Covid – 19 Update for Modeshift STARS Education
The Modeshift STARS Team would like to send our very best wishes to all schools, local authorities and partners during these difficult times. The Team are all currently working remotely, and are still available on email and over the phone for any queries that you may have.
We’ve been receiving some key questions from local authorities and schools over the last couple of weeks and have put together some responses below which will hopefully help you out.
Spring STARS Accreditation – what happened regarding accreditation applications that were submitted?
Any schools that applied should now have received the outcome of their accreditation application. If not, you should contact your local authority directly to check the status of your application. Plaques, certificates and STARS will be sent directly to local authorities to distribute to schools once they indicate that they are ready to receive them and provide a delivery address.
Spring STARS Accreditation – accreditation level was due to expire and the school was unable to re-apply
For any school whose accreditation expired in the Spring 2020 accreditation window that was unable to re-apply for accreditation, the Modeshift STARS Team automatically extended these accreditations to 31st December 2020.
Summer STARS Accreditation – will we still be running a Summer 2020 accreditation window?
Yes! Any school that is ready should apply for STARS accreditation as normal. The Modeshift STARS Education system remains fully operational and the Modeshift STARS Team are still in place to support local authorities with any accreditation queries. Schools have until Friday 31st July to submit their STARS accreditation applications to their local authorities.
Summer STARS Accreditation – schools are very close to applying for accreditation but now can’t get the final elements completed by the 31st July deadline
If there is no chance of schools completing the final criteria and you really feel they should be considered for approval in this window, then please speak to a member of the Modeshift STARS Team on a case by case basis to discuss the situation. However, schools that do not have a pupil survey for the current academic year cannot be considered as this is such a fundamental part of the STARS accreditation criteria. In the event that we approve an override of the STARS system, this will only be applied until 31st December 2020 at which point then will need to re-apply.
Schools are closed and their accreditation is going to expire.
For any school whose accreditation is due to expire in the Summer 2020 accreditation window, and in the event that they are unable to re-apply for accreditation, the Modeshift STARS Team will grant an automatic extension of their accreditation to 31st December 2020.
Schools without any pupil travel survey data for the 2019/20 academic year
As pupil travel survey data is fundamental to the Modeshift STARS scheme, unfortunately we cannot consider any accreditation applications that do not meet the required 80% (70% for secondaries) survey response rates for the current academic year against the normal pupil roll figure due to partial opening. This data is essential for monitoring pupil travel patterns at schools and must be both representative of the school population and comparable to previous years.
Moving into the 2020/21 academic year, we recognise that some schools may have difficulties in demonstrating modal shift from previous academic years if they do not have pupil survey data from 2019/20 or cannot meet the survey response rates. As such, we will be amending the Silver and Gold accreditation criteria rules from the 2020/21 academic year to look for modal shift over the previous 4-years (rather than the current 3) to assist schools that are in this situation.
If you have any other questions, please email us at stars@modeshift.org.uk
