2024-25 Virtual School Training and Support Offer
Please see attached for the Virtual School’s 2024-25 Training and Support Offer. (PDF, 261KB)
This outlines the training and support Designated Teachers (DTs), and staff working with our care-experienced children and young people, can freely access.
Bookings can be made here and you can also view the programme overview via the Virtual School website. Our offer is very popular, so we would recommend you book on without delay. Particularly for the upcoming Key Person Training and DT Induction Training which take place early on in September.
Key Person Training Our Key Person Training starts on Monday 16th September (it comprises of 5 sessions over the year) and is relevant for staff working in settings supporting multiple care-experienced children and where you feel staff would benefit from some additional, specialist input in managing things day-to-day. Book on here.
DT Induction Training The DT Induction Training (scheduled for Wednesday 18 September and Wednesday 19 March) is essential for NEW DTs, as the DT has statutory responsibilities that must be upheld. We also deliver specific training for staff working in the Early Years and with Year 11s. Book on here.
As a reminder, the Designated Teacher (Looked-After Pupils etc) (England) Regulations 2009 require that the designated person is:
- A qualified teacher who has completed the appropriate induction period (if required) and is working as a teacher at the school (regulation 3(2).
- Or a head teacher or acting head teacher of the school (regulation 3(3).
Please make sure we are aware if your DT has changed and prioritise them attending our DT induction training. If you have any questions, do get in touch as we are here to help. For more information, you can also refer to this.
Virtual School Conference
The 2025 Virtual School Conference will not take place at the end of June this time around as secondary schools, particularly, have found it hard to attend at this time of year. Instead, we will be moving our conference to the Autumn Term (October 2025). More details to follow.
New Designated Teacher Practice Day – Thursday 30 January
In response to feedback from DTs, and because we desperately want DTs to have a community of support and practice they can turn to, we are replacing our termly online network meetings with an in-person day at Unipart House. DTs can reach out to their Virtual School Workers at any time for support. However, we strongly recommend (particularly given that we won’t have a June conference this year) that your DT attends our practice day. The day has been designed to bring DTs and their allocated Virtual School Caseworkers together to reflect on shared experiences, what’s going well, identify/work through challenges and consider ways to work more effectively going forwards to improve the educational outcomes of our most vulnerable children and young people. The day will be facilitated by The Restorative Lab (‘The Lab’), supported by Dr Hester Riviere and Virtual School staff. The Lab will facilitate a check-in with participants and do some relationship building activities. There will then be a focus on breaking the cycle of suspension using restorative approaches followed by a check out. We anticipate that it will be an incredibly valuable day. There are limited places, so make sure you book on soon!