Everything you need to know: Northumberland County Council – Special Education Needs and Disability (SEND) consultation

Background: Northumberland County Council is consulting on its Draft Strategy for Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND), which aims to increase school place capacity to meet the demand for children with SEND in specialist and mainstream provision. This is compulsory under Section 30 of the Children and Families Act 2014. Approximately 1400 (3%) of the …

Trainee teachers don’t understand safeguarding role, says Ofsted

Inspectors find that trainees are unclear about their safeguarding responsibilities toward children. Trainee teachers are not being made fully aware of their future role in safeguarding children, Ofsted warned today. Understanding safeguarding was one of the areas for improvement flagged up from the first stage inspections of initial teacher education this summer, Angela Milner, Ofsted's specialist …

‘Alarming’ number of schools accused of unofficially excluding SEND pupils

In an Ofsted report released this week, figures show that an ‘alarming’ number of schools are using unofficial exclusions as a way to deal with pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). The Ofsted findings also report that pupils with SEND have a much poorer experience of education than their peers. The inspectorate says …

Exam pressure fuels rise in Childline calls about mental health

In the Childline annual review released this week, figures show that more than a fifth – 22 per cent – of the almost 300,000 young people whom it counselled in 2016-2017 were primarily concerned about their mental and emotional health. This was an increase from 8 per cent in 2015-2016. According to the report, exam …

Teacher apprentices will be paid on unqualified scale

Trainee teachers on a new postgraduate teaching apprenticeship will be guaranteed an unqualified teacher’s salary, the government has announced. The Department for Education says schools will not be allowed to pay apprentice teachers the apprentice minimum wage, which is currently £3.50 per hour. Instead, they will be paid a salary in line with the unqualified …

Unauthorised absences up despite government crackdown

Unauthorised absences have risen across primary and secondary schools, despite attempts by the Government to crack down on attendance. According to recently released figures, pupils taking days off schools without an authorised reason rose from 0.9% in 2015-16 to 1.1% in the autumn-spring terms in 2017. The main driver of the rise in unauthorised absences …

English school budgets facing ‘breaking point’, warn Head Teachers

Head Teachers are to warn MPs that school budgets in England are facing “breaking point” after a combined £2.8bn in cuts and costs imposed upon them by the government. The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) is writing to all Westminster MPs to highlight the plight of state schools in England suffering from funding shortages, …

Headteacher board elections: What you need to know

As the DfE reveals who will sit on powerful committees overseeing England's schools system, here are the crucial facts you need to know. The HTBs are a key part of our education system and help make decisions that will affect schools across the country for generations to come. But despite their importance, they are little …

David Laws: 30-hours free childcare policy ‘utterly nuts’

Former schools minister says free childcare for working parents operates as "negative early years' Pupil Premium" benefiting the wealthy, and almost prompted him to resign from the Coalition. The government's policy of giving working parents 30-hours free childcare but denying it to disadvantaged parents who are unemployed is "utterly nuts", David Laws told the SCHOOLS NorthEast Summit. The former Liberal …

Ofsted review: ‘Schools are narrowing the curriculum’

Findings in the Ofsted curriculum review report that schools are narrowing the primary curriculum by focusing too intensely on preparing for SATs. Ofsted has highlighted the intensity of exam preparation for pupils, as well as questioning why some schools are shortening Key Stage 3, with some pupils not taking subjects such as history or a …