A new report from the National Audit Office (NAO) finds that around 1.9 million children and young people aged 0 to 25 years in England (11%) were identified as having special educational needs (SEN) in January 2024, with 1.7 million at school. This won't come as a surprise to teachers. The report finds that "although … Continue reading Support for children and young people with special educational needs
Author: Bruce Levitan
ParentKind’s National Parent Survey 2024
The National Parent Survey 2024 is Parentkind’s new research that puts the views and voices of UK parents front and centre. Over 5,000 parents took the time to share their experiences and the challenges they face every day as a parent. This year’s survey covers a broad range of topics affecting parents, including mental health, … Continue reading ParentKind’s National Parent Survey 2024
School-Based Nursery Capital Grant
The School-Based Nursery Capital Grant is a one-time grant available for eligible state-funded primary-phase schools. Schools can bid for up to £150,000 of funding to use solely for capital expenditure, to convert surplus space within a school building so that it is suitable for nursery provision. Schools must submit their application, including all supporting documents, … Continue reading School-Based Nursery Capital Grant
Protecting staff from sexual harassment: the governor’s role
The Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023 comes into force on 26 October 2024, under which employers must take ‘reasonable steps’ to prevent sexual harassment against staff. Sexual harassment is defined as 'unwanted conduct of a sexual nature'. This could include verbal or written harassment, as well as physical harassment, such as … Continue reading Protecting staff from sexual harassment: the governor’s role
The mature MAT model
The NGA has published a new report, The mature MAT model success, innovation and challenges in the trust system. This report follows two previous NGA studies, in 2019 and 2021, charting the trust system’s evolution with a particular focus on governance. Download the report here to explore the following themes: The mature academy trustThe resources … Continue reading The mature MAT model
Impact of school closures in Key Stage 1
The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) has published a report on the impact of school closures in Key Stage 1 on attainment and social skills of pupils in Year 4 and Year 5 in academic year 2023/2024, using a longitudinal observational study that followed a group of children who were at the very start of primary … Continue reading Impact of school closures in Key Stage 1
NGA: A guide to Ofsted inspection
NGA has updated it's guide to Ofsted inspection, and covers recent changes: the removal of single headline grades (schools will still receive grades for the four existing key judgement areas) – Ofsted is developing report cards to replace this in 2025 the removal of ‘deep dives’ from ungraded inspections a revised process for pausing and … Continue reading NGA: A guide to Ofsted inspection
Ofqual poll highlights value of cyber security training in schools
Ofqual is reminding schools and colleges of the importance of cyber security after a poll highlighted the risks associated with poor cyber hygiene. Findings include: 34% of schools and colleges in England experienced a cyber incident during the last academic year; the north-west was hit hardest, with 40% of schools which responded having had a … Continue reading Ofqual poll highlights value of cyber security training in schools
Working lives of teachers and leaders
The working lives of teachers and leaders is an annual DfE survey of teachers and leaders in state schools in England. The survey explores teachers and leaders’: workload, wellbeing and flexible working arrangements attitudes to pay experiences of professional development future career intentions This summary presents headline findings from wave 2 of the survey, carried … Continue reading Working lives of teachers and leaders
Non-specialist mental health support for young people in England
This new report published by the Education Policy Institute, commissioned by The Prudence Trust and in partnership with Youth Access, finds significant gaps in early mental health support for young people across England – and a rise in the number of young people reaching a crisis point. The report finds that: There is substantial variation … Continue reading Non-specialist mental health support for young people in England
OECD report: Education at a Glance 2024
Education at a Glance is the definitive guide to the state of education around the world. More than 100 charts and tables in the publication and country notes – as well as many more in the data explorer – describe the output of educational institutions; the impact of learning across countries; access, participation and progression … Continue reading OECD report: Education at a Glance 2024
Key stage 2 attainment
The Department for Education has published provisional attainment statistics for key stage 2 national curriculum assessments in England. This shows that the gap between disadvantaged pupils’ key stage 2 SATs results and all other pupils has fallen to 3.12, from 3.21 in 2023. However, it is still a wider gap than the 2.91 gap index … Continue reading Key stage 2 attainment
Experts urge the Government to prioritise mental health for better school attendance
Place2bE, NGA and a number of other agencies have co-signed an open letter to the Secretary of State for Education calling for the Government to tackle the attendance crisis by prioritising inclusion, enrichment, mental health, and special educational needs support. You can read the letter in full on the Place2Be website, here
DDSCP Multi-Agency Training Updates
The Derby and Derbyshire Safeguarding Policies and Procedures (DDSCP) group offers a range of training. See their latest flyer via this link.
Ofsted: the response to the Big Listen
Ofsted have concluded their "Big Listen" consultation, and on 3rd September they published their response - this covers children’s social care, special education needs and disabilities and alternative provision, early years, schools, further education and skills, teacher professional development and education. For schools, the changes they have announced are as follows: remove the overall effectiveness … Continue reading Ofsted: the response to the Big Listen
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