All posts tagged: DfE

Phillipson faces first education committee grilling

Phillipson faces first education committee grilling

Published by skeptic

Education secretary set to be questioned by MPs over SEND, wellbeing bill and private school fees Education secretary set to be questioned by MPs over SEND, wellbeing bill and private school fees More from this theme Recent articles Bridget Phillipson will face questions about SEND provision and charging VAT on private school fees during her first education committee hearing next week. The education secretary will also be grilled over aspects of the new children’s wellbeing and schools bill, including how unique identifier codes and a national register of children not in school will be developed. Susan Acland Hood Members of the committee may also examine why the legislation does not include provisions for eligible children to be auto-enrolled for free school meals. On SEND, issues like how to make mainstream settings more inclusive and what action will be taken to stop councils from declaring effective bankruptcy over high needs costs in future years will be tackled. Phillipson will also be questioned over the potential impact VAT on private school fees could have, the government’s progress …

Matt Hood set to leave CEO role

Matt Hood set to leave CEO role

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It comes less than a year after he bagged the permanent role It comes less than a year after he bagged the permanent role More from this theme Recent articles Matt Hood is set to leave his role as CEO of Oak National Academy, less than a year after taking the job on a permanent basis. One of the online school’s co-founders during Covid, Hood had acted as interim chief executive since it controversially became an arm’s-length public body in 2022.  Following a year-long recruitment process, it was confirmed he had been appointed to the £120,000-per-year permanent position by the Department for Education last May.   But now, it is understood Hood is set to step down in the spring. Schools Week revealed in November that a judicial review of the decision to turn the Oak National Academy into a government quango has been put on hold. The British Education Suppliers Association, the Publishers Association and the Society of Authors say the online lesson provider would pose an “existential risk” to their sector, and that it amounted to an …

RAAC yet to be removed from 90% of crisis-hit schools

RAAC yet to be removed from 90% of crisis-hit schools

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Work finished in just 30 RAAC schools, sparking warnings ‘thousands of children are studying in inadequate’ buildings Work finished in just 30 RAAC schools, sparking warnings ‘thousands of children are studying in inadequate’ buildings More from this theme Recent articles Almost 90 per cent of schools containing reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) are yet to have work carried out to remove the collapse-prone building material, it has been revealed. The Lib Dems have said it is “deeply concerning” that thousands of children are still studying in “dangerous schools or inadequate temporary buildings” following the RAAC crisis and are urging the government to fix the issue with “urgency”. RAAC is a porous concrete which is prone to collapse, and was widely used in public buildings from the 1950s to the mid-1990s. The government has pledged funding to remove the material, after it caused three sudden roof collapses in UK schools in 2023. RAAC has since been identified in 232 schools and colleges across England. A total of 122 need extensive work involving one or more buildings …

Misbehaviour interrupts most lessons for 4 in 10 teachers

Misbehaviour interrupts most lessons for 4 in 10 teachers

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More from this theme Recent articles Four in 10 teachers now report pupil misbehaviour is disrupting all or most of their lessons, a government survey suggests. The Department for Education has published the latest results, for May, April and March, of its regular school and college voice omnibus surveys. In total, thousands of teachers and leaders in primary, secondary and special schools were quizzed on a wide-range of topics for the surveys, which chart changes over time. Here’s your trusty Schools Week round-up of the key findings… 1. Four in 10 teachers hit by regular lesson disruptions In May, four in 10 teachers said pupil misbehaviour had interrupted all or most of the lessons they had taught in the previous week. Teachers and leaders who’d taught a lesson in the past week were also asked how many minutes were lost to behaviour issues per half hour of lesson time. On average, leaders reported 5 minutes had been lost, while teachers said seven minutes was wasted – both up by a minute on the responses to …

Recruitment could be worse than it looks, DfE suggests

Recruitment could be worse than it looks, DfE suggests

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More from this theme Recent articles Abysmal teacher recruitment data may be under-stating the challenge, the government has suggested, given “underperformance” in subjects with already generous bursaries and retention payments. The Department for Education has published its evidence to the School Teachers’ Review Body. Its proposal of a 2.8 per cent pay rise for teachers next year has grabbed headlines, but the evidence sheds a light on government thinking about the recruitment and retention crisis. Here’s what we learned. 1. Abysmal recruitment data may under-state the challenge… Successive governments have missed secondary teacher recruitment targets for years, apart from during a brief improvement during the Covid pandemic. Primary recruitment has also stalled recently, with the target missed by the largest margin on record this year. But the DfE warned in its evidence that comparing performance against recruitment targets “does not reflect the relative recruitment challenges across subjects in full”. “For example, the underperformance against target in subjects such as maths, physics, chemistry, and computing is especially notable, given the interventions already in place, including bursaries …

2.8% rise ‘appropriate’ for 2025-26 says DfE

2.8% rise ‘appropriate’ for 2025-26 says DfE

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More from this theme Recent articles The government has said a 2.8 per cent teacher pay rise “would be appropriate” for 2025-26. In its evidence to the School Teachers’ Review Body, the Department for Education said this level of award “would maintain the competitiveness of teachers’ pay, despite the challenging financial backdrop the government is facing”. It comes after teachers were awarded a rise of 5.5 per cent this year and 6.5 per cent last year. The government said the proposed 2.8 per cent rise would mean pay had risen by 21 per cent in four years. However, the proposal is still likely to go down badly with unions, which have pushed for pay to be restored to 2010 levels in real-terms. The IfS has estimated that even after this year’s pay rise, pay of experienced teachers will be around 9 per cent lower in real-terms than in 2010, with earlier career teachers less affected because of recent large increases to starting salaries. CPI inflation rose by 2.3 per cent in the 12 months to October …

Salary rises needed would cost £7bn

Salary rises needed would cost £7bn

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More from this theme Recent articles Attracting an extra 6,500 teachers through wage rises alone would cost the government more than £7 billion a year, according to the National Foundation for Educational Research. An NFER report said ministers would have to hike salaries by almost 10 per cent for the next three years in a row if looking to pay as the sole incentive. Pepe DiIasio The charity warned Labour was “highly unlikely” to hit the recruitment target if it does nothing – meaning the introduction of new measures is essential. Association of School and College Leaders general secretary Pepe Di’Iasio said the findings reflected “the scale of the challenge the new government faces in meeting its target”. “While we welcome that commitment, the stark reality is that even this number of teachers is unlikely to be sufficient. “This is the result of years of pay erosion and workload pressures created by the previous government’s dismal record of expecting ever more of schools and colleges while failing to provide them with sufficient funding and resources.” …

Children ‘missing’ from school double DfE estimates

Children ‘missing’ from school double DfE estimates

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More from this theme Recent articles The number of children “missing” from education could be closer to 300,000, researchers have warned, with almost one in 10 pupils leaving the education system by year 11. Data published by the government earlier this year suggested 117,100 children were considered to be missing from education at some point in 2022-23, up from 94,900 the year before. But new data from the Education Policy Institute suggests the figure could be around 2.5 times higher. The think tank’s report warned previous attempts to understand the scale of the problem had been “hampered by gaps in data collection and the inherently hidden nature of many cases”. To address those gaps, the EPI compared GP and school registrations to generate an estimate of the number of children not enrolled at any school. It then excluded those registered as home educated to find those missing education. Figure ‘2.5 times higher than DfE estimate’ The report estimated “that as many as 305,000 are missing entirely from education in 2023 – an increase of 41 …

DfE eases T-level work placement rules to boost take-up

DfE eases T-level work placement rules to boost take-up

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More from this theme Recent articles Government rules for T-level industry placements have been further relaxed in a bid to boost the number of students taking the flagship qualifications. Learners on nearly all courses will now be allowed to complete 20 per cent of their 315-hour total placement remotely instead of in a physical workplace – with this allowance increased to 50 per cent for students on digital T-levels. Officials will also allow placements to be carried out as “simulated activity” on the school or college’s own site, but only if this is overseen by their industry placement employer.  And placements will “no longer be restricted to the specific T-level subject being studied by students”. Baroness Smith Guidance detailing the changes will be published in January 2025 and will come into effect immediately. The reforms come amid lower-than-expected enrolments, high dropout rates, and long-held concern that there are not enough employers willing to offer enough work placements when T-levels are fully rolled out. Skills minister Jacqui Smith announced the move today at the start of the government’s …

DfE claims Lilac Sky investigation report ‘does not exist’

DfE claims Lilac Sky investigation report ‘does not exist’

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The government had promised for years to publish its investigation report into a scandal-hit trust The government had promised for years to publish its investigation report into a scandal-hit trust More from this theme Recent articles After an eight-year investigation that allegedly uncovered £3 million of “improper” academy trust spending and led to the banning of two heads, the government has bizarrely claimed an investigation report into the scandal “does not exist”. The Department for Education has for years promised to publish its investigation report into the collapse of the Lilac Sky Schools Trust. An “outcome” report was published online this year. While it alleged more than £3 million of trust spending was deemed “contentious, irregular or improper”, it had few further details.   The government previously dodged releasing the investigation under the freedom of information process, saying it “intended to publish the final report once the investigation had concluded”. But after a new FOI from Schools Week, the DfE has now claimed: “A final investigation report does not exist.” Holly Lawton, the deputy director …