In December 2023 the Education Policy Institute published a report summarising the current status and some future trends for education in England. They identified eleven facts, as follows: Fact 1: England performs well against international comparators. Fact 2: Around 40 per cent of the disadvantage gap at age 16 is already evident by age 5 … Continue reading Education: the fundamentals – Eleven facts about the education system in England
Category: General
The RE Podcast
For those who are interested in RE, Louisa Jane Smith, an RE teacher with over 20 years' teaching expereince and a degree in theology, has an RE Podcast which she notes is "The first dedicated religious education podcast for students and teachers" offering "Bite-size weekly episodes on religion, ethics and philosophy." You can visit her … Continue reading The RE Podcast
Take Action on Climate Change
Do your pupils want to take action on climate change? Eco-Schools can help! Millions of pupils at thousands of schools around the UK are already taking action on climate change thanks to Eco-Schools' simple seven-step programme. The infographic below comes from Eco-Schools' 2022-23 Impact Report. You can sign up for their programme and read more … Continue reading Take Action on Climate Change
Performance Tracker 2023: Schools
The Institute for Government's 2023 Performance Tracker outlines some of the key trends in mainstream education last year, and points to some issues for the future. Some of the key points are: Pupil numbers have peaked since the end of the last "baby boom" in 2013, so in genetral schools will see falling rolls in … Continue reading Performance Tracker 2023: Schools
ParentKind Survey report 2023
Folling from the November Parental Engagement Report 2023 (reported on this site) the National Parent Survey, conducted by YouGov on behalf of Parentkind has just been published. You can download the report using the link below, and some of the main findings include: Over 2.8 million children live in households where their parents are struggling … Continue reading ParentKind Survey report 2023
Mental Health of Children and Young People in England
This report, conducted in 2023, from the NHS presents findings from the fourth (wave 4) in a series of follow up reports to the 2017 Mental Health of Children and Young People (MHCYP) survey. 2,370 children and young people who took part in the MHCYP 2017 survey took part in the wave 4 follow up. … Continue reading Mental Health of Children and Young People in England
England School Meals Report
This year’s England School Meals Report, created in collaboration with BlueRunner, ParentPay and LACA, is now available and has the following main conclusions: School meal uptake is high across England, with 84% of pupils having a school meal at least once a week and 59% having school meals every day. The top three factors that … Continue reading England School Meals Report
Improvement through empowerment
The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) has published a new report "Improvement through empowerment: Helping our teachers and schools be the best they can be". On their website they state: We need to shift the drivers of better schooling from high stakes top-down accountability to a system which empowers schools and teachers to innovate and … Continue reading Improvement through empowerment
Is “traditional” schooling best?
An article in Schools Week (Has Nick Gibb won the education battle?, 10 Novemeber 2023) discusses the long debated issue of whether "traditional" style schooling is best. It highlights some recent data that seems to support this, with exemplar "traditional" schools like Michaela Community School in west London and Mercia School in Sheffield scoring very … Continue reading Is “traditional” schooling best?
Briefing on school attendance in England
The Children’s Commissioner talked to hundreds of children who are regularly absent from school. Children aren’t absent from school because they don’t want to learn. They are desperate to learn yet everyday thousands of children find themselves without the support that they need to engage in education. Last year, over 1 in 5 children were … Continue reading Briefing on school attendance in England
Parental Engagement Report 2023
The new Edurio Parental Engagement Report has just been published. It looks into the feedback from 38,000 parents and carers from 266 schools across 30 trusts in the 2022/2023 school year. Additionally, by reviewing the feedback of 86,000 parents from the past 4 years, the report uncovers how they really feel about efforts to engage … Continue reading Parental Engagement Report 2023
Online Safety Act 2023
The Bill to make provision for and in connection with the regulation by OFCOM of certain internet services; for and in connection with communications offences; and for connected purposes has become law (as of 26 October 2023). The government feels that UK children and adults to be safer online as a result of this Act. … Continue reading Online Safety Act 2023
A review of current practice focusing on the strategies used to manage teacher workload in English schools
The Education Endowment Foundation has published a practice review on supporting the recruitment and retention of teachers in schools with high proportions of disadvantaged pupils: understanding current practice around managing teacher workload. The report is by Principal investigator Kerry Martin and Co-investigators: Caroline Sharp, Rachel Classick and Henry Faulkner-Ellis. You can download it from their … Continue reading A review of current practice focusing on the strategies used to manage teacher workload in English schools
Is new government funding enough for schools?
New analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) shows that although there is substantial extra funding for schools budgeted for the next few years, it is not enough to close the gap in the true costs experienced by schools. Luke Sibieta, Research Fellow at the IFS, published an article showing that Schools funding in … Continue reading Is new government funding enough for schools?
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