Me Too - Guidance for Schools

Supporting documents and templates to help you can be accessed at www.yor-ok.org.uk/supporting-documents.htm These include:

Project briefing and guidance documents 1a. Aim of the subsidy – general 1b. Aim of the subsidy – school lead 1c. Governors briefing 2a. Guidance document 2b. Me Too process flowchart 2c. TDA Frequently Asked Questions 2d. Eligibility criteria 2e. York FAQ’s 2f. Guidance for inclusion of pupils with additional needs

Forms and templates 3a. Pupil registration form 3b. Activity request form 3c. Registration form with Questionnaire 3e. Monitoring spreadsheet 4a. Letter to parent example 1 4b. Letter to parent example 2 4c. Letter to parent with questionnaire 4d. Information for young people 4e. Activity offer letter 4f. Booking confirmation letter

Publicity and branding materials 5a. Me Too poster 5b. Me Too logo

Consultation guidance 6a. Consultation ideas 6b. TDA consultation toolkit 6c. BIG lottery consultation guidance 6d. Consultation presentation 6e. Consultation factsheets

Finding and paying activity providers 7a. Where to source activities and providers 7b. Project set up checklist (pending) 7c. Provider “pitch” document (pending) 7d. Payment of school staff (pending) 7e. Financial guidance (pending) 7f. Self-employment letter

0c2ec88a81d49e707d603cd8f6d94033.doc Monitoring impact and evaluation 8a. Impact Stories template 8b. Pupil Evaluation Form for parents and professionals 8c. Pupil Self-Evaluation Form 8d. Pupil Evaluation Summary 8e. Activity Feedback form – pupils (secondary) 8f. Activity Feedback form – pupils (primary) 8g. Impact Evaluation Model 8h. Case studies from Me Too pilot

Safeguarding 9a. Safeguarding guidance for schools providing activities onsite 9b. Safeguarding information for parents

Support for SEF 10a. How Me Too supports the SEF

0c2ec88a81d49e707d603cd8f6d94033.doc Me Too – Activity Subsidy

The subsidy is part of the Government’s commitment to extended services in and around schools. As part of this every school should offer a comprehensive range of exciting, high-quality out-of-hours activities to its pupils, with the aim of:

. Raising self-esteem, confidence and aspirations . Improve wellbeing, responsibility, social and life skills . Provide inspiration and an opportunity to discover a talent . Help to build positive relationships with families . Strengthen engagement

In York the subsidy is called Me Too, and will provide funding to help schools ensure that these out-of-hours activities are accessible to those pupils who would not be able to afford them, complementing extended services activities and outcomes that schools are already delivering.

It is an exciting opportunity for schools to work with pupils and their families to enable them to identify something of their choosing they would really like to have a go at, with a view to engaging them more fully in school and their learning. For more information you can go to http://www.yor- ok.org.uk/me-too.htm

Getting started Extended Services has put together a range of resources for you to use to support the delivery of Me Too, and are available at http://www.yor-ok.org.uk/supporting-documents.htm . Some are templates you can use and alter as required, such as letters to parents. Some are forms to use such as the monitoring spreadsheet. Others are resources we thought you may find useful, drawing on the experiences of the pilot schools.

Starting out can seem daunting, especially for those schools with large numbers of pupils who are eligible. This guidance aims to help you through the process, but if you have any particular questions contact Sarah Carrick or Jan Kilmartin on 01904 554441 or email [email protected].

Briefing school staff Ensure all staff and governors are aware of the Me Too project, its purpose and the criteria for involvement. If you are unable to access this let us know and we can send them electronically.

You can use supporting documents (1a, 1b, 1c, 2b, and 2d) for this initial briefing. The FAQ’s document (2c) will prove a useful document to keep to hand, and will help you to work through a range of situations/issues/questions that may arise.

Moving forward Decide on a Me Too lead within school – it could be someone with a pastoral or similar role, your extended services lead or school business manager etc. What is important from the experience of the pilot schools is that someone has the lead on how the school approaches Me Too, and drives the initiative forward.

Administration and Finance team members will need to familiarise themselves with the supporting documents and processes; as in most schools these staff will be the first point of contact for enquiries from parents and pupils.

Identifying eligible pupils The eligibility criteria are outlined in form (2d). Schools will have information on pupils who are eligible for Free School Meals (FSM), and the lists that are sent termly by Yasmin Wahab’s Management Information Service at City of York Council include details of children who are eligible under most of the criteria outlined. Working with services that support children, young people and families to help identify, engage and support them to access Me Too funding will also be key to the success of the initiative, in particular in engaging those more hard to reach families. We hope this will prove a positive opportunity for services to engage young people and their families, personalise 0c2ec88a81d49e707d603cd8f6d94033.doc the agenda for them, and will also relieve some of the burden on schools of engaging those that require more encouragement and support.

Inform eligible families about the Me Too project There are example letters to parents (4a, 4b and 4c), registration forms (3a or 3c), a Me Too poster (5a), and logo (5b) for you to use as required. Each school can decide how best to do this, and may want to get parents’/carers’ agreement that they want to be included in the project, and take the opportunity to ask what activities interests their son/daughter has.

When placing pupils who have additional needs, please refer to the guidance document (2f). This outlines the correct protocols to follow, enabling providers to have the time and support to ensure the experience is a positive one for both the pupil and the provider.

Decide on initial activities It’s a good idea to decide on a few activities that are easily available and offer those as initial “quick wins” to engage families in the project. These might be things currently offered through school, local breakfast or out of school clubs, or clubs in the local community.

Once you are happy with administering the scheme, the choice of activities pupils can access can be as wide as the opportunities available. Guidance on identifying providers in and around York is available in document (7e), but this is not exhaustive and other things are certainly possible.

Consultation Consultation is a fundamental part of the Me Too project, and a key guiding principle. Activities should reflect the wishes of the children, young people and families involved.

You may already have conducted consultation in school about the activities your pupils would like to do, this is essential information to help you decide on activities that: a) you could organise on the school site. b) you can signpost pupils to providers in the local community or if appropriate across the city. c) you need to talk to other local schools about to avoid duplication or to pool resources.

There are a huge number of ways to consult with children and young people. Some work better with different age groups, so it’s important to consider which methods will be most appropriate. Over the summer term you will need to find out what activity your pupils currently do to form a baseline, and what they would like to take part in. There are a number of ideas and pointers for undertaking successful consultation featured within the resources (section 6). Or you may already have consultation planned that you can tap into, such as through the School Sports Partnership.

Consultation is key to identifying what individuals would like to do, as well as informing the development of new and exciting activities.

Tracking participation and spend Populate the monitoring spreadsheet (3e) with the eligible pupils’ information as indicated. It is important to keep this up to date and to forward the information to [email protected] on a termly basis.

Activity requests Pupils eligible for Me Too funding who would like to try a particular activity need to complete an activity request form (3b), or if you have invited them to attend an activity, use the activity invitation letter and reply slip (4e).

You will need to agree with parents the initial period that the school will fund the activity for, and/or the contribution school will make if the activity is more expensive. Once a pupil is booked on an activity you will need to complete the monitoring spreadsheet (3e) to ensure that you can track activity uptake and costs. In most instances you will need to provide a purchase order number so that the activity provider can invoice the school for the cost of the session/s. Financial guidance at (7e) may help with this.

0c2ec88a81d49e707d603cd8f6d94033.doc The project should encourage those families who are able to, to access activities in the same way as those that pay. So where they are able, parents/carers should be encouraged to source activities themselves, and once agreed by school, should be given the booking information (4f) (letter including purchase order number) to book onto the activities themselves.

Where families need additional help to do this, the school or a support service working with the pupil or family will need to facilitate this.

Sourcing activity providers There are a range of services within the council and the voluntary sector to help you find a provider for an activity a pupil would like to access, or that the school would like to put on. The table at (7a) shows a range of services and resources that can be utilised to source an activity for a pupil. We have endeavoured to inform providers across the city about Me Too, but if you have trouble with securing a booking with a provider please do let us know, and we will be happy to liaise with the provider to explain the project in more detail.

Feedback Feedback is an important part of the subsidy; it ensures we have an evidence base in which to inform the impact the subsidy is having on pupils. Extended Services then have to feed back to the DCSF via the TDA, as well as keeping senior leadership teams and members informed of progress and impact. Activity providers need to keep registers to track attendance and should be encouraged to complete impact forms (8b), and provide activity feedback forms of their own or use (8e). Forms are included in the resources to capture pupil, parent, school and provider feedback (8b, 8c), as well as an individual case study template (8a).

Where taking part in an activity has led to an improvement in behaviour, attendance, engagement with school, improvement in participation in lessons, better family engagement with school etc, schools will be expected to complete a brief case study (8a) on a sample of these. Case studies can provide the most compelling case on the impact of the subsidy, and therefore support the case for continuation of the funding.

This guidance will be updated regularly as we refine the process, so please check http://www.yor-ok.org.uk/supporting-documents.htm for up-to-date versions of the forms and guidance.

For more information contact:

We are here to support you to successfully deliver Me Too, so if you have any questions or need anything clarifying please contact:

Sarah Carrick/Jan Kilmartin Extended Services Policy Manager (job share) on 01904 554441 or email: [email protected] or [email protected]

For general enquiries about Extended Services in York email [email protected] or call 01904 554376.

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