Schools are invited to ‘The Jewish Living Experience’ 4th-15th November 2019
This exhibition is a mobile exhibition which aims to educate the UK public about Judaism, and the culture and history of the British Jewish community.  Read more
Tuesday 17th September 2019 |
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Data Management Services Newsletter - September 2019
The new DMS newsletter aims to bring you all the latest updates and highlights changes on upcoming tasks you'll need to carry out across the term. Read newsletter
Thursday 12th September 2019 |
Christmas art competition 2019: Who is your Hertfordshire Hero?
Our Hertfordshire Heroes are members of the armed forces community who work hard to protect our nation and are often working away from their families at Christmas. Help send our military heroes some “Christmas cheer” by entering our annual county-wide Hertfordshire Heroes Christmas Art Competition by drawing your own Hertfordshire Hero. Christmas art competition
Wednesday 11th September 2019 |
Families First news
Have you signed up to receive the Families First News? A great way to hear news on the early help services and training opportunities across Hertfordshire. There is only one publication every other month, so we will not fill up your inbox! Sign up here
Wednesday 11th September 2019 |
Effective safeguarding in schools
Following on from the success of the training held in 2017 and 2018 and in response to local and national needs Hertfordshire County Council, in conjunction with Herts for Learning, will be delivering the next round of safeguarding training for school leaders. Safeguarding is always at the forefront of leaders’ minds. It is crucial to keep an eye on national and local changes. These sessions will provide updates on both, providing delegates with the opportunity to consolidate their existing understanding as well as reflect on changes to procedures and guidance. Read more
Tuesaday 10th September 2019 |
Employment status and IR35
As the new academic year begins, you may be engaging new workers who provide a service but are not on your school’s payroll. This is a reminder that it is the engaging person’s responsibility to determine the correct employment status of anyone they contract with to undertake any work and pay them accordingly. Read more
Monday 9th September 2019 |
Free Chromebooks and G-Suite taster session
Herts for Learning is running a free, hands-on, twilight taster session for schools that are interested in finding out more about Chromebooks and G Suite, and how this technology might benefit their school. Read more
Monday 9th September 2019 |
Free Purple Mash ‘Mash Meet’ event
Herts for Learning is hosting another ‘Mash Meet’ event on 7th October, 4pm, at Hertfordshire Development Centre. Whether new to 2Simple Purple Mash or in need of a refresher, this is the ideal opportunity to explore the different tools and content available. Places are free but booking is essential as space is limited. For more information and booking Read more
Friday 6th September 2019 |
Data Management Services (DMS) Portal launch - November 2019
Herts for Learning is pleased to announce a new Data Management Services (DMS) portal will be launching on the HfL website at the beginning of November 2019. Find out more
Thursday 5th September 2019 |
Online safety newsletter - Autumn 2019
The Online Safety newsletter for the autumn term 2019 is now available to download. Online Safety Newsletter
Thursday 5th September 2019 |
Measuring height and weight of children in Year 6 - 2019-20 (NCMP)
The Department for Education and the Department of Health have a shared programme of work to improve children’s health and wellbeing. Promoting healthy weight in children is an important part of this programme. As part of this programme, the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) requires all children in Reception and Year 6 to be weighed and measured. Read more
Wednesday 4th September 2019 |
ENF training – 15th October 2019
An overview of mainstream school SEND and exceptional needs funding. The Head teacher and SENCo are invited to a two-hour information/training session to update schools and PVIs regarding their knowledge of SEND funding. The purpose of these sessions is to ensure all schools understand how mainstream SEND funding is allocated, how the ENF system works and to look at the process for exceptional needs funding applications. Book online
Tuesday 3rd September 2019 |
Promoting a healthy eating environment in schools
This guidance is for ALL schools in Hertfordshire, providing you with information that can help you to ensure children are eating healthily during the school day, enabling them to have the energy and focus required to do well academically and to stay happy and healthy. Read more
Tuesday 3rd September 2019 |
Primary Science Support for schools
Plan your school's science professional development through the year to maximise the impact on learning, by downloading the Herts for Learning Primary Science Support for schools 2019/20 flyer. Read more (pdf)
Tuesday 3rd September 2019 |
EU exit: no deal preparations for schools in England
The Government has issued some guidance for schools in the event of a no deal Brexit. Further information from the DfE
Tuesday 3rd September 2019 |
Data Collection Calendar – Autumn term 2019 
The autumn data collection calendar from HCC is now available. Data collection
Monday 2nd September 2019 |
Herts for Learning Annual General Meeting 2019
The Herts for Learning Board of Directors invite the headteachers and chairs of governors from all shareholding schools to the 2019 Annual General Meeting of Herts for Learning Limited, which will be held at the Hertfordshire Development Centre, Six Hills Way, Stevenage, SG1 2FQ on Thursday 3rd October 2019 at 5:00pm. Annual General Meeting 2019
Monday 2nd September 2019 |
REMINDER: Important information regarding your PA Plus subscription
Herts for Learning (HfL) has signed a deal with HarperCollins UK, a division of HarperCollins Publishers, to produce seven new primary English publications. In September, the English Subject Leader Toolkit and the Primary Writing Toolkit, written and developed by Herts for Learning will be published under the Collins imprint and made available to all schools in the UK and internationally.
These new books focus on writing across all year groups in the primary phase and will be published for sale in mid-September. Read news article. At this time, the English resources they relate will be removed from PA Plus.
An email has been sent to all subscribing schools explaining that these resources are protected for existing PA Plus subscribers. We encourage you to download them from your school account by the middle of September to ensure you have continued access to them. Download the resources from PA Plus (subscribers will need to be logged in to access the resources).
Monday 2nd September 2019 |
Comparative budget share (2019/20)
Comparative graphs/profiles for Section B - Financial 2019/20 are now available in electronic format. The files are published annually and contain a range of financial benchmarking information based upon schools Approved Budget Returns. Comparative budget share
Monday 2nd September 2019 |
Changes to printing of training materials
As you may be aware, Hertfordshire County Council (HCC) has recently joined councils up and down the country in declaring a climate emergency. The time for thinking about change is over and at Herts for Learning (HfL), we believe it is important for us to join HCC in taking proactive action now. As part of our commitment of ensuring both our financial and our environmental sustainability, we are currently developing a Corporate Social Responsibility statement, which will be shared with you shortly. Included in this statement is our aim to reduce our direct impact on the environment by actively managing our consumption of natural resources, recycling practices and carbon footprint and making best use of technology to ensure that digital is at the heart of what we do. Read more
Wednesday 28th August 2019 |
Model Child Protection Policy 2019
This document replaces the previous version(s) and is operational from the 2nd September 2019. Changes have been highlighted. It takes into consideration the changes/updates in statutory guidance, Keeping Children Safe in Education (2019) and Working Together to Safeguarding Children (2018). Please note there are sections that require the school to input their own details/school arrangements. Child Protection proformas
Tuesday 20th August 2019 |
Annual safeguarding practice audit 2019 (checklist)
An updated version of the safeguarding ‘checklist’ now known as the Annual Safeguarding Practice Audit has been published. Child protection proformas
Monday 19th August 2019 |
Recording absence for pupils from the travelling community
Hertfordshire County Council has issued this guidance to support schools with clarity around attendance and registration of Traveller pupils. A number of different groups are covered by the generic term Traveller – Roma, English and Welsh Gypsies, Irish and Scottish Travellers, Showmen (fairground people) and Circus people, Bargees (occupational boat dwellers) and New Travellers. The Education Act 1996 and the Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006 make statutory provision for all of these groups. Read more
Friday 2nd August 2019 |
Trampolining guidance
HCC Health and Safety have updated their trampolining safety guidance. Guidance
Friday 2nd August 2019 |
HfL’s Data Management Services team reaccredited by Capita for their SIMS support
Capita has reaccredited the Data Management Services (DMS) team at Herts for Learning (HfL) for their SIMS support to schools and academies. The DMS team, who have been accredited by Capita since 2008, received their reaccreditation in July. The accreditation will last for three years until 2022. The accreditation looks at how schools and academies receive effective and value-for-money support from the DMS team. Read news article
Friday 2nd August 2019 |
Hertfordshire Modern Slavery Partnership
The Hertfordshire Modern Slavery Partnership has produced documents to help support schools with identification and the process of referral for potential and identified child victims of modern slavery and human trafficking in Hertfordshire. This includes criminal, labour and sexual exploitation, as well as domestic servitude. Modern Slavery Partnership
Monday 22nd July 2019 |
Insurance Renewals 2019
The Insurance recharge form has now closed, please do not try to complete and submit the form.
If you didn’t submit the information by Friday 19th July, we will recharge
you using the information we currently have. If you have any questions, please email insurance@hertfordshire.gov.uk.
Monday 22nd July 2019 |
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Herts for Learning resources shortlisted in the Teach Early Years Awards 2019
Herts for Learning is delighted to announce that two of its resources have been selected as finalists in the 2019 Teach Early Years Awards. Supersonic phonics has been shortlisted in the Communication, language and literacy category, for ‘resources designed to promote the development of talk and language skills, early writing and/or reading skills’. Essential foundations for counting has been shortlisted in the Early exploration category, for ‘maths and science resources, and all resources designed to help children broaden their understanding of the world’. Read more
Friday 19th July 2019 |
Herts for Learning KS2 Reading Fluency Project 2019/20
Following analysis of the results from the Herts for Learning KS2 Reading Fluency Project over several years, the Primary English team have found that taking part in the project in the autumn term has the most impact for the outcomes in participating schools. This allows more time for the strategies to be embedded and applied at a whole class level throughout the spring term. To this end, the team have now decided to only run the project for Y6 pupils in the autumn term (rather than in both autumn & spring). Join this autumn’s project starting on Monday 9th September 2019. Read more
Wednesday 17th July 2019 |
The Exchange e-bulletin (16th July 2019)
This week’s edition of The Exchange e-bulletin, HfL’s roundup of the latest news from local and national media sources, includes… EEF publishes new evaluation reports, including findings from ‘growth mindsets’ approach, find out why one Hertfordshire school has adopted Google technology in their school, and School's bug hotel earns place at Hampton Court Flower Show. Read the latest edition here or subscribe to get the weekly e-bulletin straight to your inbox.
Wednesday 17th July 2019 |
IMPORTANT UPDATE - Key Stage 2 comparative report issue
A number of errors in the Key stage 2 comparative report have been identified in the wizard: Key Stage 2 Wizard England 2019. Capita have provided an updated Wizard to replace the report and imported in SIMS using the steps on page 6 in the documentation. NB: The individual pupil report is not affected. Key Stage 2 comparative report issue
Monday 15th July 2019 |
School holiday security guidance
With the school holidays coming up it is essential to start considering and planning suitable security arrangements for the closure or partial closure of the school over the holidays.
A school holiday security guidance document has been created to help you plan and ensure suitable security arrangements are in place.
If you do have any questions, please contact insurance@hertfordshire.gov.uk school holiday security guidance (pdf)
Monday 15th July 2019 |
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The Exchange e-bulletin (9th July 2019)
This week’s edition of The Exchange e-bulletin, HfL’s roundup of the latest news from local and national media sources, includes… Reading to young children 'boosts maths skills later', New HfL Primary Research Projects and programmes announced for autumn 2019, and Stevenage schoolchildren appeal for help with ecological pond project. Read the latest edition here or subscribe to get the weekly e-bulletin straight to your inbox.
Wednesday 10th July 2019 |
Primary Assessment Updates - July 2019
The Herts for Learning Assessment Team have produced their termly update on key assessment issues for primary schools in Hertfordshire. Read more
Tuesday 9th July 2019 |
New Herts for Learning Primary Research Projects and programmes announced for autumn 2019
Starting this autumn, new reading, phonics, writing, spelling, punctuation, sentence structure and mathematics programmes and research projects available to support schools seeking to address and support common themes arising in school development plans these areas across EYFS to KS2 over the next year. Find out more
Monday 8th July 2019 |
Just Talk Campaign Week – W/C 18th November
Just Talk is Hertfordshire’s mental health and wellbeing campaign, co-designed with young people from across the county. The campaign and all of its free resources are designed in a way to ensure that it is as easy as possible for anyone to get involved. Just Talk Campaign
Monday 8th July 2019 |
Hertfordshire Headteacher Summer updates
Following on from the Hertfordhsire Headteacher Summer updates, documents including the Hertfordshire Headteacher updates slides, the future workforce project questionnaire and wellbeing at Camps Hill primary school documents are now available. Hertfordshire Headteacher Summer updates
Friday 5th July 2019 |
Combating exploitation in schools
Useful contacts, support and programmes of activities from different agencies to combat various types of child exploitation in schools. Contacts and support
Friday 5th July 2019 |
Save the date: HfL AGM 2019
Please be advised that the Herts for Learning 2019 Annual General Meeting for shareholders will take place on Thursday 3 October 2019 at 5:00pm at the Hertfordshire Development Centre, Stevenage, SG1 2FQ. We invite all headteachers and chairs of governors from our shareholding schools to attend this event. Further details will follow in early September.
Thursday 4th July 2019 |
Reception Early Reading project
The next HfL Reception Early Reading Project will start on 19th September. Invaluable guidance and activities to close gaps in Early Readers in your Reception class this autumn. Read more
Wednesday 3rd July 2019 |
The Exchange e-bulletin (2nd July 2019)
This week’s edition of The Exchange e-bulletin, HfL’s roundup of the latest news from local and national media sources, includes… Three in five secondary school pupils experience mental health problems, 50 things you can do with Chromebooks in the classroom, and Welwyn Hatfield pupils learn about parliament from their own MP. Read the latest edition here or subscribe to get the weekly e-bulletin straight to your inbox.
Wednesday 3rd July 2019 |
URGENT: Compromised email accounts
At the beginning of the year Herts for Learning’s ICT Services team spent a great deal of time analysing our supported schools email tenancies and we found a large number of accounts had been accessed from unusual locations. E.g. Nigeria, Russia, Korea etc. These login locations suggest that the account had been compromised this was largely due to the accounts having weak passwords. To mitigate the threat we disabled some of the legacy services that hackers use to gain access to email accounts. However, there was still a requirement for the end user to change their email password to something more secure. Read more
Wednesday 3rd July 2019 |
Year 1 Phonics Screening Check project
Looking to reduce the gender gap in your next Y1 Phonics Screening Checks? Find out how our 9-week long Y1 Phonics Screening Check Project for schools in Hertfordshire starting on Thursday 19th September could help. Read more
Wednesday 3rd July 2019 |
Training the Executive Headteachers of tomorrow
Research by the National Governors' Association (NGA), the Future Leaders Trust (TFLT) and the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) has found that the number of executive headteachers in England is rapidly increasing, even though their remit and responsibilities are still largely undefined (2016).
To help school leaders prepare for the roles and responsibilities of an executive headteacher, throughout the academic year, Herts for Learning (HfL) delivered a bespoke training programme and invited experienced Hertfordshire headteachers to take part. Executive Headteachers of tomorrow
Tuesday 2nd July 2019 |
