Schools weekly newsletter
Friday 27 February 2015
Contents
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Scarlet fever
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Children’s Advice Team offer free training
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Music hub partnership: York Arts Education and Millthorpe School
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Funding for schools to help more young people access higher education
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Occupational Health Nurse Adviser
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Health and safety: trampolines
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Regional Schools Commissioner
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Deputy and assistant headteachers conference
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DfE publications
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Heels 4 Hearts: 23–27 March
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Feedback on My Support Plans (MSP) and Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCP)
Scarlet fever
There has been a recent increase in scarlet fever infections locally which requires
schools/nurseries to be vigilant in identifying and supporting children. Scarlet fever is a bacterial
illness that causes a distinctive pink-red rash. It is uncommon in the UK nowadays and is usually
mild but can rarely cause more serious problems. Anybody can catch scarlet fever, but it
generally affects children aged two to eight years old. As it is so contagious, scarlet fever is likely
to affect someone in close contact with a person with a sore throat or skin infection caused by
streptococcus bacteria (such as impetigo).
The characteristic symptom of scarlet fever is a widespread, fine pink-red rash that feels like
sandpaper to touch. It may start in one area, but soon spreads to many parts of the body, such
as the ears, neck and chest. The rash may be itchy. Other symptoms include a high temperature,
a flushed face and a red, swollen tongue. Symptoms of scarlet fever usually develop two to five
days after infection, although children will be contagious before showing signs of the illness. The
usual treatment is a ten-day course of antibiotics, with at least 24 hours passing after the start of
treatment for a child to return to school.
As it is highly contagious, schools and teachers should reinforce good hygiene amongst children
with fastidious hand washing, and discourage the sharing of eating utensils, cups, glasses,
clothes and towels. If a child is identified as suffering from scarlet fever by the GP, Public Health
England will provide additional support and advice. Further information is available from
www.gov.uk/government/collections/scarlet-fever-guidance-and-data.
Sohail Bhatti / sohail.bhatti@york.gov.uk / 01904 554551
Children’s Advice Team offer free training
The Children’s Advice Team have revised and extended their training offer, to support staff who
provide early help to vulnerable children, young people and families. All the Advice Team’s
training is free! New courses offered this year include:
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a briefing on the basic principles that underpin all assessments, at whatever level
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training for non-specialist staff on how to contribute effectively to assessments being
completed by another worker
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a workshop on engaging with the hardest to reach families
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a briefing for workers and managers on safe and legal information sharing
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a workshop for pastoral staff and other specialists, on leading early help processes such as
“Teams Around the Family”
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training for managers and supervisors to ensure practitioners get the support they need.
Each school has an Advice Team link worker, who can advise on suitable training to meet your
needs, and full details (including dates) of all the training courses can be obtained from:
Paul Fogarty / paul.fogarty@york.gov.uk / 01904 555185
Music hub partnership: York Arts Education and Millthorpe School
York Music Centre (run by York Arts Education) is moving its Saturday morning music provision
to Millthorpe School from after the half term holidays. York Music Centre has already held
sessions at Millthorpe on Wednesday evenings (4.30pm – 6.30pm) for many years and now see
the addition of the Saturday morning music-making activities (9.15am – 1.00pm) as a positive
consolidation of resources.
Parents, children and staff are absolutely delighted by this move and we look forward to
developing stronger relationships with local schools and the community as well continuing to
provide excellent musical opportunities to the highest level for all children and young people
across York. For further details, visit www.yorkartseducation.org.uk.
Tim Brooks / artseducation@york.gov.uk / 01904 554663
Funding for schools to help more young people access higher education
Higher York has successfully secured £350k funding to work with local schools to promote wider
access to higher education over the next two years. The initiative is part of a £22 million national
programme to coordinate links between higher education institutions and secondary schools
and colleges through collaborative outreach networks.
The new funding will be used to develop collaborative projects in schools across North
Yorkshire, York and parts of East Riding to encourage more local young people into higher
education. The network will work in particular with schools whose pupils are currently less likely
to progress to higher education, but will offer a gateway to information for all state-funded
secondary schools and colleges. Projects are likely to include student ambassador and
mentoring schemes, materials to support teachers in schools and an expansion of the successful
Children’s University.
A single point of contact will also be established to help teachers and advisers find out about
local higher education outreach activity, as well as to help young people with more general
advice to reach the best possible decision about their future choices. Higher York is currently
putting together an implementation plan and is keen to engage with schools to ensure best use
is made of the funds available.
Paul Murphy / contactus@higheryork.org / www.higheryork.org/schools / 01904 876350
Occupational Health Nurse Adviser
Please note that due to a problem with the existing telephone
extension Lynne Skelton, our Occupational Health Nurse Adviser, is
now on 01904 55(3620).
Lynne is contracted through Health Management Limited (HML) to take queries (telephone or
face-to-face). Lynne is available for management calls or meetings on Wednesday mornings at
Hazel Court and Wednesday afternoons at West Offices. To arrange a meeting or call leave a
message on Lynne’s voicemail and she will call you back on her next available Wednesday.
If you have an urgent query regarding a report or an appointment, contact Team A4 at HML on
0845 872 9713.
Lesley Sharp / occhealthmanagement@york.gov.uk / 01904 554387
Health and safety: trampolines
There was a recent accident involving a student in a secondary school who fractured their wrist
when a trampoline they were helping to fold away snapped shut. A full investigation was carried
out, and the key learning points are:
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A risk assessment must be in place for all aspects of the activity – which also identifies that
all students involved in setting out / putting away trampolines must be trained and
deemed competent (including their physical ability) by a suitably qualified trampoline
coach/teacher
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This must be recorded in a workplace instruction
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The activity must always be carried out under direct supervision of the coach/teacher
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A coach/teacher to student ratio of 1:16 maximum
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A maximum of two trampolines when there is only one qualified coach/teacher present in
the lesson. Can only use more trampolines with further qualified coach/teacher supervision
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A push-in mat will be used (by the coach/teacher) to prevent complete closure of the
trampoline when folding and therefore preventing limb trapping
Alex Fletcher / healthandsafetyteam@york.gov.uk / 01904 554131
Regional Schools Commissioner
Jennifer Bexon-Smith (Regional schools Commissioner, East Midlands and the Humber Region)
recently gave a presentation to Local Authority officers and has agreed that the slide set can be
shared with Headteachers. The presentation gives information about the responsibilities of an
RSC, the Headteacher board which supports her and the challenge posed by the relatively high
number of Academies which are not yet good or outstanding in her region, which includes York:
www.york.gov.uk/download/downloads/id/17005/
John Thompson / john.thompson@york.gov.uk / 01904 553004
Deputy and assistant headteachers conference
We are starting to plan the deputy and assistant headteachers conference on 19 May, and
would like school representatives to work with us on this event. There will be one meeting
before Easter (date and time to be confirmed) and we are looking for a primary and a secondary
representative. Please send expressions of interest to Stephanie by 4 March.
Stephanie Windsor / stephanie.windsor@york.gov.uk / 01904 553038
DfE publications
DfE have added new guidance for schools and settings with nursery provision to encourage
parents to register for free school meals: www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-yearspupil-premium-model-document-and-letter-for-parents.
Karron Young / karron.young@york.gov.uk
DfE have published a research paper, looking at the link between the attainment of pupils and
different levels of absence across KS2 and KS4 in schools: www.gov.uk/government/
publications/absence-and-attainment-at-key-stages-2-and-4-2012-to-2013.
Yvette Bent / yvette.bent@york.gov.uk
DfE have published a useful SEND newsletter: www.sendgateway.org.uk/resources.newsletterfor-schools-on-the-send-reforms-for-february.html. Its worth a read as all the basic information
is in one place with a to do list, fact sheets and a myth busting section. Please do not hesitate to
get in touch to discuss any aspect of the implementation of the reforms in your school. I would
be happy to provide a support/review visit.
Marion Weeks / marion.weeks@york.gov.uk
Heels 4 Hearts: 23–27 March
ITV's Good Morning Britain is asking all secondary schools to join our exciting new campaign,
called ‘Heels 4 Hearts’. We want pupils to donate shoes in good resalable condition to be given
to the British Heart Foundation (BHF) to be resold to help fund CPR training in every secondary
school in Britain and help create a nation of lifesavers. Currently in the UK, fewer than 1 in 10
people survive out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. However in European countries where CPR is
taught in schools, the survival rate is much higher, eg in Norway the survival rate is 25%.
From the 23 to 27 March the project is asking everyone to collect shoes in good re-saleable
condition and give them to their local BHF shop. It has been calculated that approximately 200
pairs of shoes will fund the set-up of a secondary schools CPR training programme. If schools
are making donations of 100+ pairs, then they can be collected by a BHF representative.
Please email Michelle.Porter@itv.com if you are provisionally interested in getting involved. Also,
ITV will be looking for several schools to film with so please get in touch if your school would be
interested in this as well. In addition if your school doesn’t already teach CPR but would like to,
please get in touch. Details of how to do this will be sent out nearer the time.
Feedback on My Support Plans (MSP) and Education, Health and Care
Plans (EHCP)
The SEND reforms were implemented nationally in September 2014. We are now 6 months into
this new process and seeking feedback from SENCos, other practitioners, families and children
and young people. This will inform any amendments for September 2015.
A new survey for SENCos is now available asking for feedback on issues including time taken,
value of the process, engagement of parents etc: www.surveymonkey.com/s/KDP7JYJ
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Cluster groups have been provided with twilight support sessions. There will now be
cluster consultation sessions for parents and children and young people, beginning with
Westfield on 10 March
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A survey will be made available for other professionals
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Case studies will be used to look in more detail at the value of the plans
One SENCO has written:
Completing section 3 makes you really stop and think; what exactly are the needs of the child?
When you are working with a child all the time, he just becomes “Jim”. I thought “We know
about him and what works and what doesn’t.” By having to complete the process of identifying
individual needs and describing what layers lie behind each need, it really makes you question
the provision that is currently in place and whether or not it is still appropriate and relevant to
moving the student forward.
3.2 feeds perfectly into deciding the long and short term outcomes. At every point during this
outcome writing process, we are referring to section one and two and the long term aspirations
of the child and parents. This ensures outcomes are appropriate and move towards
independence and development of skills.
The old annual review process now seems so irrelevant. The new process is long and time
consuming but the final document drives a clear pathway forward enabling us to see progress
in however small steps and celebrate this with family and colleagues as you plan for the next
steps.
Jess Haslam / jessica.haslam@york.gov.uk / 01904 554322