Essex New Headteacher

Information Pack

Education Directorate

September 2020

Cllr Gooding,

Lead Member for Education

September

2020

Dear Headteacher

A very warm welcome to Essex County Council.

I hope that you find the information enclosed in this pack helpful.

Please contact your School Effectiveness Partner in the first

instance should you require any further information or have any

queries.

I look forward to meeting with you all at our new headteacher

event and at other events in the future.

Cllr Gooding

September

2020

• Quadrant structure in place

• School Effectiveness

• SEND Operations Teams

• Early Years

• Attendance Specialists

• SEND Strategy and Innovation Service

• Specialist Education Service

• Education Access team

• CME / EHE

• Youth Service

• Schools Safeguarding

• Virtual School

• Strategy, Planning and Performance Service

• School meals

• School crossing patrols

• Essex Dance Theatre

• School communications and critical incidents

• Workforce Development

• Initial Teacher Training & NQT programme

Essex Education Services

How we work with schools and settings

Our vision is that regardless of age, stage, unique characteristics or circumstances our children and young people will have an education which provides:

• A positive experience of learning;

• A sense of belonging, value and worth;

• Aspirational outcomes;

• The right support at the right time;

• Information and opportunities to enable informed decision making, choice and control;

• Successful, planned transition at any point of movement, between phases or settings;

• Every child has the best start in life by joining up support across education, health and care from pre birth to 25 years;

• Thoughtful and thorough preparation for their future progression to a fulfilling adult life.

Our vision for Education in Essex

• We will continue to work with all schools and MATs to improve the quality of education and also support the full curriculum recovery work and assessment of learning

• We are refreshing the School Partnership Strategy and embedding a culture of partnership working across school improvement and outcomes for children and young people

• We will continue to work with the Headteacher Roundtable to develop a suite of tools and expectations to ensure every school can be as inclusive as possible for all pupils

• We will publish an Inclusion Framework which will incorporate the work achieved on an Essex Inclusion Statement

• We will embed the new SEND teams to ensure the highest quality of support to schools and families for pupils with EHCPs and those identified as requiring SEN Support

• We will deliver against the actions required in the Written Statement of Action following the SEND inspection last year, which will include a full review of the EHCP processes, and the High Needs Block spend

• We will continue to promote the safety and emotional wellbeing of all children and young people across Essex

• We will accelerate the roll out of Trauma Perceptive Practice across all schools and education establishments. Alongside this, we will launch the Headteacher Wellbeing programme across primary, secondary and special schools.

• We will launch the renewed disadvantaged strategy

• We will publish a new Early Years Strategy towards the end of the spring term 2021

• We are reviewing all of our processes that are in place for children not in full time education and will publish an action plan in response to this review during the Spring term.

2020 / 2021 Priorities

September 2020

Supporting Success: Enabling Excellence (An Essex document for all schools to

provide differentiated levels of support from members of the Education team)

The key outcomes we want to achieve are:

• All schools to be securely good or outstanding with an increase in the number of outstanding schools in the county

• End of key stage outcomes to be securely in the top quartile nationally

• Progress outcomes for vulnerable children and young people to be in line with their peers

• Visionary and agile school leadership and accountable governance at the heart of the system

• A coherent and inclusive education system driven by a collective moral purpose and underpinned by mature and formalised school to school support

• A school-led improvement system driven by schools working in tight collaboration that is continuously improving and externally challenged

QuadrantsSouth, North, West,

MidOverview of Education Improvement Team

Early Years Education Partners: Work in settings and schools supporting provision for

children between the ages of 0-5yrs. Evaluating quality of provision, facilitating links

between health, social care within family hubs and schools/settings. Working

particularly with settings and schools who have a high number of disadvantaged and

SEND children.

Attendance Specialists: Provide advice on attendance statutory requirements and best

practice to schools and parents. Support education compliance and children missing

education with cases related to attendance matters in schools

School Effectiveness Partners:

Provide support and challenge to schools for the attainment and progress of pupils,

focusing on leadership and management. Facilitate partnership working within and

across clusters for school improvement. Support wellbeing for school leaders. Support

recruitment and retention strategies in schools. Prioritise work in schools that have a

high number of vulnerable pupils – SEND and disadvantaged.

There is an Assistant Director who is

responsible for the strategic

leadership of the quadrant.

The Head of Education and Early

Years and the SEND Quadrant

Manager report to the Assistant

Director

The Head of Education and Early

Years is responsible for strategic and

operational matters regarding schools

and settings and line manages the

Education and Early Years Team

Education and Early Years

The School Effectiveness

service provides advice, guidance and

support to school leadership about the

provision for all children, including

attendance. The Early Years team

gives advice and support to settings

and schools around quality of

provision.

All schools will have a link School Effectiveness Partner (SEP).

The September letter confirmed the priorities for this term and the key contacts for each school.

New headteachers and Acting Headteachers are prioritised for early contact and additional support.

School Effectiveness Partners

School Effectiveness Partner key roles:• To be the principle link between the local authority and a number of agreed partnerships/schools contributing to school

improvement across a quadrant of Essex

• Responsible for supporting the maturity of school partnerships as part of the School Partnership Strategy, to share expertise, enhance learning outcomes and broker support as required.

• Work collaboratively with Early Years settings, schools, Teaching School Alliances and other educational providers to identify areas for improvement, identify solutions and provide support to achieve the best outcomes for pupils across the 0-18 age range.

• Monitor the effectiveness of schools to manage attendance and reduce exclusions, offering advice and guidance and developing supportive plans to assist them.

• To act as the representative of the Director of Education at Headteacher appointments in LA maintained schools and to supportGovernors in the appointment process. To support where requested all academy Headteacher appointments and to represent the Director of Education at Ofsted feedback.

• To challenge schools to have safeguarding procedures that ensure that all pupils are safe and that are fully informed by the most recent statutory requirements.

• To contribute to a robust system of monitoring school performance and outcomes of support and challenge as a key driver for ensuring all Essex schools are good or outstanding.

• To provide intensive school improvement support to enable Essex LA maintained schools that have been identified as underperforming to make rapid improvement.

Early Years Education Partners

This new role is focussed on partnership working and school readiness:

- Facilitating the systemic needs of the Early Years sector within each quadrant

- Enabling settings and childminders to provide sustainable, high quality provision for Essex children

- Co-facilitating EY SEND cluster meetings with EP/IP when required and support settings to be fully inclusion .

- Ensuring the connectivity of the Early Years system with particular focus on giving the most vulnerable children the best start in life and being ‘school ready’

- Using their knowledge and understanding of the Early Years Foundation Stage and Early Language and Communication to support those working with children 0-5, with a focus on closing the word gap and the impact on quality provision’

- Supporting the work of district Family Hub advisory boards and other relevant EY partnerships promoting ‘School Readiness’ and quality provision. This includes submitting newsletter articles and information to the EY website, providing training etc.

Attendance Specialists (Quadrant based)

• Work directly with schools and families to find solutions to poor attendance in each quadrant.

• Advice to schools re: the referral to compliance process through partnerships and direct contact via telephone and email.

• Provide advice to schools regarding maximising school attendance during COVID and the processes for referral to Compliance.

• Develop strategies, initiatives and incentive programmes to raise attendance and support schools to achieve performance targets.

• Frequently update Essex Infolink with materials and information around all aspects of attendance

• Work closely with other ECC colleagues and School Partnerships in their quadrants to provide ‘joined up’ solutions to whole school issues regarding attendance .

• Each quadrant has a dedicated telephone number and email for enquiries.

QuadrantsSouth, North, West,

Mid SEND Inclusion and Psychology Team lead by Inclusion and Psychology Lead

Educational Psychologists (EPs): provide independent professional advice to families,schools and other education settings. An EP applies psychology (the study of thinking,learning, emotions and behaviour) to support the learning, development and wellbeing ofchildren and young people up to 25 years old. Senior Specialist EPs additionallyspecialise in particular areas of SEND.

Assistant Educational Psychologists: work alongside EPs to support delivery at aschool, group and individual level.

Inclusion Partners (IPs): are managed by Senior IPs and work in close partnership withcolleagues in SEND Services, and in particular, Educational Psychologists, to supportearly years settings, schools and colleges to develop their inclusive practice and deliverimproved outcomes for children and young people with SEND. IPs are involved indelivering the Essex SEND Training Offer at a central, quadrant, cluster and individualschool/early years setting model.

SEND Operations Team (previously ‘Statutory Assessment Service’) lead by SENDOperations Lead

SEND Operations Partner manage and develop the SEND Operations Co-ordinators andSEND Operations Assistants within quadrant clusters, according to the vision for SEND inEssex. Effectively delivering the council’s statutory duties in relation to the assessmentand review of children/young people with an EHCP.

SEND Operations Coordinator work within a cluster team and administers the EHCNAprocess for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities,also coordinating school placement requests for children with an EHCP moving intoEssex.

SEND Operations Assistant provide administration and support to the statutory SENDprocesses such as the Annual Review Process, in particular at phase transfer, as well asproviding a triage service for all contacts received by the SEND Operations Team.

SEND Engagement Facilitator support sustainable inclusion for children and youngpeople with SEND, through targeted support to educational settings, families and partners.They will facilitate effective collaborative practice through One Planning and ensure ajoined-up approach to the Assess, Plan, Do, Review Cycle, particularly at points oftransition for CYP.

The SEND Quadrant Manager ( QM)

is responsible for strategic and

operational matters regarding SEND

within each quadrant as well as the

line management of the Inclusion

and Operations Team leaders.

SEND

The Special Educational Needs

(SEN) services give advice, guidance

and training to schools and settings

about the provision of quality support

for all children.

More information can be found on

the Essex Schools InfoLink

Overview of SEND team roles and responsibilities

SEND Engagement

Facilitator

SEND Operations Coordinator

Cluster of Schools &Settings

School Effectiveness

Partner

Inclusion Partner

SEND Operations

Partner

Educational Psychologist

Assistant Educational Psychologist

SEND Operations Assistant

Senior Educational Psychologist

Attendance Specialists

Early Years Advisors

The Quadrant Education ServiceThe quadrant team provides:

• School Effectiveness

• Educational Psychology

• Education, Health and Care needs assessments and statutory plans

• Sourcing of educational placements for children and young people with plans

• Quality assurance, advice and guidance for Early Years providers

• Strategic and targeted support around inclusive practice in schools and settings

• Training and workforce development for schools and early years settings

• Strategic support for schools around attendance

Strategic planning with

Link EP and Link Inclusion

Partner and/or School

Effectiveness Partner

Booking directly onto our

training and development programme/s

Liaising with link Inclusion Partner

or link EP for advice and

support

Referral into the Statutory Process

The way in which schools and settings work with the SEND service

• No child, school, setting or family is left to face difficulty without appropriate help from us.

• Schools, families and CYP can clearly and easily identify their first port of call if they hit a problem

• Dialogue and collaboration will be used to find solutions to any problems

• We will efficiently draw together ‘our best people’ around a challenge

• We will have a reputation of being approachable, solution focused and creative.

• Our partners will say we care, we try, and we are the best people for the job.

• There is greater synergy between services that impacts positively on parents, schools, settings and young people aged 0 to 25

The Impact We Expect

The School Partnership Strategy is being refreshed to ensure that the culture of partnership working within

and between schools is being embedded in order to have the greatest impact on school improvement and

outcomes for children and young people by:

❖ Developing a revised vision for School Partnership

❖ Ongoing development of the Partnership Board

❖ Strengthening the role that partnerships/MATs have on school improvement within and between each

other

❖ Ensuring that the outcomes of Peer Review are impacting on school improvement

❖ Strengthening the systems that are in place to support Partnership working in the quadrants

❖ Linking with other council initiatives/strategies

❖ Continuing to offer development opportunities to Partnership Leads and Quadrant Chairs

❖ Considering how the system can support isolated schools

❖ Developing stronger links between the partnerships and the School Partnership Board

❖ Developing the School Effectiveness Teams role with Partnerships

School Partnership* Strategy

September

2020

* All school partnerships - LA Maintained and MATs

September

2020

This is how time was allocated to the partnerships last academic year - in the light of the different way of

working with schools in the light of COVID this term, this is currently being reviewed for this year. There

will still be an allocation of time to all Partnerships to undertake the work highlighted in this diagram (LA

Maintained and MATs) and this will be discussed at forthcoming Headteacher meetings.

September 2020

WestDunmow Excellence in Education Partnership (DEEP)Elsenham Harlow Education Partnership BMAT Reach 2Epping Forest Saffron Walden Learning Partnership TrustEpping MAT Uttlesford NETAT

MidColne Valley Danbury Woodham FerrersBlackwater Dengie Seven SpiresBraintree and Villages Notley Eveleigh Link Chelmsford Learning Partnership Trust River Chelmer Connected LearningChelmsford District Tanglewood The Witham CollaborativeChelmsford Education Partnership

SouthBasildon Excellence Partnership Castle Point BillericayWickford Brentwood Lee ChapelSouth Essex Teaching Institute Canvey South Essex Academy TrustHogarth & Others Brentwood Academies Trust South-East Essex Academies TrustsBrickfields Trust Life Education Trust

North-EastColchester Mid-Tendring Stour Education Colchester – Priory Street North-East Schools Partnership Tiptree & StanwayColne 1 Harwich Education PartnershipColne 2 Constable South Tendring SIGMA

ESSE

X P

AR

TNER

SHIP

S

September

2020

School Partnership Strategy

Information on School Partnerships can be found from the home page on Essex Infolink

If you would like any more information on School

Partnerships please contact Nicola Woolf know at

Nicola.woolf@Essex.gov.uk

September

2020

Attendance Teams (Specialist Education Services):

Education Compliance Team:

1 Statutory Education Compliance Manager – oversees the work of the Attendance Compliance and Children Missing Education/Home Education Teams:

Attendance Compliance Team (penalty notices/prosecutions/unauthorised absence)

Tel: 03330322988 attendancecompliance@essex.gov.uk• 5 Attendance Compliance Officers

• 4 Attendance Compliance Support Officers

Children Missing Education/Elective Home Education

Tel: 03330322962 cme@essex.gov.uk or homeeducation@essex.gov.uk• 4 CME/EHE Investigators

• 2 CME/EHE Coordinators

Quadrant Attendance Specialists - Tel: 03330322968• One Senior Attendance Specialist and one Attendance Specialist in each quadrant

• MidAttendanceSpecialistTeam@essex.gov.uk

• NorthEastAttendanceSpecialistTeam@essex.gov.uk

• WestAttendanceSpecialistTeam@essex.gov.uk

• SouthAttendanceSpecialistTeam@essex.gov.uk

September 2020

Attendance Compliance Team (Specialist Education Services)

Irregular school attendance, Penalty Notice and Prosecution Referrals

Criteria for issue/referral:

• Single point of entry – online referral form on ESI

• 10 unauthorised absence sessions within 10 school weeks

• Clear evidence demonstrating how the school have worked with the family/parent to remove barriers to attendance

• Legal Action Warning Letter must be sent, by separate cover, to each parent/carer against whom legal action is being requested

• Does the parent have a statutory defence?

• Attach the last 18 weeks school attendance

• Check ESI ‘Education Compliance’ pages for most up-to-date information/advice from the team.

September 2020

Unauthorised leave of absence

Criteria for issue:

• Single point of entry – online referral form on ESI;

• 6 sessions in the first two calendar weeks of September (N.B.:

not the first 10 school days of the school’s chosen term dates); or

• 10 consecutive sessions;

• Unauthorised by the headteacher as reason provided for

absence is not considered exceptional;

• Absences must be G coded.

N.B. Two elements of headteachers’ discretion;

a) Whether to authorise the absence or record as unauthorised

using the G code

b) Whether to request the issue of a penalty notice in respect of

the absence

September 2020

Education Access Team (Part of Specialist Education Services)

• The Education Access Team is pivotal in making sure that all children in Essex have access to, and are receiving, an appropriate education

• Our statutory duties include commissioning education for children and young people who have been permanently excluded from school or who are unable to attend school due to medical needs.

• Our wider responsibilities include

– Reduced timetables

– Other young people struggling to access education

– Anti-bullying

– Student travel behaviour

Team structure• Education Access Manager

• 4 Education Access Specialists

• 3 x Education Access coordinators

• 1 x student travel behaviour investigator

• 1 x IQA assessor

Contacting the team • Duty line: 0333 032 2534

• Email:

– Exclusions exclusions@essex.gov.uk

– Medical referrals medical@essex.gov.uk

– Reduced timetables provision@essex.gov.uk

• Essex Schools Infolink website (ESI) is the information repository for

schools https://schools.essex.gov.uk/

• A weekly Education Essex e-newsletter is sent each Monday during term

time. Sign up by selecting ‘Education Essex Newsletter’ in the ‘News and

Information’ menu on ESI

• Subscribed services are available in the secure area which requires a login

– there is a nomination form on the homepage to request an account. You

can also report school closures and access emergency contacts here

• Schools Communication team contact details 033301 39880

SchoolsCommunication@essex.gov.uk

• Critical incidents – information and guidance on how to respond to an

incident can be found on ESI

(https://schools.essex.gov.uk/admin/Critical_Incidents). Further support can

be requested by contacting the Schools Communication team.

Schools Communication and Critical

Incidents September 2020

A celebration of the talent, hard work and commitment of all staff working

across Essex

• The Essex Teaching Awards are now entering the 8th year of recognising

the hard work and commitment of teachers, support staff and governors

across our county from EYFS-KS5.

• Teachers and school support staff make a huge difference to the lives of

children in Essex and it is important they get the recognition they deserve.

• This year we will be recognising all schools and settings for their sterling

work during the recent unprecedented times.

• There will also be an opportunity for the school community to nominate

individuals. Nominations will be open in November 2020

• For more information and details, visit: https://www.essex.gov.uk/essex-

teaching-awards

The Essex Teaching Awards

We wish you every success in

your new role and look

forward to working with you

Education Directorate

September 2020