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In this edition:
- A message from the Director of Education
- Senior Leaders' Briefing
- Industrial Action
- Inspection Updates
- Welcome to the Diocesan Education Team
- Admissions
- Finance
- Foundation Governor Induction
- Heads and Chairs Working Together
- Staff Wellbeing
- Solar Panels and Energy Use
- Chair of Governors' Network
- Governors' Network
- Monitoring and Evaluating the Effectiveness of your Church School
- Additional Updates
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A message from Canon Richard Noake, Director of Education
A heartfelt welcome back from the DBE and all in the Education Team! We hope that everyone has had a peaceful Christmas and New Year and that the first couple of weeks of the new term have got off to a positive start. The Chair of the DBE, Bishop Helen-Ann Hartley, has now stepped down from the role as she is about to move to the Diocese of Newcastle, where she will soon be enthroned as the new Diocesan Bishop. Her leaving service took place at Ripon Cathedral over the weekend. We wish her and her husband Myles all the very best and thank her for her commitment to Church School education across the whole of the Diocese. Bishop Tony Robinson, Bishop of Wakefield, is now the Chair of the DBE and will be working with the Board and the Education Team as we continue to deliver on our statutory duties across our nine local authorities with our 239 schools and academies.
The year ahead already looks to be busy, with a whole raft of opportunities to engage with the education team through our training, networks and all the bespoke work through the ESP. We look forward to seeing everyone at an event or in your schools.
We send you our thoughts and prayers as we embark on this new year and I hope to see you virtually at the Senior Leaders' Briefing on Thursday.
Take care and God bless.
Canon Richard
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Senior Leaders' Briefing
Thursday 26th January 5 pm - 6 pm
FREE to schools in the ESP
A termly meeting for senior leaders, including governors, to update them on national, local and diocesan matters. An excellent opportunity to keep up to date and network with colleagues from across the diocese.
Please note if you enrolled last term you will not need to this time. Check the dashboard on your ESP Online account to check. previously you will need to re-enrol for this academic year.
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Industrial Action
Governors will be concerned about the possible disruption to education as a result of planned industrial action. The NEU has confirmed there will be strike action throughout February and March. These will take place nationally on the 1st, 16th and 17th of March. Regional strikes take place on the 28th of February in the Yorkshire and Humber region.
The DFE expects headteachers to take all reasonable steps to keep the school open for as many pupils as possible. Following some queries this week, here are some initial points for clarity:
- In a maintained school, it is for the head teacher to decide whether the school should remain open, or whether it should partially or fully close.
- In academies, this is a trust decision, which may be delegated to the headteacher/prinicpal of the academy. If you govern in an academy we recommend that you find where responsibility lies in your context.
- When school leaders make a decision to close the school they should consult governors. The last-minute nature of such decisions means that this consultation could be held with just the chair, although that decision should be communicated to the rest of the board and be recorded in the next available minutes.
- Industrial action can be a political and divisive matter. No decisions on the part of leaders or boards should be made on the basis of political opinions. Decisions should be made following a detailed assessment of risk, using health and safety priniples. We advise governors to see this situation through the lens of other full or partial closure scenarios such as decisions made on snow days or when there is no heating or water.
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Inspection Updates
SIAMS
As you will be aware, there are changes planned to the SIAMS Framework from September 2023. In describing these changes, the national team are using the phrase, ‘radically different, radically the same’. This means that whilst there are some significant amendments, particularly in how the school will be inspected and the reporting that follows, in essence, what it means to be a good church school hasn’t changed. This consistency is reflected in the content of the 2023 framework. All of the documentation is available on the Church of England website here. This includes a recording of the national briefing in November.
To help you explore what these changes are and what it means for your school we have planned a FREE briefing for governors to help them navigate the changes.
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Governor Briefing: New SIAMS Framework 2023
Wednesday 29th March
online via Zoom 6 - 7 pm
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OFSTED
There have been no significant changes to the inspection handbook since the last update in September 22. Here is some latest news regarding Ofsted for those that haven't picked it up and may be interested.
Ofsted have just released a state of the nation stye briefing with initial figures from inspections so far in 22/23. You can access this here.
On January 16th, Amanda Speilman gave a speech at the University of Oxford Department for Education. The focus of the speech was mainly around how Ofsted use research. However, there was an interesting section on the challenges of achieving consistency in Ofsted judgements. We know that this has historically been a concern in the sector. Ms Speilman stated ' ...There will therefore always be a degree of variability that cannot be engineered out of inspection, and we could do more harm than good if we tried.' You can read her full speech here.
Ofsted's Annual report for 21-22 was published in December. It paints a picture of a sector that is not fully recovered from the effects of COVID. Whilst there is concern regarding the number of schools that have not received a graded inspection for too many years, there is some positive news about the direction of travel with erargd to grades improving. In addition, there are descriptions of how the sector is changing and how Ofsted will need to adapt, for example through greater focus on multi-academy trusts. Of interest to some governors will be the finding that many teachers in their first two years are finding the requirements of the early careers framework a challenge. You can access the full report here.
We have picked up in our work with schools, across a number of local authority areas, some mixed messaging around the role of governors in relation to the single central record. In some cases, governors are being asked to check the SCR regularly because Ofsted will expect this. We can clarify that this isn't the case as explained by Ofsted themselves in this short video.
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Welcome to the Diocesan Education Team
Since the September Update, we have had some personnel changes. Before Christmas we said goodbye to Jen Sloan and Janet Tringham in our advisory team and Tibha Rai in our Admin Team. Whilst we are sad to lose friends and familiar faces, we are also sure that you would like to join us in welcoming some new members to our team.
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Trudi Garratt-Ward
School Adviser Senior Leadership
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Helen Lever
School Adviser - Senior Leadership
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Shakira Anderson
Education Administrator - School Organisation
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Admissions
For those schools that are responsible for their own admissions.
Just a reminder that it is a statutory requirement that all schools who are their own admissions authorities and all academy trust boards must determine (agree) their admissions arrangements for the academic year 24/25 by February 28th. This needs to be done whether you have consulted on changes or not and should be recorded in the minutes of a board meeting by that date.
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Challenging times for families
Everyone is aware of the challenges created by the cost of living crisis and church schools, which have a calling to the vulnerable and marginalised, often ask what more they can do to support their communities. The Child Poverty Action group have produced a short guide to what schools can do to support families in times of financial hardship. You can access the guide here.
Challenging times for schools
Schools will soon be in the process of budget setting. We know the many challenges that schools face in this regard. We are very aware of the challenges faced by schools as a result of government funding. This was revealed in the Annual IFS Report On Education Spending in December. It is likely the government's additional funding for schools will be soaked up by increased costs and we know that discussions such as staffing structures, increase in contract costs and dinner money losses are a regular feature of board meetings.
The NGA make its webinars accessible and they recently held one on financial oversight in challenging times. Some governors may find this helpful.
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Foundation Governors Induction | |
Just a reminder that it is an expectation on the part of the Diocesan Board of Education that new foundation governors complete the online Foundation Governor Induction course within the first six months of being in role. The course is available through ESP Online, link below.
Foundation Governor Induction course
The Foundation Governor Induction course covers the role of a foundation governor and being an effective church school governor. It should be seen as an expected element of induction in addition to that provided by the local authority, trust or NGA.
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Heads and Chairs Working Together | |
The relationship between head and chair is of paramount importance and often there is insufficient time for heads and chairs to work together to plan for strong governance. As a result, we are running a repeat of our one-day, face-to-face course to provide quality facilitated time for the head and chair to reflect on their relationship and plan together to make the board more effective. There will be time to reflect on the professional relationship between head and chair, clarify your roles and what is strategic and operational in your context. There will also be an opportunity to review your board's effectiveness and consider your roles in supporting its wider work so that you can leave the day having made a plan, together, for improving board effectiveness.
Feedback from the course held in October included:
'The impact of this course was better than expected, it was good to have a safe space to work 1 to 1 with the headteacher'
'Excellent ideas and strategies to further improve our work '
'...lots of practical ideas to take back and implement...useful and valuable!'
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Heads and Chairs Working Together for Strong Governance
Thursday 6th July 9.30 am - 3 pm
Church House, Leeds
£150 for schools in the ESP
(The Head pays and the Chair of Governors attends for free!)
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The annual Teacher Wellbeing Index provides an insight into the mental health and wellbeing of teachers and education staff working in the UK and is produced by Education Support. Published in November it reveals:
- 59% of staff have considered leaving the sector in the past academic year due to pressures on their mental health and wellbeing
- 55% of staff have actively sought to change or leave their current jobs
- 68% of staff cited the volume of workload as the main reason for thinking about leaving their jobs
- 47% of all staff always go to work when unwell
- 78% of all staff experienced mental health symptoms due to their work
- 87% of senior leaders experience poor mental health.
These findings are interesting after a period of time when, due to COVID, many schools report that they have focussed heavily on staff wellbeing. It may provide a useful starting point for discussion at board level and governors may also want to take into account the very recent report that digs down in particular to the mental health and wellbeing of ethnic minority teachers.
You can access and download the full report here and the report on the well-being of ethnic minority teachers here. Governors that might want to look at how schools approach the support of staff mental health and well-being could start by looking at resources provided by the Anna Freud Centre, such this guide.
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Solar Panels and Energy Use | |
It’s encouraging that so many of our schools are thinking about ways in which they can reduce their carbon footprint over time. A reminder please that if you are considering measures such as installing solar panels, for church schools this needs to be discussed with the diocese. Please contact our buildings officer, Kevin Matthews at kevin.matthews@leeds.anglican.org
In December, the government produced guidance to support building users, premises managers and senior leadership teams to reduce energy, costs and carbon use. You can access it here.
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Chair of Governors' Network
Tuesday 31st January 6 pm - 7 pm
FREE to schools in the ESP
A termly opportunity for those in the role of Chair of Governors to share ideas and resources and discuss matters relating to the leadership of the board. You may wish to invite your vice-chair of governors as part of your succession planning process.
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Governor's Network
Wednesday 1st February 6 - 7 pm
FREE to schools in the ESP
This termly network is for any governor or trustee, set up in response to a request by schools. The agenda is driven by those who attend. This is a valuable space to network and share with colleagues in other authorities and MATs.
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Monitoring and Evaluating the Effectiveness of your Church School
A course for governors
Tuesday 23rd May 4 - 6.30 pm
Note this is a repeat of the course held last October.
How can governors ensure that there is a robust and continuous approach to the monitoring and evaluation of their church school? What should they look for and what questions should be asked? Governors are invited to join us for this practical session.
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Other items of news which may be of interest... |
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In December, Sport England's latest Active Lives Children and Young People Survey revealed improvements. Showing that efforts to help children get active again are working and are returning to pre-pandemic levels. This was especially true of teenage girls. You can read the report here.
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For those that missed it, the government published a self-assessment tool to help schools in England review their responsibilities under the Prevent duty. You can access it here.
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Following a campaign, by the Oliver King Foundation, the government are about to begin delivering 20,000 defibrillators to schools across the country that don't have one. Mark King, its founder, lost his 12-year-old son to cardiac arrest while swimming at school in 2011. Guidance on how to use them in schools has been made available, click here to access the guidance.
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© Anglican Diocese of Leeds, 2023
Diocesan Education team
Church House, 17-19 York Place, Leeds, LS1 2EX
0113 200 0540
info.ed@leeds.anglican.org
www.leeds.anglican.org/education/home
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