New Staff Wellbeing dimension for the HfL Wellbeing Quality Mark launching in September 2019
The new Staff Wellbeing dimension of the award has been drawn up in collaboration with HfL’s school HR Services team. It recognises that staff health and wellbeing is a crucial factor in maximising young pupil’s attainment and wellbeing. The application deadline for the year-long programme is Monday 9th September, with the launch event on Friday 13th September.  Read more
Wednesday 17th 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 |
Reminder - Insurance Renewals 2019
This is a reminder to complete and submit The Insurance Recharge form by Friday 19th July 2019. Failure to send this to us by the deadline date will result in the school being recharged using the information we currently have. If you do have any questions, please email insurance@hertfordshire.gov.uk.
Tuesday 16th 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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Important information - insurance renewals 2019
We recently advised you of a new way of submitting your annual travel scheme, third party hirers and computer declarations using the Insurance Recharge form on Solero. We apologise for the delay, as you may know there have been network issues causing the form not to work on Solero, however this is now back up and running and has been tested by a few schools. The Insurance Recharge form can be found in your list of forms when you log in to The Schools On Line Electronic Returns and Outputs (SOLERO). Please complete and submit this form by Friday 19th July 2019. Failure to send this to us by the deadline date will result in the school being recharged using the information we currently have. If you do have any questions, please email insurance@hertfordshire.gov.uk.
Thursday 11th July 2019 |
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 |
Art works for schools
We would like to gift 600 works from our schools loan collection to schools in Hertfordshire. Browse the artwork on offer at www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/art.
Make a note of the category and image number of any pieces you are interested in for your school and email amanda.taylor@hertfordshire.gov.uk with your requests.
Monday 8th July 2019 |
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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 |
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50 things you can do with a Chromebook in the classroom
A new Chromebook ebook created by Herts for Learning’s Computing team is now available as a free download. The ebook looks at 50 different ways that a teacher or pupil can use a Chromebook in their classroom. Each of the 50 ways includes suggestions of use, concentrating on using the core G Suite apps for creative and varied learning opportunities. Read more
Friday 28th June 2019 |
Help us to build Hertfordshire’s school year book
What is your school’s biggest achievement this year? What is your memorable moment or the greatest accomplishment the pupils have made? What makes a teacher or student smile with pride? Throughout the summer, we will be celebrating by sharing your stories, as part of our year book, about what makes your school or college great. Find out more and how to share your story
Tuesday 25th June 2019 |
The Exchange e-bulletin (25th June 2019)
This week’s edition of The Exchange e-bulletin, HfL’s roundup of the latest news from local and national media sources, includes… Phonics screening check: 2019 materials,
over 200 Hertfordshire school teams took part in Herts for Learning 2019 maths challenge, and Stevenage and Nepal schools forge links to equip pupils with global knowledge and skills. Read the latest edition here or subscribe to get the weekly e-bulletin straight to your inbox.
Wednesday 26th June 2019 |
Herts for Learning’s Modern Governor service in new partnership with GovernorHub
Herts for Learning, is delighted to announce a new partnership with GovernorHub to support the training and development of governors and trustees in schools and academies across England. Herts for Learning's Modern Governor service – the leading online learning offering for school governors and academy trustees – is partnering with GovernorHub to simplify access to high-quality online learning and to make governors’ training records accessible through GovernorHub’s governing board management tools. GovernorHub
Tuesday 25th June 2019 |
2019 Phonics Screening Threshold score
The STA has announced 32 as the 2019 Phonics Screening Threshold score. For details on how to use this information in SIMS, please read on to view the documentation. Read more
Monday 24th June 2019 |
Over 200 Hertfordshire school teams took part in Herts for Learning 2019 maths challenge
Over 200 primary and secondary school teams across Hertfordshire have taken part in the 2019 Herts for Learning maths challenge for pupils in Year 5, Year 7 and Year 8. Regional heats were hosted in locations across the county throughout the spring term before three separate finals, one for each year group, were held at the Hertfordshire Development Centre, Stevenage. Herts for Lerning maths challenge
Friday 21st June 2019 |
The Exchange e-bulletin (18th June 2019)
This week’s edition of The Exchange e-bulletin, HfL’s roundup of the latest news from local and national media sources, includes… Strengthen the link between the Pupil Premium and teaching, says new EEF guide, Increase working relationships and teamwork with Herts for Learning and Insights Discovery®, and Sixty-five schools and nurseries take part in Early Years annual programme. Read the latest edition here or subscribe to get the weekly e-bulletin straight to your inbox.
Wednesday 19th June 2019 |
Space Chase – summer reading challenge in libraries
Space Chase is an out-of-this-world adventure inspired by the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing. This summer children will help our super space family track down books nabbed by mischievous aliens! As they read library books, they will solve clues and collect special stickers to complete their mission folder. Space Chase
Monday 17th June 2019 |
New HfL Primary Research Projects and programmes announced for autumn 2019
Autumn launch dates for Herts for Learmimg Primary and Early Years Research Projects and extended CPD programmes to help improve reading, writing, spelling and maths have been announced. Read more
Friday 14th June 2019 |
Increase working relationships and teamwork with Herts for Learning and Insights Discovery®
Herts for Learning HR Services team have launched a new service – Insights Discovery® – to schools that helps people in understanding themselves and understanding others. The service can improve personal and team effectiveness and make the most of the relationships that affect the workplace. The Insights Discovery® methodology uses a simple and memorable four-colour model to help people understand their style, their strengths and the value they bring to the team. Insights Discovery
Friday 14th June 2019 |
The Exchange e-bulletin (11th June 2019)
This week’s edition of The Exchange e-bulletin, HfL’s roundup of the latest news from local and national media sources, includes… Improving behaviour in schools: six recommendations in new EEF report, HfL Blog post: The place of assessment in the new Ofsted Framework, and find out how one Hertfordshire school participated in Walk to School Week. Read the latest edition here or subscribe to get the weekly e-bulletin straight to your inbox.
Friday 14th June 2019 |
Sixth successful year for Herts for Learning’s Early Years annual programme
65 Hertfordshire schools and nurseries have taken part in the 2018/19
Herts for Learning Early Years annual programme. The bespoke CPD annual programme, consisting of three one-day events and an inspirational twilight session, enables practitioners to support and improve outcomes for young children. Read more
Thursday 13th June 2019 |
HfL shortlisted for the School Recruitment Award at the 2019 Education Business Awards
Herts for Learning has once again been shortlisted for the School Recruitment Award at this year’s Education Business Awards. This year’s entry showcased how HfL has worked with local schools to develop a new and extended format for the Teach in Herts Teacher Recruitment Fairs, creating more localised events around Hertfordshire and highlighted the new ‘Get into teaching’ events. Education Business Awards
Monday 10th June 2019 |
New anti-knife crime school lessons ahead of summer
The Home Office has been working with the Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) Association and teachers to create new and improved school curriculum materials on knife crime ahead of the summer holidays. New anti-knife crime school lessons
Monday 10th June 2019 |
Herts for Learning Training Programme Autumn 2019
Herts for Learning is pleased to announce that our autumn 19 training programme for staff working in primary, including Early Years, and secondary phaseshas now been published on our new CPD Hub: cpd.hertsforlearning.co.uk. Autumn training programme
Monday 10th June 2019 |
Christmas Art Competition: Who is your Hertfordshire Hero? (Deadline 9th December)
An opportunity for Key Stage 2 pupils to win a “day of adventure” at a Hertfordshire Military base. Hertfordshire Heroes is the name we use to promote the work of the Hertfordshire Armed Forces Covenant Board. 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. For more information see here. Read more (pdf)
Thursday 6th June 2019 |
Beyond Words: Designing a Primary Languages Curriculum for the 21st Century – Summer 19
This conference will reflect on what constitutes a principled and considered approach to curriculum planning and design for primary languages and will help to identify practical solutions to the issues and challenges faced by schools. Curriculum intent, implementation and impact will be examined in turn to identify how schools can create a primary languages curriculum that will engage, support, challenge and inspire learners. Our keynote speakers will be Bernardette Holmes MBE and Florence Myles, Professor of Second Language Acquisition at the University of Essex and Catherine Cheater, on behalf of the Institut Français. Read more
Thursday 6th June 2019 |
The Exchange e-bulletin (4th June 2019)
This week’s edition of The Exchange e-bulletin, HfL’s roundup of the latest news from local and national media sources, includes… It’s Volunteers week, HfL Blog: Oh, what a journey, and two athletes from Lions Watford school selected to represent Team England at World Championships. Read the latest edition here or subscribe to get the weekly e-bulletin straight to your inbox.
Wednesday 5th June 2019 |
Anti-Bullying Week 2019
Anti-Bullying Week 2019 will be Monday 11th November - Friday 15th November. The theme: “Change Starts With Us”.
This will be a wonderful opportunity to emphasise that anti-bullying in schools is fundamentally about the choices that individual pupils make when they are upset, distressed, worried or have relationship difficulties. Let us know about your activities by following @HfLWellbeing and posting information and photos when the time comes.
Wednesday 5th June 2019 |
DfE MFL Hubs CPD Event: Understanding, Improving and Promoting Language Learning – Summer 19
Herts for Learning (HfL) is excited to host this free CPD event. It promises to be an inspirational day that will share the work of the National Centre for Excellence in Language Pedagogy (NCELP) and Hertfordshire Lead Schools from the first year of the Department for Education (DfE) Modern Foreign Language (MFL) Hubs project. The keynote speaker for the day is David Shanks, MFL Consultant and Lead Practitioner across the Harris Federation. David will be supported by Victoria Hobson, research subject specialist, from the NCELP team. Read more
Wednesday 5th June 2019 |
Delegate car park - Hertfordshire Development Centre
Please note the surface of the Hertfordshire Development Centre Delegate car park is in poor condition so please take care when using it.
Tuesday 4th June 2019 |
LGBTQ+ Pack - Transgender Trend
The Herts LGBTQ+ Partnership Children and Young People’s Working Group have recently reviewed the Transgender Trend resource pack for schools called “Supporting gender diverse and trans-identified students in schools”. As a group we agree with the concerns raised by Stonewall UK. Consequently, we continue to recommend that Hertfordshire schools use the Trans Inclusion Schools Toolkit produced by Brighton and Hove City Council, which is available on the Grid. Other local authorities such as Warwickshire and Portsmouth also provide similar guidance which we would also recommend. Read more about Transgender Trend
Monday 3rd June 2019 |
New starter process guide
HCC/Serco have produced a guide to the new starter process for school staff which covers the process from the offer letter to contract of employment. The guide can be found in the HR policies section of the Grid. There is also a link to it under the HR/payroll forms page on the Grid.
Friday 31st May 2019 |
The Grid website survey
The Grid website survey has now closed and we received 274 responses. Thank you for taking the time to respond. We will be reviewing your feedback as we plan the redevelopment of a new website.
Friday 31st May 2019 |
IMPORTANT: Partner agencies briefing: new child protection contact form - 28th May 2019
Hertfordshire has developed a new online form which will revolutionise how professionals make contacts about children. Learn more
Thursday 23rd May 2019 |
The National Award for SEN Coordination for Hertfordshire SENCOs
All SENCOs new-to-role since 2009 must successfully complete the National Award for SEN Coordination within three years of coming into post. Learn more
Wednesday 22nd May 2019 |
The Exchange e-bulletin (21st May)
This week’s edition of The Exchange e-bulletin, HfL’s roundup of the latest news from local and national media sources, includes… New support for trainee teachers, HfL Blog: Celebrating 50 years since humans first walked on the moon, and Science day a success at Royston school. Read the latest edition here or subscribe to get the weekly e-bulletin straight to your inbox.
Wednesday 22nd May 2019 |
Conference: Assessment 2.0: Rebooting School Assessment for a New Era – Autumn 19 - 23rd September
In the new Education Inspection Framework, Ofsted’s focus on assessment is shifting away from looking at data, towards exploring how schools use assessment to check pupils’ understanding, inform future teaching and help pupils embed and use their learning across the curriculum. This conference will hear from Matthew Purves, Ofsted’s Deputy Director for Schools, about the rationale for and expectations of this new approach. The conference will also feature a keynote presentation from Professor Guy Claxton, author of the highly acclaimed The Learning Power Approach (2018) and much more, to bring us up to date on his latest research into approaches to developing confident and capable learners. Read more
Tuesday 21st May 2019 |
Herts Public health have launched a Suicide Prevention Network website
The aim of the website is to provide a forum for those working together as a network across Herts to prevent suicide within Hertfordshire. It will be used as a place to publish documents, share
news items, update the network, and share our views (via the twitter feed). Suicide Prevention Network website
Friday 17th May 2019 |
New Ofsted Inspection Framework from September 2019 now published
The new Ofsted Inspection Framework has now been published and can be viewed at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/education-inspection-framework. Read the Ofsted press release Read more
Wednesday 15th May 2019 |
Curriculum Matters: A Leadership Conference for Deputy and Assistant Headteachers – Summer 19
This conference provides a timely opportunity for deputy and assistant headteachers to hear from national experts regarding the most recent educational research on curriculum design and implementation, reflect on the practice in their schools and strengthen collaboration on a local level. Christine Counsell, curriculum expert and member of Ofsted's curriculum advisory group, will lead senior leaders through the thinking around ‘taking the curriculum seriously.’ Laura McInerney, the education journalist, public speaker, and co-founder of Teacher Tapp, will offer delegates the inside track on the key education trends for 2019. Read more
Wednesday 15th May 2019 |
The Exchange e-bulletin (14th May)
This week’s edition of The Exchange e-bulletin, HfL’s roundup of the latest news from local and national media sources, includes… Ofsted’s new inspection arrangements to focus on curriculum, behaviour and development, HfL Shareholder Satisfaction Survey 2019 now open! and Second national schools' title for Stevenage's Ethan Walsh. Read the latest edition here or subscribe to get the weekly e-bulletin straight to your inbox.
Wednesday 15th May 2019 |
Timpson Review on school exclusions published
This week, former Government Children's Minister Edward Timpson CBE published a review into school exclusions. Schools will be made accountable for the pupils they exclude and there will be a clampdown on off-rolling, as part of Government measures taken in response to the Timpson Review of school exclusion. Read more
Thursday 9th May 2019 |
The Exchange e-bulletin (7th May)
This week’s edition of The Exchange e-bulletin, HfL’s roundup of the latest news from local and national media sources, includes… Online memory games can boost maths scores by three months, says EEF, New requirements for Relationships Education and Relationships and Sex Education (RSE), and Early Years settings explain their Early Years Quality Standards journey and how they achieved Gold status. Read the latest edition here or subscribe to get the weekly e-bulletin straight to your inbox.
Wednesday 8th May 2019 |
Herts for Learning launches new management and leadership training course for PVIs in Bedfordshire
Herts for Learning has today launched a new training course, specifically designed for PVI managers in and around Bedford. The new course, A year in the life of an Early Years manager, allows PVI managers to forensically evaluate their own practice and provision and provides participants with personalised toolkits to support a smarter approach to leading and managing their settings across the year. New training course for PVIs
Tuesday 7th May 2019 |
The Exchange e-bulletin (30th April)
This week’s edition of The Exchange e-bulletin, HfL’s roundup of the latest news from local and national media sources, includes…DfE: Calls for more men to work in the Early Years, Herts for Learning Early Years blog: School Dogs and find out which Hertfordshire schools have received a TES award nomination. Read the latest edition here or subscribe to get the weekly e-bulletin straight to your inbox.
Friday 3rd May 2019 |
Measles outbreak - May 2019
Director of Public Health, Jim McManus, asks if you would please note this letter from Public Health England about measles advice to schools and parents. Letter to headteachers (pdf)
Thursday 2nd May 2019 |
Health and Safety newsletter - April 2019 
The latest health and safety updates for schools, including new legislation, guidance and legal cases. April 2019 newsletter
Wednesday 1st May 2019 |
New requirements for Relationships Education and Relationships and Sex Education
The new regulations for teaching Relationships Education and Relationships and Sex Education in England’s primary and secondary schools have passed through the House of Lords and will come in to force from September 2020. Find out how HfL can help your school start making the transition with our range of specially devised training courses and consultancy services starting this term. Find out more
Wednesday 1st May 2019 |
REMINDER: Important information - insurance renewals 2019
The Insurance Team now have a new way of asking you for your Annual Travel Scheme, Third Party Hirers and Computer declarations. We will require you to complete and submit an online Insurance Recharge form. The Insurance Recharge form can be found in your list of forms when you log in to The Schools On Line Electronic Returns and Outputs (SOLERO). At the beginning of July we will ask you to submit your declarations using the form. We will keep you updated by putting updates on The Grid and in School Bulletins. If you require further information please contact insurance@hertfordshire.gov.uk.
Wednesday 1st May 2019 |
