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Message from Director

Coronavirus (Covid 19) support 

Bereavement support for children, young people and families 

SIAMS

As you know, SIAMS inspections, alongside Ofsted, were suspended in March until further notice. Although schools are beginning to reopen to more children this half term, there is still no news from the Church of England Education Office about when they might resume. Some schools were expecting inspections in the spring and summer terms and my suspicion is that they will be pushed well into the autumn term, but of course I will pass on any information I receive.
 
We have been so inspired by the work schools have been doing with their pupils in school and at home and how they have been supporting families, enabling them to flourish in these challenging times. Many schools have sent us examples of children's work and activities, which we have been delighted to share on our website. It is great to see how schools are living out their Christian vision and values.
 
In his weekly reflection for 25^th May, Ed Gregory wrote,
'This week, as each day passes, think about your school''s values. 
Think, how have you seen each value at work? Can you record some examples?'
 
One way of keeping SIAMS issues 'alive', and as great evidence for the inspector when he/she visits, would be  to create a 'journal' of the activities and initiatives you have been engaged in over the past weeks and in the weeks to come. Below are some examples we are aware of in our church schools and how these initiatives could be related to the seven strands of the SIAMS Evaluation Schedule. I hope you might find this helpful in creating a journal of your own school's wonderful work.
 
Vision and leadership

• School leaders, governors and MAT trustees making decisions (e.g about re-opening to more children) based on Christian values of wisdom, care and compassion for all children, students, staff and parents

• Secondary DT departments making PPE
• Children in school making rainbow pictures/letters/cards for hospital staff or the vulnerable in the community
• Teachers creating activities for small groups of children of key workers etc.
• Teachers creating exciting activities to support online home learning
• Teachers enabling children with particular needs or vulnerabilities to flourish in their home learning

• Governors/MAT trustees giving support to headteachers, looking after their well-being, through phone calls etc.
• School leaders helping staff to be 'hopeful' and to cope with change and challenge
• School leaders and governors making challenging and courageous decisions e.g about re-opening to more pupils, in line with their values
• Teachers giving children time to talk about their anxieties about illness and death
• Headteachers offering support to anxious parents
• Schools opening at weekends and school holidays to care for children of key workers

• Governors and MAT trustees demonstrating concern for the mental health and well being of all in the school community
• MAT regular prayer support for its schools
• Schools/children demonstrating practical care for the elderly and those isolated in the local area e.g delivering food parcels or encouraging messages
• School leaders/teachers delivering meals/vouchers to vulnerable children at home
• Developing church school partnerships remotely, including bereavement support

• Legal responsibilities upheld in creative ways e.g class acts of worship, online worship, collective worship outside
• Online RE resources e.g NATRE website, RE Online, BBC Bitesize, BBC 'My Life, My Religion'
• Y6 Pilgrim Days Online (in June)

 
There will be many more initiatives and activities that schools have done and will do, in these unprecedented times. It is a real outworking of every school's vision, values and Christian ethos.
A reminder of the key SIAMS question 'How effective is the school's Christian vision, established and promoted by leadership at all levels, in enabling pupils and adults to flourish?'.
Please do get in touch if we can help at all regarding SIAMS preparation, and please send us any example of journals - we would love to celebrate and share them.

Religious Education

Support for Governors 

The Education Team have created a prayer book for use at meetings by Governors and staff. The foreword from Ed Gregory, Director of Education reads;

"Thank you for your leadership and support of our schools, staff and young people during this pandemic. Whilst we walk together through a very challenging time for schools, and communities, we are reminded in the Bible that we do not walk alone. As Church Schools we can draw on our Anglican foundation and practices to help us to pause, to reflect and remain centred in our Christian values. The following are a selection of prayers that you may find helpful to use or adapt, however you may be meeting, during this pandemic." To download your copy, click here 

The School Organisation Team are available to speak to you should you need support or advice. Please contact us with any queries you may have. 

Teach Rural- School Leaders Survey 

Headteachers and MAT CEO''s will receive an email about this by the end of the week. 

The Diocese of Bath and Wells has engaged with national research around recruitment in rural schools and you will find more details below. We hope that your feedback will support the project in taking the right path to identify appropriate needs and the best path forward. The survey is brief and should hopefully only take you a few minutes. Thank you in advance for any responses you feel able to give. If you haven''t already, to complete the survey, click here 

Education team update 

Currently, in order to protect the financial resilience of the diocese in these most challenging times, some staff including colleagues in the Education Department are on furlough. However, there is complete recognition that schools and academies remain open for care provision, education continues in new ways and core work continues.

We have therefore ensured that the Education Department remains here for you with advisor and admin support across all teams. Please do contact us as normal should you need us. If you are unsure who to contact then please email us  or phone 01749 685132 to speak to our Office Manager, Helen, who will be able to get you in touch with the best person to help you. 

A Virtual Pilgrim Day for 2020

As we can''t join together this year as planned for Yr6 Pilgrim days and Pilgrim Worship Events, we thought that children might like to take part in a virtual Pilgrim Days either at school or at home so we''ve set this page up with everything you or parents and guardians at home will  need. This is aimed at Yr4 and Yr6 children moving on from First and Primary or Junior to Middle or Secondary school but can be freely accessed by anyone. To access the webpage and take part, click here

Headteacher changes

Just a reminder to make sure that the diocese is informed if there will be any changes in headship at your school at the end of this summer term. This can include the current headteacher retiring or leaving to take up a new appointment. It also includes plans to appoint a new headteacher for which the diocese should be involved in. Please make contact with your diocesan adviser - thank you.
Bath Archdeaconry - David Williams 
Taunton Archdeaconry - Karen Sancto 
Wells Archdeaconry - Pauline Dodds 

Due to the current situation we find ourselves in with Coronavirus (Covid 19) all our training courses are suspended until further notice.  We were already investigating offering virtual or online training so it may be that we can offer this alternative in due course. If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact us

RSHE information 

Bristol Diocese have put together a sample RSHE policy which you can view here 

Useful resources for children and families

It has been great to hear of the wonderful Collective Worship that has been happening in school and at home through partnership with school. There have also been some thoughtful approaches to support home learning in RE. If you would like to share what you are doing with the diocese please do contact us. If you would like support in either of these areas, we can help. Below is a reminder of some resources that may also help you.
 

Faith at Home 


The Church of England's new national campaign that builds on the work of Growing Faith and Everyday Faith to support the faith development and pastoral care of children and young people. Read more. We especially recommend the video resources added to the website each week. 

Songs of hope

Three songs, which have been recorded and may be of support and encouragement for staff, children and the wider school community particularly at this time are:

The blessing - UK (musicians across the UK)

The blessing - Kids (children's version)

Take heart - a song of hope in troubled times (musicians from Bath)

Exeter Diocese Family Cooking Club 



Exeter Diocese have engaged with families through this family cooking club which has really simple recipe cards at budget cost.

Enter the Spirited Arts & Poetry Competition 

The 2020 competition is still running, and the deadline for entries remains the 31 July 2020. NATRE hope to be able judge the competition in August. To enable schools and pupils to still take part, they will be accepting entries sent in by teachers OR individual entries sent by pupils/parents from home To find out more and enter, click here

Compass for Life 

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Message from the Archbishop of Canterbury

Thank you to our church schools

Coronavirus (Covid 19) support 

Bereavement support for children, young people and families 

SIAMS

You will be aware that currently, all SIAMS inspections are suspended until further notice. The DfE have instigated this and before any SIAMS inspections are resumed, the DfE will need to reimpose the requirement for section 48 inspections to take place. There is no indication as to when this will take place but we will keep schools updated with any developments as soon as we receive information from the Church of England Education Office. If you have any concerns or questions, please don't hesitate to contact David Williams (throughout April) or Pauline Dodds after April.
 

Examples of good practice

St Mark's Church School in Worle, which is a joint Anglican and Methodist church school, received a visit from the Director of Education for the Methodists Schools who praised the schools website and how clearly it provided evidence against the SIAMS framework. For inspiration and to see how they have achieved this, you can look at their website here.

Governance updates 

• Inclusion of roles and responsibilities of foundation governors in maintained and academy schools
• Guidance for clerks/chairs about how to recruit a FG
• Guidance for clerks/chairs about the recruitment process
• Updated application forms which must be used from this term- please destroy any other copies of application forms currently being used

We are aware that in the present circumstances, it may not be straightforward to obtain the necessary paperwork in order to renew existing foundation governors terms of office. Therefore, we are relaxing our current arrangements to enable terms of office to be renewed for all those whose terms of office is due to end between now and the end of December 2020. We will be writing to those affected on a weekly basis, depending on when the end of their term falls, to request further information so that the term of office can be renewed without the need to complete an application form.

Religious Education

Admissions update 

All own admission authorities should have published their 2021/22 admission arrangements on their school websites by the 15^th March 2020. If you haven't already, can we please remind you that this must be done as soon as possible. Please also see the amended guidance regarding the hearing of Admission Appeals which has just been published here. Please be aware that it will be necessary for you to amend your published admission appeals timetable in line with this guidance.

Education team update 

Currently, in order to protect the financial resilience of the diocese in these most challenging times, some staff including colleagues in the Education Department are on furlough. However, there is complete recognition that schools and academies remain open for care provision, education continues in new ways and core work continues.

We have therefore ensured that the Education Department remains here for you with advisor and admin support across all teams. Please do contact us as normal should you need us. If you are unsure who to contact then please email us  or phone 01749 685132 to speak to our Office Manager, Helen, who will be able to get you in touch with the best person to help you. 

Due to the current situation we find ourselves in with Coronavirus (Covid 19) all our training courses are suspended until further notice.  We were already investigating offering virtual or online training so it may be that we can offer this alternative in due course. If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact us

Due to Coronavirus (Covid 19), the Yr6 Pilgrim Days and the Pilgrim Worship Events will not be able to go ahead. However, we are working on a virtual alternative which can be done in school or at home. For the latest information please keep an eye on the webpage here. 



Useful resources for children and families

Bible Chat Mat 



Bible Chat Mat allows people of all ages to read the Bible and have conversation together, whether around a meal table, sitting on the sofa or wherever works best. This activity can be done as a household, friends together, home group, Sunday group or even in a school club. The sheets can be coloured and doodled on, allowing you to respond to the Bible story in your own unique way. To find out more and download this resource, click here.

Young Church Mag - April resources FREE to download 



To help resource you through April, the Go Team are opening free editions of our lectionary based weekly subscription mag with puzzles and colouring for Primary aged children - ideal for home. To download, click here. 
Annual subscriptions are still available at ?20. For details please contact Sarah Lockie 

St Peter''s CofE Primary Schools - online phonics lessons



St Peter''s is an English Hub and Teaching Schools and they are offering schools the chance to sign up for free lessons on YouTube to support the teaching of phonics and SPAG. To sign up, click here 

Celebrate Somerset Day online 



You can still celebrate Somerset Days on May 11th online, to find out more, click here

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