virtual-school-self-evaluation-july-2021

Reception 21 Pre-School NCY-1/-2 15% 0-4yrs Current numbers of Cornish Children in Care placed in settings other than in mainstream schools or out of County NCY-2 to NCY 13 Leadership

Virtual School for Children in Care & Previously looked after Children

Self-Evaluation – summer 2021 review

West 3, New County Hall Truro

Introduction:

This annual self evaluation provides an up to date assessment of the Virtual School, effectiveness of current provision and performance for children in care

and previously looked after children (where possible) As part of Education in the Together for Families Directorate, this service operates as a school, with

an annual School Improvement Plan and performance data We form part of the South West regional Virtual Schools and are members of the National

Association of Virtual School Heads (NAVSH)

Links and reference to:

▪ Education SEF

▪ TFF Directorate plan / One Vision

▪ School Improvement Plan

▪ Education Behaviour Framework

A Contextual information

▪ Cornwall Virtual School (CVS) is a statutory, centrally based service, part of Education and wider Together for Families Directorate Our aim is to

respond to the needs of children in care (CiC) and previously looked after children (PLAC) at both a strategic and operational level

▪ To promote the educational attainment and achievement of Children in Care, under section 52 of the Children Act 2004 and to fulfil the statutory

requirements as described in “Promoting the education of looked after children and Previously Looked after Children* statutory guidance for Local

Authorities” (DfE, revised February 2018.) Implemented September 2018

▪ The service has increased from eight fulltime (2008) to 18 in the team (2020) to meet growing demand and a change in supporting CiC & PLAC

▪ The Headteacher reports to the Service Director for Education There is a Governing body who meet termly, providing challenge, peer support and

feedback on the service

▪ We have had three recent Inspections:

June 2016 - Inspection of services for children in need of help and protection, children looked after and care leavers

October 2018 – Joint targeted area inspection completed

October 2019 – ILACS graded ‘Outstanding’

Summer 2021 update:

▪ We have reviewed our service delivery this spring due to the Covid 19 pandemic, have reflected on the past 18 months and the impact on our

service delivery Our core duties have remained unchanged but we are drawing up a ‘School offer’ and re-branding the CVS to reflect current needs

of our service users and re-launch as a ‘hybrid school service’ in September

▪ Whilst CVS main base is New County Hall During the pandemic the team have worked most effectively from home As lockdown eased the Learning

Advocates have returned to direct in school support The team are co-located supporting integrated working and are locality based where

appropriate, East, Mid and West to ensure a ‘place based approach’

Children in Care by NCY Breakdown including children from other LAs (126) total 627 as of 8th June 2021 (data taken from Power BI) (501 Cornish CiC)

46% female, 53.9% male 6 children in Children’s homes These figures are increasing for CiC, 516 in August 2020

support

59 EHCP

Reception 21

Pre-School (NCY-1/-2) 15% 0-4yrs

Current numbers of Cornish Children in Care placed in settings other than in

mainstream schools or out of County NCY-2 to NCY 13

Leadership and Management

The Head of Service for CVS is a member of the Education Senior Leadership Team, Extended leadership group and Together for families SLT The Head of

Service is also the Designated Safeguarding Lead, Education lead for Child Exploitation of CiC, a member of both the Missing & Exploitation group and

MACE Attends Corporate Managers Board and the Health & Well being group

The two Deputy Heads of Service lead in different areas:

➢ Chloe Phillips leads on the Primary phase, SENCo, Corporate Parenting and attends the east Resource and Care panel

➢ Jacqui Lewis leads on the Secondary phase, Corporate Parenting, Pupil Placement at APAs, and attends mid Resource and care panel

➢ Vicky Thornton, EWO attends half termly Behaviour for Learning partnerships at The Wave MAT (APA), attends west Resource and care panel

➢ Sarah Hamshaw, Out of County lead – focuses on CiC placed in non-Cornish provision and monitors children in care placed out of authority

(COLAS) Sarah is the deputy designated safeguarding lead and deputy SENCo

➢ Rose Hughes leads on PLAC / Adoption and termly PLAC PEP

➢ Sam Whitchurch leads on Post 16 and KS4/5 transition, NEETS & EETS

➢ We have an area of focus for 2021 and require an EY lead

Governance - Governing Body representation:

➢ Independent Chair- Julie Orrell (retired Head Teacher, now School Improvement Partner)

➢ Minutes – Cornwall Virtual School

➢ Elected Member – Councillor Barbara Ellenbroeke

➢ Primary – Karen Brown – Head Teacher of Cubert Primary

➢ Secondary – Lisette Neesham- Vice Principal Pool Academy

➢ Voluntary Sector – Kate Barden from Carefree

➢ Young people - to be confirmed

➢ Foster carers- Nicky Johns (Foster carer network)

➢ Virtual School – Emma Phillips (HOS) Chloe Phillips (DHOS)

Part B: Lead summer updates

Area of focus:

Primary phase

Update:

Primary Lead CP

•To promote the

From September to January I monitored and supported our team of Learning Advocates due to our secondary lead taking time off for sickness This required monitoring of children who needed further support in the classroom, deploying the staff to schools and other education settings and supporting them with any concerns and issues In addition

to this I have continued to monitor my cohort of Primary children, sharing attainment data to feed into our School Improvement Plan

Termly SEN updates to head of service Re-commenced monthly SEN liaison meetings

As an SLT we are now looking further into how we can develop our team, save

Continued CiC support throughout Pandemic through the set

up and use of google classrooms

Over the last 12 months I have ensured that all Learning Advocates have either completed or started Trauma Informed Training This will support them in their role within school, not only when offering academic support but also for those that need social, emotional & mental health support I liaised with Headstart Kernow to enable all staff to complete this training

We currently have 5 students that are receiving SEMH support from our Learning Advocates They have been able to use resources and skills learnt on their training and are better informed to discuss targets and outcomes with schools Due

to most schools in Cornwall being Trauma Informed this has put us in a stronger position to support not only our staff but also the school we work with and have a common language and understanding when it comes to SEMH needs

Continued termly SEN updates to head of service

Further CIC supported due to new Learning Advisor now in post

More academic support offered for shorter interventions to measure progress and impact of support

Increased liaison with SEN Team

money as a service without compromising our key priorities We have employed two new Learning Advocates this term, one for the Primary phase and one for Secondary, to further extend our capacity for direct in school support I have been the lead on the recruitment for new employees, liaising with HR and producing competency-based interview questions for each role

Area of focus:

Secondary Phase

Update:

Secondary Lead - JL

Lead for Secondary

phase and Post 16

transition

Lead for Pupil

Placement partnership

and WAVE APA

Lead for MACE local

disruption planning

meetings

There are currently 190 Cornish children

in years 7-11 in care (Y7 – 21, Y8 m- 33, Y9- 37, Y10- 42, Y11 – 56) 57 (30%) have

an Education health and care plan

140 of these children are attending Cornish Schools 88% of these children attend a setting that is either

Outstanding or Good

focus on children being managed in their

on roll school rather than being placed at

an APA for significant periods of time

YP/Children discussed are within the secondary phase and discussed at PPP

This forms good links when discussing these

Reduction in AMBER rated PEPs due to thorough quality assuring process and constructive feedback

Develop a book club for KS3 boys to support reading skills and develop confidence in discussion

Evaluate transition project; measuring the success of a project once it’s brought to completion is a valuable practice It provides a learning opportunity for

Lead for Mid Cornwall

resource and care

secondary phase team

allows children who are likely to be placed into care to have an appropriate education package in place for them

There has been a decrease in AMBER rated PEPs from 100% in April 2019, 39%

Apr 2020 to 14% in Apr 2021 – doing a more in-depth analysis in the Autumn term which will look at full terms rather than months

There has been an increase in secondary aged children having support both direct and indirect We are currently working directly with 14 children and working

“indirectly” (not academic or SEMH support) with over 80

We now have a team within the secondary phase which includes: 2 learning advocates, a 16-25 education advisor, education welfare officer who attends complex case meetings and deputises for me as secondary lead

There is also strong links with the out of county lead due to complex children often moving to placements out of Cornwall

future undertakings, and, the

opportunity to assess the true effectiveness of the project In order to have a holistic view, objective and subjective criteria need to be considered

Further increase detailed, objective and supportive feedback and support for schools

to complete outstanding PEPs

Develop secondary meetings with specific foci with emphasis on impact

We have formed a strong transition focus for year 11s focussing on next steps in their education journey All secondary team members are responsible for their own cohort of year 11s, liaising with school and CSW This project has been developed to support the reduction of children becoming NEET

We have secondary team meetings once

a month; promoting communication, sharing ideas and opinions and consider how, as a team, we show impact in our work supporting children within this age group

Area of focus: Out of

County Lead, ISP

Lead, DDSL

Update:

OOC update - SH

Point of contact for

OOC Designated

Teachers, social

workers/CRA (IROs) of

children placed OOC

Lead link with the

Cornwall statutory

SEN service for OOC

Monitoring visits to all

88 Cornish children in care are currently (19/05/2021) placed out of county

1 is a non-specialist independent

Safeguarding feels more robust with more secure systems in place More safeguarding reviews are occurring, and this allows for further reflection and improvement DDSL now trained to deliver single-agency safeguarding training meaning that as updates happen, they can be shared, and new staff can access training immediately

Equity for all of our OOC children

settings at least

annually – From Sept

2020 this is now all

age groups including

nursery and post-16

Quality assuring PEPs

for OOC children and

those in any ISP

Lead for children

Lead for any child in

care who is placed in a

1 is on role with CHES

currently no children in mental health units but we have three with DoLs in place (soon to be known as Liberty Protection Safeguards)

Cornish children attending Cornish ISPs:

Currently there are 12 children attending three ISPs in Cornwall Of these 12 100%

have EHCPs

One further child attends a non-specialist independent school

Working with schools, families, the Family Plus Team and additional services to support PLA students

Attended multi agency meetings and CHiN meetings for a variety of students

Chair meetings between schools, families and other agencies to improve educational provision

The PLAC PEP has been a really valuable tool to improve communication between home and school without the need for VS intervention (most of the time!) I will be taking feedback at the end of June from schools

Release PLAC Information Pack for start of 2021 School year This should help schools independently access resources and improve support for their PLAC

Implement triage system to work

on specific cases and use a new referral system to advice on these Develop role of PLAC learning Advocate - offer in school training, support and modelling for PLAC

Lead for PLAC

Created and delivered three workshops with EPs

on 'Paired Reading' and 'Emotion Coaching' and

‘time for teens’ for adopted parents and holders

Became staff governor for CVS

Working with safeguarding governor specifically

Worked Q and A-ing PEPs for a variety of CiC students Fed back to DTs and fielded responses

Contributed to EHCP applications, proof read and advised many schools on this process

Offered instant support and guidance when contacted by schools with children at risk of permanent exclusion

Project Co-ordinators update MH / DB

area

Celebrating This is a pilot post – commenced in February 2021 The focus on Project and Training

Review and re-launch of the service

New approach to Celebrating success- festival style event on Saturday 18th September Activities and partners joining us to celebrate the children and their carers on the day

Aim to review the healthy school award for 2021

This project is currently ongoing

The Virtual School is now part of the Green Charter for all Cornish Schools Aim to be environmentally friendly and encourage staff, children and partners to make conscious decisions that will be beneficial to the environment and support the Cornwall Council Climate Emergency agenda

this area is evident in the successful work being undertaken in promoting the Virtual School and being a more proactive and outward facing team Active work being undertaken to look for ways to improve our service and make our team more

accessible to our children and carers

ordinator work streams: Interactive online platform

to give our children and carers the opportunity to talk to us directly and for the team to share be more open and responsive to their needs

Engage with internal and external agencies and build relationships and share knowledge that will benefit our children and staff

Relaunch the Virtual School with our new name

on all platforms to include the Cornwall Council Website, Let’s Talk (interactive forum), through our newsletter, through rebranding and also through the Virtual School Governing Board

Create a regular newsletter for our children and carers

to engage them more and highlight who we are

Since January this year we have held 5 online training courses Only 2 of these courses have had evaluations sent to delegates as this was introduced when I started

Started the Letterbox project with yr3 / yr5 to support literacy in primary schools All CiC in those year groups receive a monthly book parcel put together by myself First parcel sent out in May

Networking with colleagues to look at creative projects

We have held 2 training courses in March which was the introduction of the online evaluations via Lets Talk Cornwall I have produced a summary spreadsheet of the evaluations so we can see what we are doing well and areas of improvement

As part of the evaluation sent to delegates, there is a link to a certificate on completion of the evaluation to encourage responses

Implemented the Letterbox scheme

Easter competition!

Continue to analyse feedback from the evaluations to see what we are doing well and where

we can make improvements Increase take up of training and also those who complete the course evaluations

Built good communications with schools and developed their understanding of what is required of them each week

Developing a more rigorous follow up process of the FTEX paperwork and

the number of

returns

35% are requiring further email chases for data, schools are responding to this second chase and only approx’ 5% requiring a day three phone call chase

Lead for Improving CiC

Attendance for Autumn and Spring term

overall 84% This includes the 2nd lockdown period Jan-Mar 2021, which has impacted significantly on school attendance Attendance in Summer term

so far is 91.9%, with more usual

attendance patterns

Fixed term exclusions for Autumn and

Spring terms 2020/21 – 44 (compared to

109 for Autumn and Spring terms 2019/2020, up to date 19/03/2020 when 1st lockdown commenced) Summer term fixed term exclusions – 5 (Total of

49 for year to date)

Reduced timetables – 10 CIC (4 on full

time equivalent flexible timetable) 4 recent return to full time education

To support students on a reduced timetable to return to a full timetable in a timely manner

The weekly attendance dashboard provides much closer monitoring of the school attendance (and other concerns such

as exclusions and reduced timetables) of our Children in Care

To re-introduce the monthly attendance meetings with Primary and Secondary lead (on hold due to Covid) – whole school approach

to school attendance

Review and update the risk assessment form for exclusions

Expand and formalise the reduced timetable process and schools’

guidance Review and update risk assessment form

provision targeting CiC

Focus: following Covid to ensure children are in a place to learn again

Example of good practice: I have been working with a student who has particularly struggled to access any learning since returning to school after Covid, spending very little time in the classroom and becoming dysregulated frequently, during this time (and still currently), I raised my days with this child

to 3 mornings a week to help support the school in helping this child recognise and manage his emotions

During this time, I have used my TIS knowledge to create several different interventions for this child We have weekly sand play therapy, draw and talk, and most recently the school asked me to hold a weekly Circle of Friends group for this child – I liaised with Sali Kew Jones (EP) where I was guided to recourses and given advice on this type of support for the child

Impact of support: In the last 3-4 weeks this CiC has been able

to access most learning and is in the classroom 90% of the time

To continue my learning and development in childhood trauma, continuing to work with closely with schools to support children who have SEMH needs

Behaviour & Welfare

for CiC & PLAC

Academic support for AS (Y4), TJ (Y5)

TIS training ongoing – applying to direct support in school

AS – support now ended Completed ‘keeping in mind’ visit recently and she has made enormous progress since I first met her in September Now accessing learning successfully and making progress

Continue to support TJ

in both maths and English Increase TJ’s engagement in reading

Graduate TIS training

Year 11 Transition work

I started working with the Virtual school

in April 2021 and started working with 11 current year 11 students who are going

to be starting their post 16 placements in September 2021, to help support their transitions

Direct Support

I am also directly support 5 children of secondary school age, 2 of which who have been out of education and supported them to start at a new school

Direct support

One of my two children who I am supporting back into a new education placement sent me an email to let me know that she had a good first day after I left her that morning at her new school and that she had made a friend

We had a few sessions before her school placement started at her foster carers home to build up our relationship so that she would know someone when she started school therefore when I went into school to support her with her English and SEMH intervention work we already had a good relationship where she was comfortable working with me This approach worked really well

Having more involvement with foster carers as this helps when setting up homework tasks to help children progress further

me about anything We have been working on AJ’s ability to interpret questions and identify what the question is asking him to do and also to remain focussed on a task This seems

to be working because his maths teacher made the below comment on his Summer PEP Although he is still below his target I can see that he is recalling more in our sessions and able

to answer more questions independently, which is progress

“Maths- AJ is definitely more focused in his maths lessons It is good to see him helping his friend as well

Maths- AJ performed well in his latest maths assessment scoring a grade 1

This has shown an ability to read and interpret questions in maths himself.”

AJ has produced some excellent pieces

of work in English – poems, short story and non-fiction writing, one of which is

to be published in the Foster Carer’s newsletter this month Although, AJ still struggles with writing, spelling,

punctuation we have been working on

I really believe that the work I am doing with AJ is helping him with his mental health which is in turn helping him to focus more on his work He is making progress and as his Geography teacher says in the Summer PEP “Geography - Angel is challenging himself to write as much as possible and using the reading pen well”

I am hopeful that with continued support AJ will keep making progress with his Literacy and Maths

Work with AJ’s teachers to identify specific topics/areas that they would like AJ

to practise/work on