Budget 2017: Greening will write to teacher pay body ‘shortly’

The education secretary will write to the body that makes recommendations on teacher pay rises “shortly”, the government has confirmed. Following today’s budget announcement, Justine Greening is now free to write to the School Teachers Review Body about its remit for next year’s pay award. Every year, the STRB receives a “remit letter” from the …

Ofsted chair welcomes call for greater scrutiny of ‘outstanding’ schools

Professor Julius Weinberg, the new chair of Ofsted has told school governors that it would be “helpful if they pushed for Ofsted to carry out more inspections at ‘outstanding’ schools.” Professor Weinberg’s comments followed his speech to the annual conference of the National Governance Association in Birmingham on Saturday. This was the first speech he …

Autumn Budget 2017: SCHOOLS NorthEast response

Autumn Budget 2017: SCHOOLS NorthEast response Mike Parker, Director of SCHOOLS NorthEast, said: “The Government is failing to meet its stated commitment to end inequality in education and to drive greater social mobility in deprived communities. This Budget has done precious little to change that. While the Chancellor continues to scrabble down the back of …

Forced academisation of primary schools is ‘immoral’

Academies Show hears draft recommendation of high-powered panel reviewing primary school accountability Forcing underperforming schools to become academies is “immoral”, because of a lack of evidence about the policy’s success, according to a panel of senior education figures. Currently, non-academies that are rated "inadequate" by Ofsted are legally required to convert to academy status. But …

Girls ‘better at co-operating on problems’

But when the element of collaboration is added to the problem solving, girls outperformed boys in in every country. In the UK this gender gap is one of the largest. These results are mirrored in students' attitudes. Girls show more positive attitudes towards relationships, meaning that they tend to be more interested in others' opinions …

Schools not up to the job of finding places for excluded pupils, warns academic

Most schools are not in the “best position” to find alternative provision for their excluded pupils, a leading academic has warned. David Berridge, a professor of child and family welfare at the University of Bristol, told MPs this week that it was difficult for individual schools to know about the “range of resources” available and …

Children attempting suicide in order to access mental health care

Anne Longfield says she visited a school that had experienced 'five occasions of either attempted or threatened suicide in this year alone' Pupils as young as 13 feel they need to attempt suicide to access child and adolescent mental health services (Camhs) – and schools are dealing with rising numbers of suicidal pupils, the children's commissioner has said. …

DfE planning to spend £10m on Reception baseline test

Department for Education says it wants to see an assessment of pupils' 'self-regulation', alongside communication, literacy and maths The new baseline assessments for primary school pupils will cost up to £10 million to develop, the government has revealed. The Department for Education has also confirmed that it does not want the assessment to be based on teacher observations …

Social mobility… is school the only solution?

As I was prostrate in the bath the other night (which is where I do most of my thinking I must admit) and pontificating about the wonderment that are  our children one question occurred to me… ‘What are we doing?’ That particular day I had spent the morning analysing nursery data, trying to project outcomes …

The Education Select Committee 14th November: A Round Up

Anne Longfield, the Children’s Commissioner for England, appeared before MPs on the Education Select Committee on 14 November. Here’s a quick roundup of the key things she had to say: Mental Health In response to question from Chair Robert Halfon MP she said that children and parents had been talking to her about mental health …