START WITH PARENTS TO NARROW THE GAP! N
urseries and children’s centres should be giving parents lessons in how to talk to their children in a bid to close the gap in performance between rich and poor pupils. That is one of a series of radical recommendations of a report from the Fair Education Alliance, which finds there is still “a significant gap between the most and least deprived”, despite years of government initiatives aimed at solving the problem. It warns: “The odds of a child from a state school who is eligible for free school meals being admitted to Oxbridge is still 2,000 to one.” The report brings together 25 organisations involved in campaigning for better education standards, including Barnardo’s, Business in the Community, the National Association of Head Teachers and the Prince’s Trust. They argue that children’s centres must train “language development champions” to help parents improve their children’s language skills. By the time disadvantaged children leave the foundation stage at four they are already 20
Education Secretary Nicky Morgan
Artist Anna Kompaniets
The Independent reports on idea to realign Pupil Premium to target the poorest
Report an emergency
percentage points behind their more affluent peers in reading and writing attainment. In maths, the gap is 18 percentage points.
Southwark schools can report instantly if they have any emergency situation. To report an emergency, simply visit www. southwarkheads.org.uk and click on the Emergency Button at the foot of the page.
The report also calls for spending on “pupil premium” funding of schools with disadvantaged pupils to be slashed by half – with the money saved targeted solely on children who have already fallen behind in the basics by the time they arrive at primary school.
Examples of emergencies are: • School closures due to accident, incident or extreme weather conditions • Reporting suspicious behaviour by members of the public i.e. people taking photographs
The report is backed by Alan Milburn, the former MP who now heads the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission. “If Britain is to become a fair society we need to do a lot more to break the link between someone’s social background and their chances of doing well in life,” he said.
In the winter season, ensure you are prepared for icy weather with stores of salt and grit. Should the weather become severe and you need to close your school for any reason, please report your closure using the Emergency Button on the www. southwarkheads.org.uk. We will display your situation on this page. To download a risk assessment document for severe weather, visit http://enhancededucation. co.uk/Weather-Guidance-SouthwarkJan-2012.doc
Education Secretary Nicky Morgan said: “We welcome this report and share the Fair Education Alliance’s commitment to continuing to close the gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers and at the same time raising the bar to ensure all pupils achieve their full potential.”
Closures will be updated hourly, so keep us informed!
For all your information needs visit www.southwarkheads.org.uk
Mental health training for youth workers
New FSM/Pupil Premium checking service
B
ased on data obtained from the DfE, London schools served by LGfL, are missing out on a total of about £50m in unclaimed Pupil Premium.
LGfL’s Board of Trustees has considered how LGfL could assist schools in addressing this and schools are invited to participate in an initiative led by LGfL to maintain and increase funds received by schools through Pupil Premium. To simplify the process by which a parent checks for free school meals eligibility, LGfL has worked in collaboration with the DfE, local authorities and supply partner Atomwide to create an eligibility checking web site. This provides an immediate response to a parent’s application and also notifies the school of eligibility, allowing the school to make arrangements for meal provision and pupil premium. The total Pupil Premium paid out in respect of each school is determined by the number of known FSM-eligible pupils at the time of the DfE census return – 15th January 2015. Following testing and pilot use, the new eligibility-checker web site at www.fsm.lgfl.net is now live. LGfL hopes schools will inform parents of this new facility and encourage them to use it. As a ‘thank you’ to parents for making a check and as an incentive to participate, (even if their child would not be eligible), LGfL is making available to parents, free of charge, the same Sophos Anti-Virus software provided to all LGfL-connected schools, to protect the computers at home used by pupils. For schools to successfully take part it is necessary to: • Be running ‘AutoUpdate’ on the school’s MIS system – otherwise please see www.autoupdate.lgfl.net • Be set up to use OpenCheck For more information, visit: www.lgfl.net
“Ebay” Day @ Southwark Park Southwark Park school is moving to its new home and will have a number of items that it is looking to dispose of (whiteboards, furniture etc). On 13 February the school will be holding an “Ebay” Day. All schools are invited to come along and bid for any of the items for disposal. Bidding will take place over a set period of time during which each item will have a ticket on which to place a bid, bidders will be able to bid and rebid on any item during the selling period. The end of the sale will be marked by a klaxon sounding and the last (highest) bid registered on the tickets of each item will win the purchase.
It looks like this academic year will be a good one for training! With the upcoming Safer Schools course, restorative approaches for SSOs and YOTs starting 2015 and now Mental Health. SC&O3 (Specialist Crime Reduction) has managed to secure funding for Mental Health Awareness & Safeguarding Training (MAST). In short, schools are being given the heads up that there will be training from, probably, February 2015 for workers including Police, School Staff (primary, secondary and alternative provision), gang workers, YOS, Health and third sector organisations. There will be a one day training course early in the new year and then another one day course six months later. No dates have been arranged yet and further information will be sent out nearer the time. In the meantime, please be aware that more details will follow and that the information above is about what is to come! PC Steve Sweeney – Safer Schools Team For more information, contact Melanie Buchanan,PS 65 MD, Youth Engagement/Youth Offending Team, Southwark Borough. Mobile 07827 234458.
Childcare Disqualification Requirements Guidance for Schools
T
he Local Authority has received supplementary advice to the “Keeping Children Safe” Statutory Guidance from the DfE detailing a new requirement for childcare disqualification checks to be carried out on relevant staff working in schools and academies. These checks arise from the Childcare (Disqualification) Regulations 2009, which in turn arose out of the Education Act 2006. These Regulations prohibit anyone who is disqualified themselves under the Regulations, or who lives in the same household as a disqualified person, from working in a relevant setting, including in schools.
A novel way to attract overseas teachers
R
ecruitment specialist Uteach has organised a number of screening days for schools to interview and assess teachers from Ireland and Canada that wish to teach in London. The screening days are in Ireland on 6 February, 6 March, 20 March, 5 June, 19 June, 3 July 2015. Similar days are organised in Canada for 20-21 March and 12-13 June 2015. Headteachers from Southwark schools are welcome to attend any of these days and Uteach will fund the costs of travel and hotel accommodation. Uteach offers an innovative solution to staff recruitment. The company provides high quality personnel with free transport to the UK, deploys them within a partner school to learn the UK curriculum, assists the teachers with bank accounts, NI numbers and accommodation, supports them through Uteach’s own mentors and further ongoing support through a network of Uteachers. There are no upfront fees to participating schools, success must equate to teacher retention and the school can employ the teacher direct after one academic year with no fee. Any schools interested in attending the screening days should contact Bill Goldie, Director. Email: bill@uteachrecruitment.com or telephone him on Mobile: 07831 500553 or Office: 01236 442380. www.uteachrecruitment.com.
The following categories of staff in nursery, primary or secondary school settings are covered by the Childcare (Disqualification) Regulations 2009.
• they are the subject of an Order, direction or similar in respect of childcare, including orders made in respect of their own children’
• staff who work in early years provision (including teachers and support staff working in school nursery and reception classes); • staff working in later years provision for children who have not attained the age of 8 including before school settings, such as breakfast clubs, and after school provision;
• that have had registration refused or cancelled in relation to childcare of children’s homes or have been disqualified from private fostering;
The Regulations refer to employing a person “in connection with” these provisions and therefore the conclusions are:
Secondary Schools - will need to undertake checks on relevant staff (including managers) where any services are provided where under 8s may be in attendance, for example childcare facilities, before or after school clubs (staff includes volunteers).
In Infant and Nursery Schools - All staff will be covered
A person is disqualified if any of the following apply:
Primary/Junior Schools - All staff are covered as it is unlikely in such settings that staff are always exclusively working with those over the age of eight.
• they have been cautioned for, or convicted of certain violent or sexual criminal offences against adults and any offences against children;
• staff who are directly concerned in the management of such early or later years provision.
• they live in the same household where another person who is disqualified lives or works (disqualification ‘by association’). This means that the householder has an order, restriction, conviction, caution etc. set out in the Legislation. It is accepted that staff may not necessarily know this information – the declaration requires them to answer “to the best of their knowledge” Full details of what constitutes “disqualification” are in the Schedules to the Regulations that can be found at www. legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2009/1547/ contents/made.
Make career development your new year’s resolution
T
he relaunch of www.cpdnet.org sees an array of new courses for 2015. The simple to use website lists courses provided by fellow schools within Southwark, courses from accredited third party training companies as well as longer courses leading to qualifications from the likes of the National College. In addition to providing course listings, there is an interactive calendar that displays on the home page, those courses set to run throughout the year. One benefit of booking through www.cpdnet.org is that in some cases there are substantial discounts for Southwark schools. For example, through Anglia Ruskin University there are distance learning courses for school leaders, that offer Southwark schools up to a whopping £150.00 discount per course if they book through cpdnet! The website if free for Southwark schools to advertise their own courses on, which is a great way to open up places for colleagues in the borough. Check out what’s on offer and make 2015 a year for personal development!
Tackle food waste
O
n 22 January 2015 from 1.30pm there will be an opportunity for schools to find out about and join FareShare. FareShare tackles the twin issues of food waste and food poverty. 5.8 million people in the UK live in ‘deep poverty’, making it hard for them to afford every day essentials, including food. At the same time, 3.9 million tonnes of food is wasted every year by the food and drink industry. We estimate 10% of this is surplus and fit for consumption, enough food for 800 million meals. We currently handle approximately 1.5% of the surplus food available in the UK. FareShare ensures that good food is put to good use rather than wasted. Over 1,700 charities benefit from FareShare food. These include breakfast clubs, women’s refuges and luncheon clubs for older people. These charities save on average £13,000 a year, which can be reinvested into other services. Over 82,100 people benefit from FareShare food every day. In the last year, the food redistributed by FareShare contributed towards more than 13.2 million meals and helped businesses reduce CO2 emissions by 25,200 tonnes. During the event Schools will be able to find out how to access foods that can be used towards after school, breakfast clubs and support families most in need in your school.
BE FIRST FOR FIRST AID!
WWW.cpdnet.org will be advertising a number of courses to su pport schools including Team Teach, Fir e Safety and First Aid The first cours es to be run will be Emergency First Aid at Work a one day course on the 20 January and First Aid At Work a 3 da y course running from the 20 – 22 January 2015. Both courses will be run at the University Engineering Ac ademy Southbank and all courses are accredited. Please go to www.cpdne t.org to book in the New Year.
SEND US YOUR NEWS!
HEADS UP is published monthly during term time by Southwark Headteachers Executive. We would love to hear from you, so tell us your news:
Yolanda Houston T: 01797 364366 M: 07770 347616 E: yolanda@headexec.com
For all your information needs visit www.southwarkheads.org.uk