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17th June 2020

The Duchess of Cambridge to lead an online assembly on mental wellbeing among children

Tomorrow, the Duchess of Cambridge will lead an online assembly for the Oak National Academy during which she will speak about the importance of mental wellbeing among children. The theme of the Duchess’ assembly is ‘spread a little kindness’ and is based on a lesson plan which is available on the Mentally Healthy Schools platform. This platform was developed in collaboration with children’s mental health charity Place2Be and encourages children to explore ways in which they can show kindness and recognise the benefits of kindness to others.

The Mentally Healthy Schools platform can be accessed here:

https://www.mentallyhealthyschools.org.uk/

The assembly will be live on the Oak National Academy website at 11am on Thursday 18 June and can be accessed here:

https://classroom.thenational.academy/assemblies/

A recording of the assembly will be available to view on the Oak National Academy website following the event.

Funding to support further education initial teacher education programme providers and trainees

We recognise the impact that coronavirus (COVID-19) is having on providers and candidates for further education initial teacher education (ITE) programmes, particularly regarding meeting the eligibility criteria for financial incentives where it has not been possible, due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, to provide the required evidence of qualifications. We are therefore extending the deadline by which all prior qualifications must be in place for an applicant to be eligible for further education ITE funding in 2020-21.

Details on the bursaries and grants funding available for further education initial teacher education be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fe-funding-initial-teacher-education-ite-academic-year-2020-to-2021

Updates to safe working in education, childcare and children’s social care settings guidance

We have updated our guidance on safe working in education, childcare and children’s social care settings, including the use of personal protective equipment (PPE). The guidance has been updated to reflect recent changes on eligibility and access to testing, clarify PPE requirements for first aid and complex care, and confirm that gudiance on cleaning non-healthcare settings applies following a suspected or confirmed case of coronavirus (COVID-19) and not in relation to regular, routine cleaning.

The guidance can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/safe-working-in-education-childcare-and-childrens-social-care

Keeping children safe in education during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

The keeping children safe in education (KCSIE) consultation, which was suspended on 31 March 2020, has now been withdrawn to allow schools and colleges to focus their efforts on responding to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

We have published revised KCSIE guidance for schools and colleges. This guidance is for information only and will come into force on 1 September 2020:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/keeping-children-safe-in-education--2

Guidance for schools and colleges to support them keeping children safe, including online, during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-safeguarding-in-schools-colleges-and-other-providers