As I write the first of our October editions, I would like to highlight that it has been another extremely busy week for all our schools across the Trust. To name but a few examples, Callington CC hosted a HSE school site visit, the first of our schools to receive one! The HSE's visit and interview was a very positive experience with Callington receiving no recommendations. Such external validation endorses our approach and shows the value of our WeST Toolkit and thorough Risk Assessments. A massive well done and thank you to Wendy and all those involved.

Turning to other news, Covid-19 continues to dominate the headlines with rising cases across the country. With the proactive and preventative measures each of our schools have adopted, hopefully we will reach half term with little disruption for our children and wider school communities. As reiterated each week, a huge thank you to you all for your ongoing perseverance, hard work and resilience in navigating through the pandemic. While this time is incredibly challenging and demanding, we will look forward to being able to reflect and consider what we have learned from this unprecedented time.  They do say, "The best view comes from the hardest climb!" On that note, and in appreciating the impact on colleagues, the focus from the Strategic Plan this week, is the "People and Partners" strand. Key deliverables include developing our Talent Strategy, concentrating on synchronising this with our vision and values and enhancing health and wellbeing of our employees. We recognise this as being of upmost importance and why you will see various articles in forthcoming editions supporting the health and wellbeing of our staff.

 

Take care best wishes,

Rob Haring – CEO

Estates Update:

WeST have appointed a new Health and Safety (H&S) Manager to support each School across the Trust. Liam Cox commenced his role on Monday 5th October. Starting his career with the Royal Navy and then supporting the Navy as a civilian contractor, he has extensive knowledge in the field of Health & Safety. Liam has also worked for Interserve on the Sir John Hunt PFI schools. He will make a valuable contribution to the service that WeST provides and will be supporting our schools by developing the H&S sub-polices, such as working at height, lone working, accident reporting etc.

Over the next few months Liam will be meeting with Headteachers and Principals. A vision for this role is to seek your help and views as we consider provision for a H&S champion in each of our Schools. If this role is of interest to you, then please let either Liam Cox or Mark Bullard know. Further information on this potential opportunity will be provided in due course.

Recruitment update:

We are delighted to inform you that there are a number of exciting career opportunities within our Trust as follows:-

At Plymstock School they are looking to fill the following vacancies:-

  1. Teacher of English (FTC ending 31/8/2021 - required from Jan. 2021)
  2. Sports Centre Leisure Assistant

For more information please visit the School's website: https://plymstockschool.org.uk/vacancies/

At Hele's School vacancies include:
  1. Teacher of Geography - MPS/UPS
  2. Deputy Head of History – MPS/UPS, TLR2A (required from Jan. 2021)
  3. Design & Technology Technician
  4. Evening Cleaner
  5. Exam Invigilators

For more information please visit the School's website: https://www.heles.plymouth.sch.uk/category/vacancies 

Coombe Dean School are looking to appoint a Cover Supervisor - this post will be required to facilitate students’ learning in the absence of teachers. For more information please visit: https://www.eteach.com/job/cover-supervisor-1116283 In addition, Coombe Dean have a vacancy for an Operations Manager. If you would like more details and interested in the position please visit: https://www.eteach.com/job/operations-manager-1116540

Updates from the HR team:

Teachers Pay Award 2020

We’re pleased to confirm that the teachers’ pay award is due to be enacted on 14th October 2020.  Our payroll providers have confirmed that the award will appear in November pay, backdated to 1st September.  In summary the award consists of:

  • 5.5% increase to the minimum point of the Main Pay Range (MPR), with a graded increase across the points up to 2.75% to the maximum of the MPR
  • 2.75% increase to all other points of all other pay ranges and allowances

The Trust Pay Policy for September 2020 includes further details (attached) and this is open for staff consultation until 23rd October 2020.  Please forward any comments to our HR team here

The new WeST Staff Survey is coming! 

Wednesday 14th October to Friday 23rd October

We want your help once again to help us identify current areas for attention, as well as highlighting strengths, as we move forward through the remainder of the autumn and into the spring term.  

In June we asked you to help shape our plans towards September reopening, by participating in our first WeST Staff Survey and 732 of you took the time (just 8 minutes on average) to give us your views.  The Action Plan from that survey can be viewed on our staff portal; this summarises the steps we’ve taken so far to address the issues which you told us were important to you.

Spread the word, have your say and let us know what you need!

Kindness matters more than ever

Kindness is a principle that makes all our lives better and it’s important to us that we are kind to each other at work and to ourselves. Being kind can mean asking someone how they are or helping out with a task. It can also mean taking care of ourselves and asking for support if we need it.

If you want some more ideas about how to be kind to yourself and how you can look after your mental health, WeST has partnered with Able Futures and they are available to provide support at no cost to you.

To help you remember ways you can be kinder to yourself and to other people, here are some little things you could try to do each working day this week.

1) Take your full lunch break – eat something nutritious, go out for a short walk and don’t start back at work until you’ve had your full lunch break.

2) Ask someone you work with if there’s anything you can help with – sometimes just sharing some ideas about a new task is a good way to help someone you work with relax and feel more confident about what they are achieving.

3) Why not find an inspirational note-card and give it to a coworker who might not expect it.

4) Arrange to take your tea break with someone you’ve not caught up with for a while. Having a quick virtual chat while you’re both making a cuppa could be a way to ask someone if they need to talk about anything that’s on their mind.

5) Don’t forget to say thank you when colleagues go out of their way to help you.

For more information on how kindness affects our mental wellbeing, visit the Able Futures website. Able Futures delivers access to the Work Mental Health Support Service which can give you nine months support from a mental health professional at no cost to you. There’s no waiting list and you can apply online or by calling 0800 321 3137. If you are experiencing issues such as anxiety, depression, grief or stress, or are struggling to deal with problems such as debt, disrupted sleep or relationship breakdowns that may be affecting your mental health, Able Futures can help you build resilience, tackle issues, feel better and learn new ways to manage your mental health throughout the ups and downs of life.

Starter Experience Survey:

As part of the Trust aim of continual improvement, we would be interested to know about your experience of the selection process that led to your first day with us.

A big thank you to all of the new starters this term who have taken time out of their busy day to complete our Starter Experience Survey.  If you started working for the Trust in the last couple of months and have not completed the survey yet we would appreciate it if you would spend a few minutes completing the anonymous form that can be found here or via the QR code.  The closing date is 13 October 2020.  

If you would like to discuss this or encounter any problems opening the form please contact the HR Team at hr@westst.org.uk or on 01752 891754 Ext 1765.

There's only ONE You

Making better choices today can have a big impact on your health. The NHS' "One You" is here to help you get healthier and feel better with free tips, tools and support. Whether it's moving more, eating more healthily or checking yourself – One You can help you make small, practical changes that fit in with your life.

About One You

Your health is important. But being healthier isn't just about "doing the right thing" – it's about making changes to fit your life and make you feel good. One You helps you find that balance, so you feel better, every day.

Get free tips, tools and apps

One You provides tips, tools, support and encouragement every step of the way, to help improve your health right away. You are not alone – One You can help you make small changes yourself, or with friends and family.

Be healthier and reduce your risk

Making better choices today can have a huge influence on our health, and could prevent diseases such as type 2 diabetes, cancer and heart disease, and reduce our risk of suffering a stroke or living with dementia, disability and frailty in later life.

Make a change now

Take our free One You health quiz to see how you score and start the fight back to a healthier you.

For more advice, tips and tools to help you make the best choices about your health and wellbeing please also visit: https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/

Its World Mental Health Day this Saturday 10 October!

Check out these useful resources here.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION - False COVID exposure alerts from Apple and Google

Please be aware of the above. For more information visit:

https://faq.covid19.nhs.uk/article/KA-01252/en-us?parentid=CAT-01029&rootid=CAT-01024