Introduction

Welcome to the October Lead School Newsletter.

It was great to see so many of you at the Connecting Changemaker Events over the last few weeks. Hopefully you enjoyed the opportunity to reconnect with colleagues from across the network and found this time valuable. We would be grateful if you could take the opportunity to complete a short survey evaluation which you’ll find here.

As always, you’ll find key actions, updates and resources below. Half term will have arrived before we know it, so we hope that you all enjoy a restful break when it gets here.

ACTIONS

Programme Delivery

If you haven’t yet selected the programme intervention you wish to run for this academic year, please ensure that you have now done so as soon as possible using the spreadsheet on the Teams channel or by emailing [email protected].

Following the Changemaker Events, if you would like to change the intervention you have decided to focus on, please do not hesitate to let us know as soon as possible. If you have outlined that you would like to be involved in multiple programmes, please ensure you have confirmed which programme is your first choice programme and therefore the one you will be accountable for delivering against this academic year.  

Insight Community

The first window for completion of the Insight Community is from the 12-13 October. You should all have received a personalised link to click on and take part. The Insight Community will close at 5pm today. Please ensure that you have logged on and taken part. Information gathered through the Insight Community will be pivotal to the planning for the network moving forwards, so please prioritise this as it is a requirement of the offer for this academic year. Please also remember, this is an opportunity to share your opinion and perspective – please respond with as much honesty as possible, not what you think we might want to hear.

UPDATES

During the Connecting Changemaker Events, we discussed all different elements of this year’s LCV offer. As promised, you’ll find a copy of the slides used here.

Please make a note of the provisional dates for completion of the Insight Community, but final confirmation of these dates will be confirmed in due course.

If you haven’t already, please do let me know if you would be interested in either the Consultation Group or the Practitioner Developer Programme.

Teams Channel

We will continue to use both the newsletter and the Teams channel as our points of communication for the LCV work. Please ensure that you’ve managed to get access to these. Where individuals have found it challenging to access Teams, this has in some cases been resolved by registering an alternative email address and linking to a mobile phone. Please do reach out to Martin if you’re still having difficulty in gaining access.

We would also encourage you to continue communicating and sharing practice through the channel. Our cross-network knowledge is an incredible resource so please do make the most of this. If you are delivering the girls’ programme, just a reminder that you’ll find new branded content on the channel.

Girls as Coaches Mentoring Programme  

As some of you will be aware, last academic year we piloted a Girls as Coaches Mentoring Programme connected to your Girls Coaches/Activators work. As a result of this work, you’ll now find the content developed and used in our new YST branding available on the Teams Channel.

All LCVs will have access to this content to enable you to continue to add value to your Girls as Coaches work. There will be no KPIs connected to this for you to incorporate into your delivery programmes, but we will ask you to capture and share what you do through termly reporting.

School Games Commonwealth Legacy Funding

The School Games Legacy Funding may be a topic of discussion for many of you currently across your counties. SGOs and Active Partnerships have been provided with local investment to be used to make the local School Games provision bigger and better this academic year so that they appeal to different children and young people, focusing particularly on those most impacted by the pandemic and targeting inequalities. The aim is for this activity to be connected to and inspired by the upcoming Commonwealth Games.

During September and October, SGOs and Active Partnerships have been meeting to create their localised legacy plan, following which each SGO will receive £3,000 with the Active Partnership receiving £11,500. Depending on your roles as Leads for the LCV network, you may be connected already to this work, but we would strongly encourage if you aren’t already connecting with these individuals that you do so to see where opportunities might lie within their County Plans. This may be particularly relevant for leadership pathways and opportunities.

You’ll find more information about this work available here. You aren’t expected to deliver against any of this work unless you currently have a role as an SGO or within an Active Partnership. We are sharing for reference and to help the LCV network to capitalise on opportunities.

RESOURCES

UK Coaching - The Learning Lab

The Learning Lab is an online community for people who take on the role of a tutor or assessor in a sport or activity setting. The Learning Lab will be a shared space where people can connect, share and join a community of support and learning.

Meeting on a two-to-four-week basis this online group will provide a network for people working in this space across a wide range of sports, activities, at any level of participation or performance.

The format of the Learning Lab sessions will be varied. The Learning Lab will include guest and subject matter expert keynote workshops, sense-making sessions and the opportunity to share best practice and provide support for colleagues facing challenges in their own working environments. Types of sessions will include:

• Sense-Making
• Guest Speakers
• Subject Matter Expert Keynote Workshops
• Research Deep Dive
• Best Practice Sharing & Troubleshooting

The Learning Lab is designed to support tutors and assessors who create a learning environment for coaches. Regardless of your experience or expertise, this group is open for anyone who wants to connect with others and discover new knowledge and ideas that can be applied back in your own working environment.

For more information or to sign up for this programme, please visit. https://www.ukcoaching.org/courses/programmes/learning-lab