girls so will have training on how to deal appropriately with safeguarding concerns.

The POW project has been a real eye-opening experience; it enables students to learn and talk openly about pertinent issues that are highly emotive and are not always easy to address within education. The whole experience challenged the students (and me!) to rethink these important issues and how much we think we know about them, as well as educating about what we can all do ourselves to help and what other support services are available.

The delivery of material was really interactive; each workshop covers distinct topics with lots of ways for the students to get involved through discussion and group work. Some of the material is highly-sensitive, but the facilitator handles the topics skilfully and enables students to engage with some very difficult issues and facts. The facilitator created an atmosphere of openness and respect that allowed the students to voice their opinions honestly without fear of judgement. One thing I thought was particularly effective was the way the facilitator engaged the students to discuss points and issues, rather than simply instructing them what is right and what is wrong.

Running the POW project with our Y12 students was one of those most interesting and rewarding projects I have ever been part of,  so much so that I am undertaking training to become a POW Champion to be able to facilitate groups in the future. I would whole-heartedly recommend it to other schools- get on board quick whilst you can!”

– Ruth Cassell, Sixth Form Academic Coach

For more information, see the POW leaflet (PDF, 432KB), or contact Lorraine Anderson – 07467 145 659 / l.anderson@solacewomensaid.org