Newsletters

End of Term Newsletter March 2021

Welcome

Firstly, welcome to the first edition of Transforming Futures Trusts' new staff newsletter.

As mentioned within my previous updates via email, we are keen to continually improve our communications across the Trust. As part of that it is hoped that this newsletter will become a regular feature and strengthen our ability to share information across the Trust and between each of our Academies.

It is with great sadness that I am starting this first digital newsletter with reference to the tragic and unexpected death of one of our colleagues, Elizabeth Foregard. Elizabeth as many of you will know, was based at Courtland’s where she worked with our younger pupils.  She was very well loved by all at the school.  She ran the arts and crafts club and was a superb teacher.  The school community is devastated and our thoughts are with her family and friends at this tragic and incredibly difficult time. Thank you to all our staff at Courtlands who while dealing with their own grief have given such strong guidance and support to their pupils. If you or any of your colleagues are struggling at this time, please do reach out and access the Trust's support in which more information is provided within the 'Wellbeing' article below.

Turning to other matters and further to my communication to colleagues back in March, I wanted to provide a business update on key items in which the Trust is involved as follows:-

  • The government's roadmap out of lockdown: As you may be aware there are many changes coming out from the DfE that will affect us over the next 12 months or so. Examples include new frameworks covering NQTs and a first draft policy paper for discussion on SEND and AP schools. There is also encouragement for trusts to work more collegiately in certain areas. After the Easter break we will therefore be undertaking project working with other trusts in the Plymouth area and have been invited to join similar panels in Cornwall. Tiverton are already working with Devon regarding the SEN100 framework with exciting developments that will help us to address children's needs in different ways.
     
  • As the national lockdown eases and over the warmer months we will need to keep sight of our corporate and social responsibilities around preventing the spread of Covid-19. While we emerge with a far greater sense of hope that the vaccine roll out will put an end to the pandemic, we are far from that currently. As such, we need to ensure our tight Covid-19 controls remain in place across our schools for some months to come to keep ourselves and our school community safe.
     
  • Delt TUPE proposal: At the time of last writing, we announced that formal consultation with colleagues directly affected had commenced. This period of consultation will end no earlier than Friday 16 April 2021 and it may be extended if required dependent on items that arise from consulting with those employees who are part of the 'transfer group'. We can report that 121 meetings are well underway and we are on track to deliver all of those meetings over the next couple of weeks. Colleagues directly affected have been supported by receiving regular FAQs to questions that arise during their individual meetings as well as accessing their elected representatives and Delt Change Champions where required. If you have a question on any issues related to the Delt TUPE proposal then please email our dedicated mailbox consultation@transformingfutures.org.uk.

Finally, as we look to the end of the spring term, I would like to reflect on what has been a year of immense upheaval. May I take this opportunity to thank you for your continued resilience and passion for delivering great education to our children across the Trust. Your individual efforts and support are hugely appreciated.

Turning to the future, the Trust now has focussed plans. Our staff have risen to the challenge in terms of offering remote learning and as a result enhanced their skills sets. This has not only benefited pupils but is being recognised by the wider education community in terms of our specialist skills. 

Thank you once again and enjoy the Easter break,

Best wishes

Gavin Gracie, CEO

Recruitment Update

Keep an eye on the Trust's vacancy page as the following role will be out to advertise soon....

Support and Challenge Group Clerk (All Schools) 

  • Hours per week: 5
  • Weeks per year: 40
  • Contract Type: Permanent
  • Vacancy Type: New post

In the meantime if you have any recruitment related queries, you can contact HR via hrsupport@transformingfutures.org.uk

Headteacher's Blog

As a regular feature for the trust's newsletter, this week's spotlight falls on Hannah Smart, Headteacher at ACE, Tiverton who shares with us what the Recovery Curriculum means to the Trust and in a local sense at ACE Tiverton.

Recovery Curriculum: The TFT Way

Supporting students to re-engage at school with a focus on relationships

“The loss the children experienced during this pandemic will have caused issues around attachment – in their relationships in school that they have forged over years; these will be some of the strongest relationships the young people have, but bereft of the investment of those daily interactions, will have become fragile.”  (Barry Carpenter 2020)

From 20th March 2020, schools were closed for all except a few students because of a worldwide pandemic. The UK went into lockdown, meaning that people could only leave their homes to buy food, exercise and carry out critical work. This left parents and carers home educating their children with the support of their school. Children have experienced loss of social interaction with their friends, extended family and their teachers. They have lost their usual structure and routines as they are not able to attend school and extracurricular activities. They have been without their usual freedoms, playing outside and visiting leisure areas. Some may have experienced bereavement of friends or family. All of our students have suffered some form of loss.

All our staff are asked to share information that helps put the best support in place as quickly as possible.  If you are seeing common themes of behaviour or anxieties with your class, speak up so we can share supportive resources to help you with this and signpost you in the right direction. Remember: getting to know your students as much as possible will allow us to support them and re-engage them as active learners as soon as possible. Please reach out if you personally need support. This has been, and continues to be, a challenging time and we are here to support you as well.

Our trust-wide approach focuses on restoring mental health and rebuilding the resilience of our students to allow them to become learners again by:

  1. Recognising the experiences had by individuals
  2. Restoring trust and relationships
  3. Re-establishing friendships and social interactions
  4. Regaining structure and routine
  5. Rebuilding our sense of community
  6. Regulating emotions and managing behaviours
  7. Re-engaging students in their learning
  8. Preparation for transition

At ACE Tiverton we have addressed these areas of need through the development of a recovery curriculum that enhances student’s learning, development and reconnection with adults and their peers. Our priority is to support students to re-engage with school and develop the confidence to be active learners again. Irrelevant of the needs, anxieties and challenges that students presented prior to the pandemic, all students will be experiencing some uncertainty about their experiences this year, our recovery curriculum supports them to understand and recognise these feelings, speak up and share them in a way that is healthy, safe and appropriate as well as develop their capacity for empathy and understanding of others’ experiences during this time.

With best wishes

Hannah Smart
Headteacher

Wellbeing update

Supporting health and wellbeing is high up on the Trust's agenda and as part of our continuous improvement programme we will be looking to focus on staff and pupil wellbeing over coming months. 

In the meantime, please be aware of the Trust's Employee Assistance Programme provided by Health Shield. The EAP service is available to you, your partner and your dependants* with access to a professional telephone service 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Full information can be accessed here.

For any members of staff who may have been affected by the hugely tragic incident at Courtlands as referred to in Gavin's update above, a support pack is available here that details various forms of support that you can access.  In addition, please don’t hesitate to speak to colleagues and/or leadership teams either locally or in the trust so that we can help you in any way as well.

More generally, as we look to break up for the Easter holidays, please do take time to rest and "recharge the batteries" so to speak.

* Dependants must be in full time education, aged 18 - 24 and living in the same household

HR Update

Covid-19 - latest guidance:

Please note that we have recently released an updated version of the Covid-19 Guidance document. Please click here to find out more.

Please also note that the guidance for clinically extremely vulnerable individuals is changing from 1 April. For more information please click here.

Maintenance of the Core HR system:

Please be aware that there is some maintenance taking place on CoreHR which will prevent the ability to submit mileage between 3pm Wednesday 31st March and 12pm Tuesday 6th April due to a system shutdown to carry out the work.

All mileage claims must therefore be submitted and approved by managers by 3pm on Wednesday 31st March.  Any claims that are still in progress on CoreHR that have not been submitted OR approved by managers by this time will be lost and the claims will need to be re-entered from the beginning once the mileage function is available again after 12pm on Tuesday 6th April. 

The reason for this system work is to fix issues relating to adding or amending vehicle details, which impacts on the ability to make a mileage claim.

As a result of the work, after the 6th April you will be able to update your vehicle details via the ‘My Primary Car’ widget and there will be no requirement for manager or HR approval as it currently is. There will be guides uploaded onto the Core HR Training support site which will be available next week to reflect the change; you can access these guides from next week on CoreHR Training Support – Delt Shared Services.

Given that the payroll cut off this month falls during the Easter break and with line managers on leave, please ensure you submit your claims as soon as possible before the Easter break to allow your Manager sufficient time to review and approve your mileage and/or additional hours claim in line with the above system outage. Please note that any claims submitted after the payroll cut-off date may not be approved by Managers until after the Easter break and therefore will not be processed until May’s pay.

New MIS System - Arbor

We are pleased to inform you that we are currently undertaking a project to change our MIS system across the Trust from SIMs to Arbor, ready for the new academic year.

Currently, the SIMS MIS systems are siloed and complex, with no standardisation or ability to report at a trust level. The aim of this migration is to provide a web-based integrated platform that saves staff time, provides up to date information about students, will enable immediate support and intervention and improve student outcomes.

Arbor is now the fastest growing MIS in the country. Every year, more schools are switching to a cloud based MIS, and more and more of those are moving to Arbor. A project team of staff across the academies are working together to mobilise the project.

Thank you to all those involved - it is a great demonstration of sharing expertise and resources across the Trust to achieve our collective aims!

Cyber Security - Important information....

We have been notified of targeted ransomware attacks on schools and trusts. One of the ways cyber criminals attack with ransomware is via ‘phishing emails’. Usually it is by encouraging you to click through to an infected website, or by opening an attachment with a payload. Whilst a lot of the attempts are picked up by our filters, it is inevitable that some will reach your inbox. We are therefore asking everyone to be vigilant.

The following are some key tips on identifying these emails. If you accidently access one of these emails, or identify one please immediately notify the IT helpdesk so they can investigate and contain the problem at ITHelp@transformingfutures.org.uk.

 The message is sent from a public domain – e.g @gmail.com

  1. The email address is mis-spelt
  2. The email is poorly written
  3. It includes suspicious attachments or links
  4. The message creates a sense of urgency

Since the move to the new IT platform last September, our IT security has improved, we will shortly be validating that with the Cyber Essentials accreditation. In addition, we are working with Delt on a Cyber Security Review in line with the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) 10 Steps to Cyber Security, which takes into account training and awareness, information security governance and risk management.

For further information around these key tips, please read the following link available here

Other News......

Letter from Gavin Williamson MP and Secretary of State for Education

On Monday this week, the Secretary of State for Education wrote to children and young people to recognise the impact of the disruption they have faced over the past year and to thank them for their resilience.

He outlines his continued commitment to supporting children and young people to recover from the disruption now that they have returned to school and college. The letter also highlights the importance of coronavirus (COVID-19) testing and the vital role this plays in helping to prevent the virus spreading.

We have placed this letter on the Trust website under our 'News' section and for ease of access you can view it by clicking here.