Message from Peter Nathan, Director of Education 04.05.2021
FAO: All Schools / All Phases
Dear Headteacher/Principal,
I hope you have had a good if windy (!) bank holiday weekend and may even had a meal at a restaurant albeit outside. As ever, there are quite a few matters to update you on. I have attached the latest local COVID dashboard which again continues to show good news in terms of reducing cases.
i) COVID food parcel grant – Today (4th May) is the last day that you can claim this grant if you did provide food parcels or additional food vouchers – the link is here coronavirus (COVID-19) free school meals additional costs.
ii) COVID Bubbles & contacts - in discussion with public health, it has been agreed that it is not always necessary to send a whole bubble home if there is a COVID case within the bubble. However, you do need to be sure that the children and adults in the bubble have not been a close contact of the infected person. This could be done by looking at seating plans, play arrangements etc. Some schools have already adopted this policy and a lot of course would depend on the bubble size. If you are unsure, then please contact public health who can support with making a decision as necessary.
iii) COVID control measures - An action arising from a recent meeting with trade union representative has resulted in an ask to remind staff of the following - “Whilst infection numbers may be dropping it is important that schools continue to follow the Government guidance on following the systems of control measures, ensuring that staff understand the school risk assessment and are able to feel confident that the school is Covid secure. The link to the government guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak . This is both to protect your school community from infection but also schools and their governors from potential challenge.” This is because there have been a few cases in schools in the past have been where staff members have relaxed and for example have had meetings in small rooms without social distancing and without suitable ventilation.
iv) New Orient Gene LFD test - a new LFD test has been introduced for onsite use in secondary schools which only requires nose swabbing – I have attached the email from the DfE which identifies this and the ordering process.
v) Secondary Summer school sign up - if your school wishes to sign up to run a summer school this summer, the deadline for this is 7th May – the link to express an interest is here - sign-up for the programme . As you are aware, there is funding to provide either a one week or two week programme.
vi) Holiday & Food programme – if you are interested in running a summer holiday programme as discussed at the most recent headteachers briefing, I have attached the power point shared at that meeting which includes the links to the application. Programmes were successfully run by a number of school organisations.
vii) Half-term FSM vouchers and support for Healthy Food week – as in previous holiday periods recently and due to the extension of the COVID winter grant (now renamed Local COVID grant), families with children on FSM will receive a £15 voucher child. If headteachers are aware of other families in need, support can be provided – information on this is provided via the Hub. Primary schools will also receive some financial support to assist in plans for healthy food week and information on this has already been sent out by Cheryl Headon.
viii) Recruiting teachers from overseas – there is new guidance on recruiting teachers from overseas - https://www.gov.uk/guidance/recruit-teachers-from-overseas which may be of interest as is an online meeting on 13th May. Here is the signup link - https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/recruiting-overseas-teachers-under-the-new-immigration-system-registration-145843510867
The next headteachers briefing is planned for 21st May from 1:30pm to 3:00pm and hopefully by then we will have more of an idea of the roadmap for schools out of the current COVID measures. We are meeting with headteacher representatives this Friday if you have any matters to raise and next Monday we have a meeting of the Enfield Learning Excellence Partnership Board (I attach the KPI targets to be agreed for the borough). On a different subject, I can recommend the film 127 hours if you haven’t seen it and it is better than freezing on a cricket pitch in an icy wind as I did on Sunday! Hope you had a good weekend too and also a good week coming.
Best wishes
Peter Nathan
Director of Education