This week I highlight the Shadow Education Secretary’s conference speech announcing plans to reform primary maths, Ofsted’s update to the School inspection handbook and publication of the EYFS profile handbook, as well as the DfE’s announcement of a hackathon to explore the potential benefits of using Artificial Intelligence in education to reduce staff workload.

Shadow Education Secretary’s Conference speech headlines
On Wednesday at the Labour Party Conference, Bridget Phillipson, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary announced plans to reform primary maths if Labour wins the next election. She said that a Labour government would “upskill” non-maths specialists in primary schools in a bid to create the “maths equivalent to phonics”.

The party’s already-announced curriculum review would also be tasked with “bringing maths to life and directing teachers to show children how numeracy is used in the world around them, such as through household budgeting, currency exchange rates when going on holiday, sports league tables and cookery recipes”.

Ofsted updates the School inspection handbook and publishes the EYFS Handbook
The inspectorate has updated the handbook with more information on what safeguarding evidence schools will need to provide to inspectors, as well as details surrounding adults living on the school site and clarification that inspectors will look at attendance during ungraded inspections.

Ofsted has also published the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) profile handbook for use until the end of the 2023/2024 academic year. The handbook is intended to support early years practitioners in completing the EYFS profile assessment in line with the statutory requirements of the EYFS framework.

DfE announces a hackathon in education to explore AI
In a bid to unlock the benefits of Artificial Intelligence, the DfE in collaboration with Faculty AI, the National Institute of Teaching, and the AI in Schools Initiative, is set to host an AI hackathon in London on 30-31 October, which will bring together teachers and leaders from schools and trusts across England.

Participants will be asked to experiment with AI to test its potential in several scenarios, for example whether it could write a lesson plan or accurately mark exam papers. Secondary school pupils will also be invited to share their experiences and knowledge. The best of the solutions will be shared with the department’s workload reduction taskforce and a demo of the tools created will be made available for schools across the country to test and to use, supporting the government’s ambition to reduce working hours for teachers and leaders by five hours per week.