Noticeboard - 20 March 2025

This week's Noticeboard contains a message from Dr Sue Harrison, Oracle Transition for Schools and Finance updates, information on 'Bring it on Brum!' for the Easter holidays, a request to kindly complete an Alternative Provision Survey and more.

This week's noticeboard includes:

Message from Dr Sue Harrison, Strategic Director of Children and Families

Dear colleagues

I’m pleased that the DfE funded Holiday Activity and Food Programme is operating over the Easter holidays. is essential to supporting our families whose children aged 4-16 are eligible for benefits-related free school meals. This programme not only provides nutritious meals but also offers enriching activities that help children stay active, engaged and socially connected during the holidays.

Schools will have received full details earlier this week to ensure our parents and carers can be quick to sign up when bookings open from Monday, 24 March. If you haven’t received the information, please get in touch and we’ll ensure it’s forwarded to you as quickly as possible.

We're working hard to establish a reliable baseline to assess the performance of our Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) services. To help with this, two surveys have been created – one for parent carers and another for young people with additional needs who either have an Education Health Care Plan (EHCP) or receive SEND support.

Please help to share these survey links within your parent carer and young people networks. The surveys will close on Monday, 31 March 2025 and can be found at the following links:

By participating in these surveys, parent carers and young people will provide valuable insights that will help us track progress, drive improvements, and ensure accountability within SEND services.

I’m delighted our School Improvement Team is on board, providing a comprehensive range of services designed to support schools in achieving excellence and ensuring the best possible outcomes for our children and young people.

If you haven't already been introduced, our 'Meet the School Improvement Team' document will introduce you to the passionate and skilled individuals who make up this team. Please get to know them and make the most of the valuable support and resources they offer.

A big thank you to Executive Headteacher, Gary Coffey, for sharing the fantastic news from Victoria School whose ‘Sing and Sign Choir’ made it onto the ITV News! The children will soon be swapping their school hall for Symphony Hall where they’ll be taking part in ‘Together for Music’ a specially designed inclusive music festival for groups of all abilities in the deaf, neurodivergent and disabled communities. You can enjoy the news clip here and well done to the children and the team for their wonderful performance and hard work!

Thank you as always for everything you do for our children, young people and families.

Sue

Oracle Transition for Schools

Reminder for Schools Leaving the Schools HR and Payroll Pension Service on 31 March 2025

We would like to remind all schools that are leaving the Schools HR and Payroll Pension service on 31 March 2025 to adhere to their HR deadlines. Please ensure no changes are made to employees’ records after this date.

This also applies to loading overtime via OTL. Under no circumstances should overtime be input after your agreed deadline.

Please liaise with your new payroll provider on how to input overtime from April onwards.

Important Note: The deadline for March input has already passed. Therefore, no changes or overtime loading should be made at this time.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Updates

For any queries or further information please contact the team at oracleschoolsrelationship@birmingham.gov.uk and they will be pleased to assist.

Thank you for your ongoing support. 

Schools Finance

Schools Year-End Closedown Training – Additional Sessions

We have now held the year-end training sessions for schools. After receiving positive feedback, we will be holding three additional training sessions which will be tailored to the school status.

  • Cheque Book Status as at 1 April 2024: Tuesday 25 March 2025 13:00-15:00
  • In-year Cheque Book Transitioned Schools: Wednesday 26 March 2025 11:00-13:00
  • EPA and Non-Cheque Book Schools: Thursday 27 March 2025 13:00-15:00

Year-End Drop in Sessions

We are holding a recurring daily drop-in session for schools to attend from 3 April to 9 April from 10:00-14:00. This is an opportunity for schools to have a 1-2-1 conversation with a member of the Schools Finance team to ask any questions the school may have regarding completing their year-end return.

If somebody is already in the call at the time of you joining, we will complete the conversation with that school before admitting you to the meeting. Please kindly wait in the lobby, we will be aware that you are waiting. Thank you for your patience.

If you have any queries regarding year-end, kindly contact SchoolsFinance@Birmingham.gov.uk and include year-end in the subject line so that the query is treated as priority.

National Insurance Contributions (NICs) Support Package

Department for Education (DfE) announced the National Insurance contributions (NICs) support package for 2025/26.

For the first time, there will be additional grant funding for mainstream schools with special units and resourced provision (SURPs) as part of this grant. This funding will reflect the higher staffing costs that schools with SURPs typically face.

Funding for mainstream schools will be incorporated into the National Funding Formula from 2026/2027.

The high needs portion of the additional NICs grant funding, will be delivered through the core schools budget grant (CSBG) in financial year 2025/2026. This aligns with the objective to simplify the grant funding for special and alternative provision (AP) schools.

The DfE ensures that the published allocations will be transparent regarding what funding is being provided through the consolidation of the 2024/2025 grants (TPAG, TPECG and CSBG) and what is new funding for the NICs increase.

More information on the funding for NICs can be found using the links below:

Pupil Premium Funding 2025/2026

DfE has also confirmed schools’ pupil premium funding rates for the 2025/2026 financial year. The pupil premium funding rates are increasing by 2.39% compared to the 2024/2025 financial year, in line with inflation forecasts. The new per pupil rates, which will come into force on 1 April 2025, can be found at: 

Pupil premium indicative allocations for the 2025/2026 financial year will be published shortly.

For any queries please reach out to the team at SchoolSchoolsFinance@birmingham.gov.uk

Bring it on Brum! is back for Easter 2025!

Full details of the Easter Holiday Club Activities have been sent to schools, including:

  • Bring It On Brum Code by School
  • Bring it on Brum! Information 2025-26
  • Mail merge guidance March 2025

The Bring it on Brum! Easter holiday clubs will run from Monday, 14 April to Friday 25 April (excluding weekends and Bank Holidays), for young people aged 4-16 who are eligible for benefits-related free school meals.

Bookings for Easter holiday clubs will open on Monday, 24 March 2025 at: 

Alternative Provision Survey - closing date 27 March!

Further to information shared in last week's School Noticebaord, we kindly request schools to support us in our Alternative Provision Sufficiency planning and commissioning by completing the Alternative Provision survey. We would like every school to complete the survey prior to the closing date 27 March at 7pm. We will be following up with schools to ask them for feedback on alternative provision and the easiest way to do this is by completing the survey which can be accessed here: 

Schools are advised to have school information such as the number of students in alternative provision to hand prior to completion of the survey. We would be grateful if schools can complete the survey at the earliest convenience and before the closing date. 

The AP Working Group has Head Teacher representatives from Post-16, Primary, Secondary, Special and Alternative Provision who work alongside senior local authority leaders to help drive the Alternative Provision strategy in Birmingham.

For any queries or for more information please feel free to contact Wasim Arif at Wasim.Arif@birmingham.gov.uk 

Thank you for your support.   

WellComm Data Collection

FAO: Primary schools and Nursery Schools

We appreciate your continued submission of WellComm screening results. Based on the feedback collected through the data collection form we have made several enhancements to streamline the form completion process and created an improved WellComm data spreadsheet, thereby facilitating easier collation and sharing of your screening results.

WellComm Data Spreadsheet

The WellComm Data Spreadsheet is intended to assist in collating your WellComm screening results. The spreadsheet includes instructions for its use, a page for entering all of your children's screening results, and an automated analysis page. This analysis page offers a comprehensive summary of the data required for completing the WellComm Data Collection Form. Using the spreadsheet is optional, as you may have already developed your own, and it is for your use only and not to be returned to us. We ask that you share your screening data through the online data collection form.

WellComm Data Collection Form

We have updated the form to ensure that it only includes questions pertinent to the ages of children in your care. A new question has been added regarding the number of children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) who have been screened using an alternative assessment tool. The form now comprises six age-specific sections, ranging from 6 months to 5 years. These sections focus on clarified children's statuses as red, amber, or green, along with their progress. Detailed explanations are provided under each question to clarify these terms. The Excel analysis sheet, in the attached spreadsheet, will answer all questions asked on the data collection form for children screened with WellComm.

We kindly request that every early year’s provider returns their Spring Term WellComm screening results by Friday, 11 April 2025.

We will be holding online sessions to demonstrate how to use the WellComm data spreadsheet and complete the data collection form. You will have the opportunity to ask questions and be signposted to practical support if required. Please use the links below to book your preferred date:

Wraparound Childcare Funding Application

After the successful completion of 2024 application, we are pleased to announce that there will be a second opportunity to apply for funding in summer 2025.

We will be accepting funding to support providers with the following to increase wraparound care sufficiency in Birmingham.

  • Creation of places: Create both new before school provision and after-school provision - where there is currently no provision.
  • Extend hours: Extend the hours to meet full wraparound definition (8am to 6pm) - where you already provide wraparound, but it does not meet the 8am to 6pm expectation.
  • Expand provision – Introduce before school provision or after school provision– where you have existing provision in place to meet the full wraparound definition.
  • Expand places: Increase wraparound places - you already offer wraparound at capacity and want to expand due to unmet demand.
  • Combination of above types will be considered in order to best support providers in creating/expanding their offer to meet full wraparound definition.

We will be accepting applications from the following providers:

  • School-led provision delivered by school staff on a school site
    Provision that operates on school premises, managed by staff employed directly by a school. The provision is open to all children in that school.
  • Private provider-led provision, on or off school site
    Provision that is operated and delivered by staff employed by a private provider. If based on a school site, the private provider may rent space from the school to be able to operate provision. Provision could also be operated on another site rather than on school premises.
  • Community/cluster model
    A community-focused model with children from multiple schools attending provision on one site. This could be operated by a lead school, a private provider, a community organisation or any other appropriate body.
  • Childminders
    Provision delivered by childminders (registered with Ofsted or a childminder agency), which schools and local authorities’ signpost to. This could consist of a group of childminders working together on a single site or childminders working individually from their homes.
  • Early years providers
    Provision delivered by early years providers which may take school aged children during wraparound hours. For example, a local nursery or a pre-school operating on or off a school site may run the provision before and after school hours

We will be holding information sessions week commencing 7 April 2025. Please continue to look out for further updates via the School Noticeboard and through our dedicated Early Years and Childcare Updates. 

Early Education Entitlement

Working Hours Places

For children to access a working hour funded place in Summer 2025, parents must have received an eligible code on or before 31st March 2025.

The local authority cannot fund codes that have a validity start date of on or after the 1st April 2025.

It is the childcare providers responsibility to check the date on the code before offering a working hours place. You must do this by entering the code on ECS and then check the validity start date of it to make sure it is eligible for the current term: 

You must check the date before allowing the child to access any working hours for the term.

Further information about working hours and validating codes can be found on EYMIS: 

Username: PVI2 (please note this is a capital i not the number one)
Password: PVI2year (please note this is a capital i not the number one)

If you have any queries regarding working hours entitlement please email earlyeducation@birmingham.gov.uk

Parental Declarations

This notice applies to all providers of early education entitlement places - Maintained Schools, Independent Schools and Academies as well as PVIs.

The  EEE Parent Declaration Form was updated in April 2024 to reflect the new entitlement offers that have been / are being introduced from April 2024 – September 2025.

You must ensure that you have a signed parent declaration form in place for all for all funded 9-23 month, 2, 3 and 4 year olds accessing a place. Please ensure that you are using the most current version.

The parent declaration form is used to determine where funding is paid, for example in the case of a EEE audit, investigating duplicate claims and evidencing late claims. It is therefore imperative that the form is completed with parents so they understand what they are agreeing to.

The declarations need to be signed by parents each term (you must not agree more than one term in advance) and state clearly what term and what hours are being agreed. Incomplete forms can result in loss of or claw-back of funding.

If you choose not to use the BCC parent declaration form you must be able to provide the equivalent signed paperwork that includes at a minimum all the information and declarations on the BCC parental declaration form. Failure to do so can result in loss of or claw-back of funding.

If you have any queries please email earlyeducation@birmingham.gov.uk

Birmingham Community Healthcare Plus School Nursing Service

FAO: Headteacher and SENCO

Through BCHC Plus (Traded Services), the School Nursing service offers additional education-focused support that complements the NHS 'core' school nurse service.

The link between educational attainment and positive health is well documented. However, schools often face health-related needs among pupils that require more clinical support. BCHC Plus provides the opportunity to purchase extra dedicated school nurse time to address these needs beyond the core service.

Support covers various school health topics, including:

  • Curriculum input focused on health and wellbeing.
  • Addressing health-related issues arising in school.
  • Dedicated support for wider health challenges.
  • Liaison with GPs, Health Visitors, and other professionals.
  • Health education and promotion activities.

Discover how BCHC Plus (Traded Services) can benefit your school by contacting the BCHC Plus team at 0121 4666266 or email Bchc.bchcplus@nhs.net.

Sustrans Big Walk and Wheel

Sustrans Big Walk and Wheel is back for another year, and we would love schools to take part and help make the school run active and fun.

Sustrans Big Walk and Wheel is the UK’s largest inter-school walking, wheeling, scooting and cycling challenge. It inspires pupils to make active journeys to school, improve air quality in their neighbourhood and discover how these changes benefit their world

This year’s challenge will run from Monday, 24 March to Friday, 4 April 2025.

It's free to enter for all schools in the UK, including SEN, ALN and ASN schools, and there are fantastic prizes to be won each day. We have also bagged some extra prizes just for Birmingham schools... watch this space!

On each day of the challenge, schools compete to see who can record the greatest proportion of their pupils walking, using a wheelchair, scooting or cycling to school. A school’s best five days will determine their final position, but schools can log journeys on all ten days.

Daily prizes are awarded to schools if over 15% of their pupils use active travel to school on that day.

There are also lots of which you can incorporate into the classroom. 

Healthy Schools Lunch & Learn Webinar: LTA Youth

Free Teacher Training to Support Tennis in Schools

LTA Youth is a junior tennis programme designed by the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) for children and young people aged 4-18. The programme aims to inspire a love of sports and develop young athletes with skills for life, not just tennis players.

The next Healthy Schools Lunch & Learn session focuses on LTA Youth teacher training to support tennis in schools and will take place on Wednesday, 26 March at 12:30 pm. This session is open to all school staff and teachers interested in delivering tennis in schools.

During the session, school staff will receive information about the Lawn Tennis Association’s (LTA) free training offer for schools. The LTA’s free online courses are designed to enhance your ability to facilitate tennis sessions and demonstrate how to use various resources effectively.

An LTA Delivery Manager will discuss the training offer and available resources, including a £250 voucher that participating schools can use towards their tennis programmes.

To register for this session, follow this link:

For any queries, please contact: HealthySchools@birmingham.gov.uk.

Peaceful Leadership Course for Secondary Schools

Bursaries available to fully-fund this 10 week course

This 10 week-course is designed for voluntary participation by students in Year groups 10 to 13. Delivered through 60-90 minute after-school sessions over the Autumn term, the course culminates in a student-led project to share their learning with the school community.

Participants will develop essential peacebuilding skills, including emotional literacy, conflict exploration, creative conflict resolution, critical thinking, cooperation, and group work. They will also recognise their hidden strengths, have their voices heard in society, and model 'peace as a way of being' to their peers. The training includes a mix of theory, discussion, skills practice, action planning, and small group work.

Year 12 participants have shared positive feedback: "It provided fresh air to the stress we go through due to A Levels," "I enjoyed the interactive nature of the course and how we could form groups to voice our opinions. I also enjoyed the games we played," and "I found it really engaging as they made conversation with us instead of just speaking at us."

For queries or further information please contact: Libbs@peacemakers.org.uk or phone 0121 236 4796. 

This entry was posted by Jaspal Shambi on 17/03/2025.