A new report from the Education Policy Institute brings together findings from their interactive benchmarking tool, which compares the performance of individual academy trusts, local authorities, federations and dioceses across four key performance indicators, along with results from their Decisions in Education in England (DEEP) survey of senior leaders working in school groups. Key findings … Continue reading The Features of Effective School Groups
Author: Bruce Levitan
School funding model: Effect of falling school rolls
This sobering new report from the Education Policy Institute finds that: Total pupil numbers in state-funded primary and secondary schools are projected to fall from a peak of 7.57 million in 2022-23, and then decrease at an average rate of 1.0 per cent each year until they reach 7.14 million in 2028-29. This means that … Continue reading School funding model: Effect of falling school rolls
Safeguarding Children in Schools and Colleges
The Department for Education (DfE) have launched a 12-week call for evidence (from 28 March), to take the views of schools, colleges, and other professionals on safeguarding practice development and direction, in advance of Keeping children safe in education 2025 (KCSIE). Your reflections, experience, and suggestions in this call for evidence will help to inform … Continue reading Safeguarding Children in Schools and Colleges
Using AI to analyse 30,000 school policies
The Key's Robin AI tool has “read” just shy of 30,000 policy documents from over 1,000 schools. This blog looks at the data generated to see if anything interesting could be revealed. A huge caveat is that this is not science: no effort was made to ensure the 1,035 schools were representative. In fact, they’re … Continue reading Using AI to analyse 30,000 school policies
Leadership Strategies in School Trusts
Edurio's new resource, "Leadership Strategies in School Trusts", explores what it takes to be a high-achieving leader in a Multi-Academy Trust (MAT). Exploring leadership practices across trusts, they draw insights from those achieving top leadership scores which are above national benchmarks in their data. The report is available on their website, here.
Schools’ Air Quality Monitoring for Health and Education (SAMHE)
The Schools' Air Quality Monitoring for Health and Education (SAMHE) is a project offering schools a free air quality monitor and learning resources. The monitor will provide evidence for national policies and practice to make schools healthier for pupils. Schools can: Get a free monitor View data on air quality in the classroom using a … Continue reading Schools’ Air Quality Monitoring for Health and Education (SAMHE)
Schools offered free cyber defence tools to help keep out attackers
UK education settings can sign up for the NCSC's Web Check and Mail Check services to protect their websites and email servers from cyber attacks. SCHOOLS can now benefit from free cyber defence tools from the nation’s leading experts to help them protect their emails and websites from online attackers. Find out more here,
Free support from Energy Sparks to help Derbyshire schools save energy and fight climate change
Energy Sparks is a registered charity providing an online energy analysis tool and energy education programme specifically designed to help schools reduce their electricity and gas usage through the analysis of smart meter data. Using a school’s electricity, gas and solar data, Energy Sparks shows pupils, staff and volunteers how much energy the school is … Continue reading Free support from Energy Sparks to help Derbyshire schools save energy and fight climate change
Have your say on the future of Derbyshire Services for Schools
As part of budget setting measures outlined by Derbyshire County Council in February, the function of the Derbyshire Services for Schools (S4S) team (also known as the Traded Services team) has been identified as a potential area for savings. To better understand how changes could impact your school or academy, they have developed a brief … Continue reading Have your say on the future of Derbyshire Services for Schools
Government ends Inspiring Governance contract
The DfE have agreed to continue funding the Inspiring Governance service to support schools and academies for a further six months, but DfE funding of the Inspiring Governance school governor recruitment service will come to an end on September 30th, 2024. DfE funding for the service was reduced by 45% from April 2021, and over … Continue reading Government ends Inspiring Governance contract
List of administrative tasks that teachers should not be expected to undertake
In the latest update of the government's School teachers' pay and conditions report (19 March 2024), a new section has been included that lists tasks that teachers should not be expected to undertake (an earlier version had existed back in 2013). This is one of the actions resulting from the initial recommendations from the government’s … Continue reading List of administrative tasks that teachers should not be expected to undertake
An evidence-based plan for addressing poverty with and through schools
Child of the North/Centre for Young Lives have published a report that sets out an evidence-based plan to use the country’s education infrastructure to reduce the impact of child poverty on millions of children. The report calls for the poverty battle to be taken ‘inside the school gates’, including a plan for Free School Meals … Continue reading An evidence-based plan for addressing poverty with and through schools
Working with Parents to support Children’s Learning
Guidance from the Education Endowment Foundation offers primary and secondary schools four practical and evidence based recommendations on working with parents so that they can support their child’s learning at home: Critically review how you work with parents Provide practical strategies to support learning at home Tailor school communications to encourage positive dialogue about learning … Continue reading Working with Parents to support Children’s Learning
Measuring the outcomes of disadvantaged pupils using Star Assessments 2022/23
This new report produced by the Education Policy Institute (EPI) and Renaissance includes analysis based on outcomes for pupils in years 3 to 9, drawn from over six million assessments in Renaissance’s Star Reading and Star Maths from 2017/18 to 2022/23. Building on previous analysis from EPI and Renaissance showing outcomes before, during, and after the Covid-19 … Continue reading Measuring the outcomes of disadvantaged pupils using Star Assessments 2022/23
Outcomes for young people who experience multiple suspensions
In this report, The Education Policy Institute examines the relationship between the number of suspensions, or temporary removals from school, in secondary school and outcomes for pupils in England. Key findings are: Pupils with even one suspension are, on average, not achieving a standard pass in GCSE English and maths Pupils with multiple suspensions have … Continue reading Outcomes for young people who experience multiple suspensions
