THE GOVERNMENT EDUCATION VILLAGE

Hosted By

Where Policy Meets Practice

The Government Education Village is a dedicated area for visitors to meet with Department for Education teams, offering key insights into funding streams, advice on bidding, and guidance on the latest initiatives and compliance issues.

Attendees will benefit from speaking directly with key government officials, gaining practical 1-2-1 advice and staying up to date with the latest policies and initiatives aimed at driving school improvements and enhancing pupil outcomes.

The Village is situated at the heart of the show floor, providing the perfect platform to stay informed, question leaders in an informal setting and gain exclusive insights into the projects currently being worked on across Central Government.

The DfE Theatre also sits within the Government Education Village, with dedicated sessions and presentations from various core teams across the department.

Government Education Village Teams

  • Do you buy goods and services for your school? The Schools Commercial Team can help you to buy compliantly and have peace of mind that you are getting good value in terms of cost, quality and time. Come to our stand to see how we can help you.

  • Our team will be there to answer any questions on the department's free School Resource Management (SRM) offer. The SRM offer is a suite of free services, tools and support, designed in partnership with the sector, to help schools and academy trusts get the most out of all of their resources to maximise learners' outcomes.

  • The Chart of Accounts and Automation team will be sharing the benefits of adopting the academies chart of accounts (COA) and using automation, outnining the next steps for trusts. They’ll also provide updates on what the DfE is working on to improve the benefits for trusts and supporting trusts in the CoA adoption and automation process

  • To promote the DFE Cyber Standards and Cyber Assessment Tool.

  • Teaching Vacancies is the Department for Education's free recruitment service for state-funded schools in England. Teaching Vacancies is now well established and helps schools with their recruitment needs. Speak with the team to find out how Teaching Vacancies can help with filling your school's vacancies.

  • Our DfE user researchers conduct research with school leaders on DfE services and policy giving them the opportunity to share their experiences and influence the future of DfE services. We will be available at our table in the DfE village to speak to visitors about their experiences and allow them to sign up for research opportunities. We may also conduct pop up research on the day by providing demos of services and/or guidance for visitors to provide feedback on.

  • Our team works to protect and improve staff wellbeing and support sustainable workload for staff by; delivering support to schools to help tackle workload and improve wellbeing, reducing pressures on schools from government and gathering further effective evidence on workload and wellbeing.

  • Our team manage the Monitor your school attendance tool for schools which helps to easily identify pupils requiring support and identify trends across pupil groups, schools and geographical areas, enabling efforts and strategies to be targeted. Visitors can view the tool, learn about the latest updates and how it can help them. They can also learn about how to share their data with DfE, if they are not doing so already, ahead of the collection of daily attendance data being mandated later this year.

  • The pupil premium (PP) and recovery premium (RP) team in the Department for Education lead on the PP and RP conditions of grant, guidance and effective practice. They will be happy to answer any PP/RP related questions, including ones on the conditions of grants & guidance, developing PP strategy statements, and the menu of approaches.

The DfE Theatre

9:50am - 10:10am | Putting the DfE’s School Resource Management (SRM) Offer Into Practice

Learn more about the department's free School Resource Management (SRM) offer, a suite of free services, tools and support, designed in partnership with the sector, to help schools and academy trusts get the most out of all their resources to maximise learners' outcomes.

Speakers:
Cherise Heavey, Communications and Engagement Lead, Department for Education
Lindsey Roberts, Stakeholder and Engagement Coordinator, Department for Education

10:15am - 10:35am | See all your DfE funding in one place - DfE's new service for academies

DfE Connect has launched as a new digital service to support leaders and administrators. Over time, this will grow to cover new insights and support such as showing all your funding in one place and providing an oversight view for central MAT teams. Join the team working on this to find out more and help us research and test the forthcoming changes.

Speakers:
Jen Halmshaw, Team Leader, Department for Education

10:45am - 11:05am | How to Make Your Contracts Work Smarter for Your Trust

In this session, we’ll explore how a trust-wide approach to buying can consolidate procurement processes, reduce administrative burdens, and potentially generate cost savings through bulk purchasing power.

Speakers:
Tim Brown, Stakeholder and Engagement Manager, Department for Education, Schools Commercial Team

11:15am - 11:35am | Navigating Complex School Procurement With Confidence

Join this session for an overview of what to consider when planning your complex procurement, the timelines you should be working to, and the free support available from Get help buying for schools. The session will also cover the new Procurement Act and how this might impact you. 

Speakers:
Catherine Kelsall, Stakeholder and Engagement Manager, Department for Education, Schools Commercial Team

11:40am - 12:00pm | Why Teaching Vacancies Should be an Integral Part of Your Recruitment Strategy

Teaching Vacancies is the official recruitment service from the Department for Education for state-funded schools in England. Hear about how the service is performing and why Teaching Vacancies should be a key part of your recruitment strategy.

Speakers:
Will Bourke, Stakeholder Outreach and Engagement Lead, Department for Education

12:10pm - 12:30pm | Cyber Check for Schools

The Department has also developed and launched the Cyber Check for Schools tool, which allows schools to review their Cyber and Information Security provision.  The tool enables them to benchmark against good practice, produce action plans and access good practice resources.  This links to the DFE Cyber Standards

Speakers:
Arati Patel- Mistry, Cyber Education Lead, Department for Education- UK

12:35pm - 12:55pm | Teacher Workload

Speakers:
Naomi Byrne, Senior Policy Advisor, Department for Education

1:05pm - 1:25pm | Pupil Premium Refresher Session

Join us for a short session providing an introduction to the pupil premium and recovery premium grant.

Speakers:
Nicholl Lynch, Senior Policy Advisor, Department for Education
Mike Edwards, Policy Advisor, Department for Education

2:00pm - 2:20pm | Monitor Your School Attendance

Schools can attend this session to learn more about the monitor your school attendance tool and how it can help them. The session will provide information on what the tool is, latest updates and how it can best be used to help schools tackle attendance. This includes identifying trends across pupil groups, schools and geographical areas, enabling efforts and strategies to be targeted.

Speakers:
Laura Walklett-Lynch, Engagement and Communications Lead, Department for Education