This week I report that schools can now add their governance professional’s details onto GIAS, the DfE has awarded £1m to edtech companies to create AI technologies that will assist in marking and generating feedback to students, the publication of new guidance on the DfE’s free breakfast club programme for early adopters and a call for evidence that has been launched on the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill.

Update your records: add your governance professional details on GIAS
Schools and trusts can now add their governance professional details to the Get Information About Schools (GIAS) platform. This is not a mandatory requirement, but the DfE is strongly encouraging institutions to add their governance professional’s details. This will allow the DfE to communicate directly with governance professionals and share key information, rather than relying on schools or chairs to pass news along.

DfE awards £1 million to edtech companies to reduce teacher workload
The DfE has awarded £1 million to edtech companies to create artificial intelligence (AI) technologies that will assist in marking and generating tailored feedback for students. This aims to reduce the administrative burden of teaching and according to developers, the tools could reduce the time teachers spend on formative assessment by as much as 50% allowing more time for delivering lessons.

The new tools, expected to be produced by April 2025, will draw on a first-of-its-kind AI store of data to ensure accuracy. This in turn can increase feedback accuracy from 62% to 92%, meaning teachers can be assured the tools are safe and reliable for classroom use.

DfE publishes new information on the free breakfast club programme
The DfE has published new guidance related to its free breakfast club programme, which is planned for eventual rollout in all state funded primary schools in England. As reported last term, the programme will be implemented in 750 early adopter schools in April 2025. The new ‘Breakfast clubs early adopter guidance for schools and trusts in England’ explains the role of schools taking part in the early adopter scheme.

Call for evidence launched on Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
As part of the committee stage of scrutiny, the Government has launched a call for evidence on the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill currently going through Parliament. The Bill covers several safeguarding-related issues, such as children missing education. Submissions should be emailed to scrutiny@parliament.uk before the Public Bill Committee reports back to Parliament on 11 February, though evidence may be looked at as early as 21 January.