ESW Associate & Strategic Leader of Teaching & Research Schools | Education South West Roger Pope CBE opens this October issue reflecting on the concept of a servant leader in the context of the recent passing of Her Majesty the Queen:
"The very fact that you are reading our SWIFT newsletter suggests to me that you have a predilection for this kind of leadership. To be passionate about staff development means at least two of those servant leader traits are core to your vision and purpose as a leader: commitment to the growth of people and building community." In this first issue of the new school year, you can read about the launch of the SWIFT WalkThrus programme, the first SWIFT History Masterclass on Literacy and Vocabulary: The Power of Words led by Josh Vallance of Oasis Academies and gain an insight into the role of one of our Directors + more besides PLUS features from our sponsors.
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27/9/2022 0 Comments Sustainability Support for SchoolsFind out more about our sponsor Computeam's work to support sustainability with IT that lowers schools’ energy costs, CO2 emissions and drives sustainability. That’s why they're thoughtful about the partners they work with.
For example, Computeam supply laptops and Chromebooks from Acer because they have one of the best sustainability programmes as a technology manufacturer. For example, 80% of an Acer Vero laptop is composed of recycled Ocean bound plastics. Acer also offer 70% reduction in carbon emissions from an average mixed environment of desktops and laptops. Working with PX3, a team of scientists providing sustainability assessments to a wide range of customers and via PhD research, in partnership with the University and Business School of Warwick; PX3 found an 84% reduction in CO2 emissions across a typical legacy estate of Windows desktops when using Acer. Coupled with cashback incentives via Acer’s Green Rewards; an overall Trust-wide user device strategy from Computeam can significantly reduce both operational and capital costs. So what are Acer’s Green Rewards? Put simply; you get a valuation of your old energy-zapping kit, purchase new devices, make a claim, have your old devices collected and then receive your cash reward! In five easy steps you’ve offset some of the cost of newer, energy saving devices and helped to lower your carbon footprint whilst doing your bit for sustainability. Given the targets for all Government Departments to ensure sustainability and decrease carbon dioxide emissions; including the Department for Education (DfE); it is no surprise that large scale projects funded by the DfE seek to push Schools and MATs to declare carbon offsetting. How will your School account for this should it be required? Yet, it's not only user devices. Large scale infrastructure projects, such as replacing whole Networks and Switches can incur huge costs. Through Computeam's partnership with Aruba-HPE, you can benefit from 0% interest loans directly from Aruba-HPE and even a ‘buy back’ of legacy kit, reducing cost and saving you money. Speak to a member of the Computeam Team who will assess your wireless network and advise on moving to a mobile device strategy that will reduce the number of energy-draining switches and the demand on your electricity bills. As a Cloud First provider; Computeam look to replace energy-zapping Servers with all the associated costs of maintenance and possible failure, with a cost-save Cloud solution. Assuming a server utilises 136 watts at 100% efficiency, did you know that keeping a server operating 24/7, 365 days of the year - assuming a cost of 35p per kWh for electricity - will cost you £4,169.76 per annum! The older the server, the less efficient it will be and costlier to run! Now consider schools running two or more servers... So, schools are invited to speak to Computeam about a move to the Cloud that makes sense. But what about Computeam's credentials pledge regarding sustainability? Like Acer, Computeam are in partnership with Ecologi who plant trees (whole forests actually) that ensures a lower carbon footprint of all employees both at work and in their day-to-day private lives! For the last 14 months Computeam have reduced 617 tonnes and planted 8,673 trees; supporting 21 projects to generate new carbon-zapping forests! See more information here Contact Email or call Computeam directly to discuss any aspect of your IT requirements and how they can help you to save costs. Ilsham English Hub are pleased to host the following free CPD sessions in the Autumn Term. Gill Jones HMI English Talk Thursday 29 September 2022 | 1600 - 1700 | Online Gill Jones HMI, Deputy Director, Schools & Early Education will talk about learning to read and write, drawing on research from Ofsted English Research Review and the implications for teachers of primary age children. The session will cover communication and language, phonics, handwriting, transcription and comprehension and Gill will be joined by Kirsty Godfrey HMI, Specialist Adviser. N.B. This session will not be recorded. Teachers as Readers Group | Open University/UKLA Ilsham English Hub Session 1 | Wednesday 12 October 2022 Session 2 | Wednesday 23 November 2022 Session 3 | Wednesday 18 January 2023 Session 4 | Wednesday 15 March 2023 Session 5 | Wednesday 24 May 2023 Session 6 | Wednesday 21 June 2023 From 1600 - 1730 Open to all! These six informal, friendly and supportive sessions will help to develop evidence informed practice, widening knowledge of children's literature and other texts, enriching Reading for Pleasure pedagogy and documenting the impact of children as readers. There is an expectation that attendees will try to attend all the sessions. Transforming your School Reading Culture Core Session 1 | Wednesday 12 October 2022 | Reading for Pleasure: a Whole School Culture Core Session 2 | Wednesday 23 November 2022 | Creating Whole School Change Core Session 3 | Wednesday 18 January 2023 | Creating a Reading School: Structural Changes Core Session 4 | Wednesday 15 March 2023 | Creating a Reading School: Behavioural Changes Core Session 5 | Wednesday 21 June 2023 | Celebrating Impact and Sustaining Change From 1230 - 1500 Transforming your School Reading Culture is a sustained, research based CPD programme aimed at Primary English Leaders. The group looks to develop a whole school reading community and culture and will be facilitated by Danni Cooke and Carly Watson. Participants can benefit from five core sessions plus ten optional workshops. It is however, necessary to sign-up to attend all five core sessions to be part of the group. In between the five sessions, participants complete gap tasks related to developing participants’ own knowledge of children’s literature, understanding of reading for pleasure pedagogy and developing the reading for pleasure culture in their school. Those who commit to the programme will be expected to attend all sessions. N.B. This is currently not open to Wave 4 Partner Schools - if this is you, then please, send email Danni Cooke. The optional online workshops will run from 1600 to 1630 on the following topics:
Further details to follow on dates and times. Contingent Talk Session 1 | Thursday 10 November 2022 Toolkit Focus: Why do books matter so much? What is child-led book talk? Gap Task: Book talk and complete the pre-project survey. Session 2 | Thursday 19 January 2023 Toolkit Focus: Quick reflection on first session. Gap Task: Set up a timetable for sessions and start note-taking. Session 3 | Thursday 23 February 2023 Toolkit Focus: Quick reflection on the last session and troubleshooting. Gap Task: Film yourself with one of your target children and choose a snippet to share. Session 4 | Thursday 4 May 2023 Toolkit Focus: Reflection. Gap Task: Complete survey From 1400 - 1500 The structure of this work will be four sessions led by Danni Cooke, Ilsham and Rowena Lucas, Ilsham and Ramsbury English Hub Leads and the focus will be on Early Years Foundation Stage (nursery/pre-school included, but can be bridged into Year 1). In-between each session, participants will be invited to try out the strategies that they explore to ensure that they reflect on the previous workshop. This work is open to a maximum of 20 schools. N.B. This is currently not open to Wave 4 Partner Schools - if this is you, then please, send email Danni Cooke. Schools will need to sign up for all four sessions and as a commitment to the sessions will be sent two books for use in the work. Ilsham English Hub Showcase Thursday 6 October 2022 | 0900 - 1200
We recommend Heads of School, SLT, Reading/Phonics Leaders attend this session. This showcase has been updated in accordance with current up-to-date documentation and priorities. Some schools might be eligible for a total of £160 funding each to support supply cover to attend. Schools will be assessed for eligibility when spaces are booked. If supply cover has been given in previous years, then it cannot be claimed again. Oral Blending and Segmenting and Soft Sounds Thursday 6 October 2022 | 1600 - 1700 | Ilsham English Hub This workshop will look at the importance of the foundations of understanding the skills of oral blending and segmenting and soft sounds and will be useful for any colleague who wishes to develop their understanding of the foundations to build effective phonics learning. Nurseries and Pre schools are welcome to attend. The Role of the Reading Leader (Autumn 1) 14 October 2022 | 1130 - 1300 | Online This webinar will look at the key priorities for this point in the term as the reading leader and will be run every half term with a different focus to enable leaders to develop in the reading leader role. Contact Ilsham English Hub will also be booking audits for the Autumn Term where they can look at personalised support and access to funding. Please contact Danni Cooke if you would like to find out more. We recently saw the release of the Government’s response to their consultation on the proposed Data Reform Bill. It is still early days for the proposed legislation and there is a lot to go through from this response. In addition, the timeline for the new legislation and exactly what it will look like based on this response is unclear at this stage. But our sponsor, SchoolPro TLC, has looked at the consultation outcome and you can read their initial reaction and thoughts about how it might impact on working with schools in the future. Privacy Management Programmes to be a Compliance Requirement This is one that we have been expecting and we have built the online audit/accountability tool in the new portal with this possibility in mind. Essentially, the proposal is to reduce down the accountability requirement to the following six key areas (from the current ten):
This potentially simplifies the process and our audit tool has been developed to be fully configurable. So, if this change goes ahead as suggested, the existing tool can be adapted to the new Privacy Management Programme and relevant information, actions etc already in the tool, can be ported across as required. The Government have been keen to highlight that this is not to reduce the rigour of accountability and lower standards, but to create a more flexible tool that can scale depending on the risk level of the organisations. This may well ease some of the burden on smaller schools, for example. Data Protection Officers (DPO) to no longer be mandatory and to be replaced with a ‘senior responsible individual’ This proposal removes the need for an independent DPO with no conflicts of interest and allows the role to be taken on by a senior individual within the organisation. That person will still fulfil many of the existing roles of a DPO, so it is likely that many organisations will simply continue with their existing arrangement. The ‘senior responsible individual’ will be responsible for:
At present, it is not fully clear if this will apply to all organisations; or whether it will be only small organisations and those that do not process high levels of sensitive data that are able to drop the requirement for a “DPO”. We are obviously going to keep a keen eye on this one! Removal of Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIAs) The thought here is to provide a more flexible and tailored approach to organisations. Again, the Government are keen to emphasise that this is not to reduce rigour and lower standards and they state that organisations will still have to identify, assess and manage risk. This may allow for a more risk-based approach where lower risk processing has a simpler risk management approach and higher risk processing still follows a similar DPIA process to what is currently in place. However this is implemented; thankfully, this should not involve new risk management for legacy systems as the Government has stated that “existing DPIAs would remain valid as a way of achieving the new requirement. Removal of the Record of Processing Activities (RoPA) Requirement As with DPIAs, this is to provide a more flexible approach that can be tailored to different organisation depending on size and the nature of their processing activities. This will link to the Privacy Management Programmes and will require organisations to have “personal data inventories” that “describe what and where personal data is held, why it has been collected and how sensitive it is.” From what we have read so far, we believe that our existing data mapping tool will allow for these inventories to be created still with very little need to be adapted from their current format. Those are a few of the points we think will have an immediate impact on schools. Of course there are more detailed analyses of all the proposals available online, such as this useful one from the IAPP: It is also clear that not everyone is happy with the proposals.
Reading through the response, the prevailing theme appears to be “we asked about this, most of you weren’t happy with proposed changes… so we’re going to make some anyway;” which is an interesting approach to a consultation. All we can say is, watch this space… Report by Ben Craig CIPP/E, Director of SchoolPro TLC Ltd Last week, the Department for Education (DfE) presented a live webinar to discover how to support staff at all levels and access the wide-ranging support available from the Department to improve staff experiences and ultimately improve pupil outcomes. The event also featured guest Headteachers who shared their passion for teacher development and discussed examples of how the programmes are supporting the staff and young people in their settings. The webinar included:
To watch the webinar recording, click on the link below and you can also download a copy of the PowerPoint presentation and collated Q&A document.
The Met Office has warned that temperatures could hit 43C over the coming week, which would make it the hottest day ever recorded in the UK. Our sponsor, Wolferstans Solicitors, provides some guidance for employers as summer temperatures soar. If it’s too hot to work, can employee’s leave? Under UK law there is currently only a minimum working temperature set, which is 16C. However, if the employee’s work involves rigorous physical effort, the temperature should be at least 13C. There is unfortunately, no meaningful figure that can be placed on high temperatures, to indicate if it is in fact too hot to work. That said, employers are responsible to ensure their employees and workers are comfortable and in their working environment. This extends to helping them keep cool. Health and safety should also factor into an employer’s consideration as to whether it is too hot to work. Can employee’s legally ask for air conditioning in their workplace? Employers are obliged to keep employees comfortable, which falls within them needing to ensure the working environment is of a reasonable temperature for those using it. From this, the concept known as "thermal comfort" has been established. By managing the thermal comfort within the workplace employers are more likely to improve morale, productivity and health and safety. The Health and Safety Executive note the six basic factors to cause temperature discomfort are:
A way in which they suggest you can control the thermal comfort of these factors is by using air conditioning units or air dehumidifiers. If you want further advice on whether you should be installing air conditioning, as you feel are having employee complaints about the temperature in the workplace, then please get in contact via the below contact details. Do employees have to wear their usual work attire in sweltering heat? This very much depends on the organisation. For example, if you are employing tree surgeons you would not be complying with the health and safety laws and organisational policies if you allowed you employees to not wear their personal protective equipment, such as the thick heavy chainsaw trousers which they most likely do not wish to be wearing on an extremely hot day. In circumstances where it is reasonable for there to be a flexible dress code, such as in an office environment, employers should be doing this to help with employee’s thermal comfort and productivity. If in doubt whether this applies to you, the Health and Safety Executive provide further information on this. How else can employers ensure that "thermal comfort" is managed well? Hybrid working is becoming increasingly popular and making the most of this on an extremely hot day could benefit employers and employees. Employers need to consider whether the building they have is equipped for a heatwave. In doing this they should factor in whether there is a lot of glass, if it is an older building, whether there is good ventilation, and whether or not they already have air conditioning installed. Employee productivity could be higher, should they be allowed to work from home in a cooler environment. If this is not possible then employers need to control the thermal comfort of their employees in the workplace as best as they can, given their circumstances. Ways to do this is by providing fans, if safe to do so, in the event they do not have aircon. If you have any concerns over your workplace, or employees refusing to attend work during the heatwave, please make contact via our new enquiries section of the website. By Rachel Lee, Wolferstans Solicitors ESW Associate & Strategic Leader of Teaching & Research Schools | Education South West Roger Pope CBE opens this July issue by considering whether we're facing a return to the 1970s. But...
"Research now trumpets that a culture of professional support and development in a school is what makes the difference to the effectiveness of teachers. Finally, we have a White Paper that values that culture, the funding to underpin it, and a system of Teaching School Hubs to help you to make it happen." This final issue of the school year includes a report on the SWIFT Summer Conference, A Theory of Change as an Implementation Tool for Professional Development, Michael Rosen's reading for pleasure top tips, an interview with NPQ Facilitator, Esther Best + more besides AND features from our sponsors. “Every child should benefit from a broad, ambitious, knowledge-rich curriculum, taught by highly skilled teachers.” (White Paper, 2022) We are pleased to bring you our new Masterclass series as part of our CPD Programme for 2022 – 2023. Masterclasses are subject-specific programmes with a focus on curriculum, teaching and assessment. Many are led by external subject experts with a national profile who are celebrated authors and speakers, and also include Ofsted inspector subject specialists. The year-long programmes at both primary and secondary are designed to boost teachers’ subject knowledge through enjoyable and edifying topics, plus the opportunity to network with like-minded subject colleagues. Primary English | Writing Matters - Enabling Achievement for All Session 1 - Understanding How we Write: Different Perspectives on Writing. Session 2 - Grammar as Choice: bringing language and meaning together. Session 3 - Going ‘Meta’: metacognition and metalinguistic understanding of writing. Session 4 - Writing across the Curriculum. Session 5 - Creative and Critical: Workshop Approaches to Writing. Languages | Effective Assessment in Primary Languages and Transition to Key Stage 3 Part 1 - Effective and time-efficient ways to assess Primary Languages attainment at Key Stage 2 Part 2 - Ways to establish and maintain links between primary and secondary schools Languages | Why Phonics Teaching in MFL is so Important ‘Why is teaching Phonics in MFL so important?’ Geography | What Does High Quality Teaching and Learning Look Like? Children as Geographers Session 1 - Environment Session 2 - Place and location Session 3 - Processes Session 4 - Diversity Session 5 - Sustainability History | What Does High Quality Teaching and Learning Look Like? Children as Historians Session 1 - Continuity and change Session 2 - Sources Session 3 - Significance Session 4 - Similarity and difference Session 5 - Causation and consequence Secondary English | Making Meaning in English with David Didau Session 1 - Intent Session 2 - Implementation Session 3 - Impact Session 4 - Responses to participants MFL | Masterclass Series Session 1 -The new GCSE and implications for teaching at KS2/3 Session 2 - Phonics Session 3 - Vocabulary Session 4 – Explicit Knowledge Session 5 - Use of the Target Language Session 6 - Quick wins for Year 11 Science | Masterclass Series Session 1 - Modelling in Science Session 2 - Checking for understanding Session 3 - Retrieval practice and strategies for long-term learning and memory in Science Session 4 - Assessment Session 5 - Curriculum Design Session 6 - Marking in Science/Whole Class Feedback in Science Geography | Role and Practice of a Knowledge Rich Curriculum Session 1 - The Opportunities and Challenges of a Common Curriculum Session 2 - Making the Most of Fieldwork Session 3 - Achieving Curriculum Coherence Session 4 - Selecting and Contextualising Case Studies Session 5 - Ofsted Speaker (to be announced) History | Knowledge and Skills for Teaching Session 1 - Literacy and Vocabulary, "The Power of Words" Session 2 - Assessment in History Session 3 - Revision Strategies in History Teaching Session 4 - Local History: the pleasures and the pitfalls of researching disability History Session 5 - A Representative Curriculum: Diversity in the History Curriculum Find out more here and book your place
We are pleased to introduce our new sponsor, Goosemoor Educatering. Goosemoor Educatering are proud to provide the very best in quality fresh food, in exciting, child- led meals, all within any school’s current budget. Since its inception as a family business in 1957, Dart Fresh / Goosemoor Foodservice has built a reputation as the leading provider of quality food products and produce across the South West of England, based on the constant strive for perfection for its customers. For More Information
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