Warwickshire Virtual School

The Virtual School provides training for:

• Designated Teachers
• Social workers
• Foster carers
• Teacher Training students
• School staff

The Virtual School works with a small group of Warwickshire schools at a time to help them become attachment aware and trauma informed, providing training and support to enable them to develop better relationships within their settings leading to improved academic outcomes.

We continue to share good practice and ideas through our termly network meetings. 

To book any of the sessions please email virtualschool@warwickshire.gov.uk with the desired session(s) and the email of the person attending the training.

New to Designated Teacher (DT) training

Are you new to the role of DT? This training will cover understanding the roles and responsibilities of being a DT, including the ePEP online system.

New to DT training will be delivered via Microsoft Teams.

Designated Teacher (DT) training

Annual full day DT training will take place in autumn 2025. The morning session will be delivered by the Educational Psychology Service and afternoon by Virtual School Education Advisers.

DT Support Training

We are aware that many schools have a DT Support (DTS) who is assisting with the DT role. We are trialling a half day training session to support you in the role. We will cover working with your DT and various tips to support you in carrying out some key elements of the PEP  - gathering academic information, use of PP+ and target setting. Please let us know if there is something specific that you would like covered. This will be a great opportunity to meet other DT Supports. Dates to be confirmed.

Network meetings

Designated Teacher Network Meetings are run via teams. Please let your linked education adviser / officer know if you would like to share an idea or resource or an idea that you would like to Virtual School to cover.

All DTs registered on the Welfare Call system will automatically receive the Teams invitation. If any other DTs / DT Supports would like to attend please email virtualschool@warwickshire.gov.uk with the session being booked and the email of the person attending the training (so that the Teams invitation is set up with the correct email address).

Warwickshire Virtual School Training webinars

We will be using Flourish to deliver our webinar series this year. Please email virtualschool@warwickshire.gov.uk to book spaces.

Professional learning programme 

The Virtual School have continued to expand our training offer to schools and education settings so that out children can be taught by knowledgeable, reflective, understanding teachers. Our Designated Teacher training is always well attended. With the expansion of our duties we are offering some wider training opportunities for schools:

Thinking differently for disadvantaged learners

As part of Warwickshire's commitment to closing the gap the Warwickshire Learning Improvement team and Warwickshire Virtual School have joined together to fund access for all Warwickshire Schools to have access to the Challenging Education Professional Learning Programme (PLP).

There are six recorded training modules available to all staff to access at their convenience. Sessions have been researched and delivered by expert trainers (and experienced school leaders) who have a wealth of knowledge on leadership and teaching of disadvantaged youngsters built up over more than seven years of supporting schools across all phases in Raising the Attainment of Disadvantaged Youngsters (RADY).

This is a tried and tested online learning resource appropriate for all phases of education, designed to help staff to ‘Think Differently’ about working with our most disadvantaged learners.

It has opened my eyes to different thought processes and actions whilst also confirming my beliefs in the system I am driving towards. Headteacher, Primary Phase

A resource that is designed to be flexible and fit in with your school plan for professional development. There is no expectation or requirement to complete all the sessions within a module, and no need to complete the sessions in a particular order. Think ‘pick and mix’ approach!

Each module contains over 90 minutes of recorded sessions. Individual videos are ‘bitesize’, no more than 15 minutes long and can therefore easily be integrated into a longer training session or even a staff briefing. Please refer to the ‘Content of the PLP’ document for details of the sessions in each module.

The modules include downloadable resources, including suggested activities to promote deeper reflection and action and references for those who want to find out more.

There are a number of case studies from schools in England and Wales that help to illustrate how schools are bringing the training to life.

Once registration is complete, you can share your username (this will be your URN) and password with colleagues within your school who also wish to access the materials.

Attachment and Trauma Training Programme

We have linked with many schools to deliver Trauma Informed and Attachment Aware Schools. This year we are able to offer a wider training opportunity through our partnership with Flourish. The programme would be funded for Warwickshire schools as part of the Virtual School training offer as we are committed to supporting schools to become trauma informed and attachment aware.

Aims:

• Increase understanding of the role of attachment and trauma in children’s education and strategies to better address their needs
• Reduce suspensions / exclusions from school and improve attendance of children who are vulnerable
• Improve educational progress and the well-being of children who are vulnerable
• Develop the confidence and skills of teachers and staff to address trauma and attachment
• Identify effective approaches to addressing attachment and trauma in schools

Flourish Partnership

Warwickshire Virtual School is delighted to be working in partnership with Flourish, in delivering fully funded education specific training in the Warwickshire local authority area.

We wanted to reach out to make you aware that if you are working within a school, college or early years facility in the area, then you could be eligible for a pre-funded training place with Flourish.

Flourish provide trauma informed training that is designed by subject matter experts in education. The training helps teachers and school staff develop the tools and strategies they need to create a positive learning environment, in which vulnerable children can thrive. The person-centred learning and interactive courses are engaging and impactful for every learner.

The fully funded training gives you access to:

• over 40 courses on our eLearning platform 'Click' 7 training programme, including Attachment and Trauma, Exclusions, and Emotionally Based School Avoidance
• CPD accredited training courses in three delivery methods: online, webinar and face-to-face

If you would like to find out more on the fully funded training, please visit Flourish.

Flourish - Warwickshire Virtual School funded training

The Attachment Research Community (ARC)

Warwickshire’s Virtual School offers fully funded membership to allow all schools in the local authority to receive a membership with full access to the ARC members area and ARC resources such as the ARC Pathway, ARC Audit and ARC MATRIX, and up to 10 colleague users per school.

ARC’s purpose is to support all schools and education settings to be attachment and trauma aware in their practice for the benefit of all members of the learning community and particularly the most vulnerable, by bringing together, sharing and celebrating best practice.

Becoming a member of ARC will open up professional and educational pathways within a membership platform with readily available resources, regional workshops, panel discussions and virtual events that allow our members to network and support each other.

What is the ARC Pathway?

Utilising the ARC Audit, Development Plan and Project, members have access to online self-evaluation, development planning and project management tools to enable them to complete their journey.

Bronze award: audit, development plan and staff training

The ARC Audit helps you to evaluate your attachment, trauma, mental health and well-being practice, which guides your development plan and gives a baseline to measure the impact of your work. ARC membership includes advice on commissioning training and links to members and trainers for further support.

To complete your Bronze level membership, you will need to ask the Virtual Head to verify that attachment and trauma aware training has been completed by your staff. Please email virtualschool@warwickshire.gov.uk

Silver award: embed, action, case study

ARC’s membership includes tools for setting up a project group with an online space for forum discussions, sharing documents and uploading data.

Gold award: share your learning

Sharing your ARC work can benefit many, particularly schools beginning their attachment and trauma aware journey.  

The ARC - The ARC Pathway

The RADY project

What is RADY?

RADY: Raising the Attainment of Disadvantaged Youngsters.

RADY is an approach to closing the gaps which directly targets a school’s ‘central nervous system’ – its target setting, tracking and monitoring systems. Unlike most other strategies to close the gap, RADY is aimed at school senior managers and teachers.

Raising the Attainment of Disadvantaged Youngsters (RADY) is a pathway that the Warwickshire Virtual School offers, alongside Challenging Education. Our aim is to help schools realise the untapped potential of our disadvantaged learners through target and attainment uplifts. 

We help encourage schools to focus on equity in teaching and learning, ensuring the attainment of our disadvantaged learners is a golden thread throughout school policies and focusing on the proportional representation of our disadvantaged learners in all aspects of school life.

Geese Theatre

Through the power of theatre, Geese Theatre and Dr. Dawn Bradley bring theory, research and strategies to life to enhance understanding of some of the causes of challenging behaviour.

This is the first step towards finding ways to support individuals and improve outcomes.

These dates are currently available:

• Friday 24 October 2025 (Heart of England Conference Centre)
• Friday 13 February 2026 (Heart of England Conference Centre)
• Friday 27 March 2026 (NAEC Stoneleigh)
• Monday 13 April 2026 (NAEC Stoneleigh)

Booking form

Children with a Social Worker (CWSW) training

New to Children with a Social Worker (CWSW) training

If you are new to leading CWSW, this training will cover understanding the roles and responsibilities of being a leader for:

• children with a social worker (CWSW) who have an open CiN or CP plan due to safeguarding or welfare reasons
• for children who have previously had a social worker (Ever-6 CWSW) who have had an open CiN or CP plan in the last six years due to safeguarding or welfare reasons
• for children in kinship care

Please email sharonharris@warwickshire.gov.uk with the session being booked and the email of the person attending the training (so that the Teams invitation is set up with the correct email address).

Children with a Social Worker (CWSW lead) annual training

Annual full day CWSW leaders training will take place in spring 2026. The morning session will be delivered by the Educational Psychology Service and afternoon by Virtual School Education Advisers.

Please email sharonharris@warwickshire.gov.uk with the session being booked and the email of the person attending the training (so that the Teams invitation is set up with the correct email address).

Network meetings

Please email sharonharris@warwickshire.gov.uk with the session being booked and the email of the person attending the training (so that the Teams invitation is set up with the correct email address).

Please let our education adviser know if you would like to share an idea or resource or an idea that you would like Virtual School to cover.