This week I highlight the second phase of the Shanghai Maths Teacher Exchange and a new scheme to boost middle management in challenging schools.

SECOND PHASE OF SHANGHAI MATHS TEACHER EXCHANGE BEGINS
Back in July last year I reported that the North Tyneside Learning Trust was confirmed as 1 of 32 schools and academy trusts leading new Maths hubs across England funded by the Department for Education, and co-ordinated by the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics.

In November 2 primary school teachers from Shanghai visited North Tyneside for a three week period teaching maths at Benton Dene Primary School. A second group of Shanghai’s top teachers arrive in England this week to share their world-class approach to maths teaching and help further raise standards in the subject.

English teachers are reporting that techniques introduced by their Shanghai colleagues – such as spending longer on topics before moving on and ‘teaching to the top’ through whole-class teaching – have already had a positive impact in their schools. The exchange has encouraged teachers to change the way they approach lesson planning to develop a deep understanding and fluency in mathematics.

A further phase of the exchange is set to take place in the autumn and spring terms of the 2015 – 2016 academic year focusing on secondary maths teaching.

 
NEW SCHEME TO BOOST MIDDLE MANAGEMENT IN CHALLENGING SCHOOLS
Schools Minister David Laws announced yesterday that 100 exceptional middle leaders will be placed in some of the most challenging schools across England in a move to raise standards and improve the quality of teaching and subject leadership.

The secondment programme will invite up to 100 ‘outstanding’ middle leaders – such as heads of department, subject or year group heads to apply to spend a year in underperforming schools, including those in deprived, coastal and rural areas. The 1 year scheme will enable schools which face some of the greatest challenges to benefit from the skills, expertise and knowledge of strong middle leadership to help raise attainment. It will also provide an important professional development opportunity for participants with a view to training the excellent school leaders of the future.

This week I highlight calls for centralised records for Governors and publication of a model form and letter by the Department for Education which schools can send to parents about Early Years Pupil Premium funding.

CALLS FOR CENTRALISED RECORDS FOR ALL GOVERNORS
Following on from the Trojan Horse investigations and the Public Accounts Committee’s report into school oversight, there have been calls for the Department for Education (DfE) to maintain centralised records of details for all state school governors.

David Simmonds, Chairman of the Local Government Association’s Children and Young People board, warned that without records beyond individual schools it was difficult to see patterns of whether individuals had become governors in a number of different places.

The DfE has pointed out that from September 2014 Academies have been required to publish the register of interest for their trustees and members of local governing boards on their websites and such registers must include details of trusteeships or governor positions held at other educational positions, regardless of whether these carry a pecuniary interest.

Currently, the advice from the DfE is that maintained schools publish a full list of the governors on their website. As reported in a previous Update the DfE has also consulted on whether it should be mandatory for LA maintained schools to do this and it is expected that this would become a requirement from September 2015.

DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION EARLY YEARS PUPIL PREMIUM FORM AND LETTER FOR PARENTS
The Department for Education (DfE) has published a model form and letter for schools to send to parents about the Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP). Schools with Early Years provision are responsible for identifying which of their pupils may be eligible for the EYPP and for passing that information on to their local authority. The model form aims to help schools identify which pupils are eligible for the EYPP, and the DfE recommends that schools ask all parents and guardians, regardless of family income or circumstances, to complete the form when they enrol their child. Schools can use the template letter to explain to parents what the EYPP is when you ask them to fill in the form. The completed form should then be shared with the local authority so they can run the necessary checks and make sure schools receive the EYPP funding they are entitled to.

This week Ofsted has confirmed changes to the inspection of schools that I first told you about back in October last year, I highlight new Government plans to reduce unnecessary workloads for teachers and the DfE’s withdrawal of Statutory guidance on excluding pupils.

CONFIRMATION OF CHANGES TO THE INSPECTION OF SCHOOLS FROM SEPTEMBER 2015
Ofsted has just published the results of its ‘Better Inspections for All’ consultation, and announced a number of changes to the inspection of schools which will come into force in September 2015:

• A new Common Inspection Framework for all early years settings, maintained schools and academies, non-associations independent schools and further education and skills providers (a new inspection handbook will be published in the summer term 2015). Ofsted’s aim is to bring about greater consistency across inspections.
• Schools and academies that were judged ‘good’ at their last full inspection will receive a short inspection approximately every three years (instead of the current full inspection every three to five years).
• All non-association independent schools will receive an inspection under the new Common Inspection Framework within three years.

Ofsted carried out over 40 short inspection pilots in the autumn term last year and pilots are continuing this term. Explaining how these inspections will differ from full inspections, the report emphasises a focus on ensuring that standards have been maintained and providing an opportunity for professional dialogue on the schools’ strengths and weaknesses. Short inspections will not provide a full set of inspection judgements. These short inspections will also apply to special schools, pupil referral units and maintained nurseries which are judged good and outstanding – these settings are not exempt from inspections even if outstanding.

Ofsted has confirmed that the new inspection framework will have more focus on the breadth and suitability of the curriculum. Curriculum will be reported under leadership and management.

GOVERNMENT PLANS ANNOUNCED TO TACKLE UNNECCESARY TEACHER WORKLOAD
A series of measures designed to help tackle the root causes of unnecessary teacher workload were announced today by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Education Secretary Nicky Morgan.

Thousands of teachers shared their experiences, ideas and solutions by taking part in the Department for Education’s consultation – the Workload Challenge survey. The survey generated more than 44,000 returns with the same themes raised by the profession as the key drivers of unnecessary and unproductive workload e.g. Ofsted and the pressure it placed on school leaders, the impact of policies from government, as well as hours spent recording data, marking and lesson-planning.

A number of commitments have been announced including:

• commitments by Ofsted to not change their handbook or framework during the school year, except when absolutely necessary.  To keep updating their new myths and facts document stating what inspectors do and do not expect to see.  From 2016 onwards look to make the handbook shorter and simpler, so that schools can more easily understand how inspectors will reach their judgements.
• giving schools more notice of significant changes to the curriculum, exams and accountability, and not making changes to qualifications in the academic year or during a course, unless there are urgent reasons for doing so.
• making it easier for teachers to find examples of what works in other schools, and research about the best way to do things like marking, data management and planning by bringing together a central repository of evidence.
• support for Headteachers to carry out their demanding jobs by reviewing all leadership training, including reviewing the opportunities available for coaching and mentoring for leaders.
• tracking teacher workload over the coming years by carrying out a large scale, robust survey in early spring 2016, and every 2 years from then on.

REMOVAL OF STATUTORY GUIDANCE ON THE EXCLUSION OF PUPILS FROM LA MAINTAINED SCHOOLS, ACADEMIES AND PUPIL REFERRAL UNITS
The School Reform Minister Nick Gibb has removed the current Statutory guidance on exclusions, which was only issued in January, to address some issues with process. Until the new guidance is issued schools should refer to the 2012 guidance.

Although the Department for Education has not specified the reasons for taking down the guidance it is believed to stem from a legal challenge about the wording of the January 2015 guidance in relation to the ‘test’ for whether an exclusion was justified.

This week we highlight sections (focusing on British values) from two recent Ofsted inspections carried out in the region, a DfE consultation on introducing new regulations to make school governance in maintained schools more transparent and the announcement of the 2015 Pupil Premium Summer School programme.

OFSTED JUDGEMENTS ON THE TEACHING OF BRITISH VALUES
Many Governors will recall that back in November I reported on the release of Department for Education guidance on promoting British values in schools.  As many of you will be aware from the national and regional press two schools in the region, Grindon Hall Christian School and The Durham Free School, were recently inspected by Ofsted and were judged to be inadequate. Whilst Friday Update doesn’t  usually focus on news articles, I thought Governors might be interested in the sections in the respective Ofsted reports on British values and how these schools were judged to be inadequately preparing their pupils for life in modern Britain.

GREATER TRANSPARENCY PROPOSED FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS GOVERNING BODIES
The Department for Education (DfE) is currently consulting on introducing new regulations to make school governance more transparent. They are proposing that the Governors’ Register of Interests and a list of Governors’ names must appear on the school website for maintained schools. The consultation also proposes that Governing bodies should be able to set different terms of office for individual Governors, and that it should be permissible for staffing functions to be delegated to subgroups that include an associate Governor or Governors.

The consultation is not public and has only been given to the bodies that sit on the DfE’s Advisory Group on Governance (which includes the National Governors’ Association and National Co-ordinators of Governor Services).  It closes on 19 February and any changes are expected to become effective this September.

INTRODUCTION OF THE 2015 DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION PUPIL PREMIUM SUMMER SCHOOL PROGRAMME
The Department for Education (DfE) has announced details of the funding for its pupil premium summer schools programme for 2015. The funding is available for Secondary schools to run summer schools for pupil premium eligible pupils joining their year 7 in September 2015. Schools will receive £250 (if running a one-week summer school) or £500 (if running a two-week summer school) for every eligible pupil who confirms they wish to attend the summer school.  Schools can invite eligible pupils from other year groups, but the funding is limited to pupils joining year 7 and summer schools are expected to retain a strong focus on preparing eligible new pupils for the transition to secondary education.  The deadline for funding applications is 29 May 2015.

This week we highlight the updated 20 Key Questions for Governing bodies which can be used when reviewing governance practice, the latest version of the Department for Education’s Myths and Facts document about school activities, new professional standards for Headteachers and the outcomes from an independent review into initial teacher training.

UPDATED 20 KEY QUESTIONS FOR GOVERNING BODIES
The second edition of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Governance and Leadership’s Twenty key questions for the Governing board to ask itself has just been published.

Three years ago the first edition of the document was developed by the National Governors’ Association (NGA) and the Key for School Governors to encourage more Governing bodies to challenge themselves. Since then they have been used extensively by many Governing bodies when reviewing their governance practice and they have been reviewed and updated in the light of that experience.

The questions have also been incorporated into the new Framework for School Governance as highlighted in last week’s Update.

UPDATED DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION MYTHS AND FACTS
This updated document addresses some common misconceptions about the activities schools are required to undertake. It seeks to tackle both recurring myths and new myths on changes happening during the 2014 to 2015 academic year.

NEW PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS FOR HEADTEACHERS
This week Education Secretary Nicky Morgan unveiled new professional standards for Headteachers  in England. A review of the existing 2004 standards was conducted last year with the aim of defining leadership standards that are applicable to all Headteacher roles in the current educational landscape.

The new ‘standards of excellence’ set out the skills, knowledge and behaviour Headteachers should aspire to, including:

• raising the bar for all pupils, overcoming disadvantage and instilling a strong sense of accountability in staff for the impact of their work on pupils’ success;
• boosting teacher quality through high-level training and sustained professional development;
• identifying talent and coaching current and aspiring leaders of the future.

INDEPENDENT REVIEW OF INITIAL TEACHER TRAINING PUBLISHED
An independent review of the quality and effectiveness of initial teacher training (ITT) courses, chaired by Sir Andrew Carter, was launched by the DfE on 1 May 2014. Sir Andrew’s report, published this week, highlights that the system in England is performing well but that more needs to be done to ensure all trainees receive some core grounding in the basics of classroom management and subject knowledge.

In response the government has confirmed that it will:

• commission an independent working group made of expert representatives from the sector to develop a core ITT framework;
• • commission the Teaching Schools Council to develop a set of national standards for mentors;
• develop the Get Into Teaching website and provide information about  ITT on GOV.UK so that applicants of ITT and schools can find clearer information about provision.

This week we highlight publication of the updated version of the Governors’ Handbook, the opening of the window for applying for a new DfE Character Award and confirmation that Level 1 and 2 Certificates (IGCSEs) will no longer be included in School Performance tables.

UPDATED GOVERNORS’ HANDBOOK
The Department for Education and the National College for Teaching and Leadership has today issued an updated version of the Governors’ Handbook. Full details of the changes are outlined in Annex A and include information on:

• A more detailed explanation of what it means for Governors to play a strategic role (Pages 9-10, Section 1, Point 1.3);
• Clearer expectations around Governors’ school visits (Page 16, Section 1, Point 1.4.4);
• Updated Ofsted Inspection Criteria to judge the effectiveness of school governance (Pages 19-20, Section 1, Point 1.7.1);
• An updated section on the National Curriculum (Page 50, Section 3, Point 3.1).

DFE CHARACTER AWARDS
As reported in the 19 December 2014 Update, the Department for Education has launched its new Character Awards. A recent DfE press release has confirmed schools can submit an online application from now until Friday 30 January 2015 and the winners will be announced at the end of February/beginning of March.

To enter you should be able to prove your programme develops character traits, attributes and behaviours that underpin success in school and work, including:

• perseverance, resilience and grit
• confidence and optimism
• motivation, drive and ambition
• neighbourliness and community spirit
• tolerance and respect
•  honesty, integrity and dignity
• conscientiousness, curiosity and focus

All primary and secondary schools, including academies and special schools can apply as well as pupil referral units. Schools and/or organisations can apply in partnership but applicants must state a lead applicant who will be awarded the full prize.

There will be up to 3 winners selected from all applicants within each region (North East, North West, Yorkshire and the Humber, West Midlands, East Midlands, East of England, London, South East, South West) and awarded £15,000. From amongst the regional winners, 1 national prize winner will be chosen and awarded an additional prize of £20,000.

LEVEL 1 AND 2 CERTIFICATES (IGCSEs) WILL NO LONGER BE INCLUDED IN PERFORMANCE TABLES
The Minister of State for School Reform, Nick Gibb, has today confirmed that academic level 1/2 certificates (sometimes known as IGCSEs) will no longer be included in school performance tables. Having been counted in performance tables from June 2010, the Department for Education announced in July last year that with the introduction of reformed GCSEs in Maths and English in 2015 the certificates in these subjects would not be included in the 2017 performance tables.

The Department for Education having worked closely with exam boards and Ofqual to see if these alternative qualifications could also be reformed to ensure they are as rigorous as the new GCSEs has today confirmed this hasn’t been possible. Accordingly they will only be included in performance tables until the reformed GCSE in each subject is first examined and counted.

To kick off this year’s Updates we highlight the Framework for Governance which has just been launched, revised guidance on the new School Food Standards and the outcome of the consultation on the 2014 School and Early Years Finance Regulations.  

NEW FRAMEWORK FOR GOVERNANCE LAUNCHED
Yesterday the National Governors’ Association and the Wellcome Trust launched the Framework for Governance which sets out how Governing boards can evaluate their own practice, using the updated All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) Twenty Key Questions for a Governing board, to ask itself how to set the strategic direction for a school; and how to monitor progress against the strategy using high-level performance indicators that go much further than just exam results.

Some Governing bodies might want to look at this new Framework in terms of self evaluation.

GUIDANCE ON NEW SCHOOL FOOD STANDARDS
As reported in the last Friday Update of 2014 the new School Food Standards became mandatory from 5 January. The Department for Education has now updated its guidance on the requirements to provide food to registered pupils together with information on the School Food Plan, the provision of milk and the free fruit and vegetables scheme. Pages 6 and 7 are of particular interest as they explain Governing bodies responsibilities.

OUTCOME OF CONSULTATION ON THE SCHOOL AND EARLY YEARS FINANCE (ENGLAND) REGULATIONS 2014
The Department for Education consulted on the School and Early Years Finance (England) Regulations 2014 from 8 August to 17 October 2014. To a large degree, the 2014 Regulations re-enact provisions in the School and Early Years Finance (England) Regulations 2013 but the Department for Education consulted on some changes. These were in relation to:

• schools forum composition;
• preventing the use of the dedicated schools grant for 19 to 25 year olds in special schools and special academies;
• the value of alternative provision places;
• the early years pupil premium;
• the determination of budgets for new maintained schools and those recently opened who are still adding year groups;
• excluded early years providers.

The consultation response document has now been published which provides full details on the Government’s response.

Merry Christmas to all Governors and a Happy New Year

This final update in 2014 highlights Statutory Guidance on the new School Admissions Code which came into force today, the new school food standards that become mandatory from January 2015, the announcement of new measures to help schools instill character in pupils and findings from a research study carried out by the Literacy Trust suggesting boys are held back by their reluctance to write outside of school.

SCHOOL ADMISSIONS CODE STATUTORY GUIDANCE
As reported in previous Updates the new Code comes into force today and, unless otherwise stated, applies with immediate effect. It will apply to admission arrangements determined in 2015 for admission in school year 2016/17 and any future years.

Schools must follow this Statutory Guidance  when carrying out duties relating to school admissions.  All admission authorities must determine (i.e. formally agree) admission arrangements every year, even if they have not changed from previous years and a consultation has not been required.

Admission authorities must determine admission arrangements for entry in September 2016 by 15 April 2015 and for all subsequent years, by 28 February in the determination year.

MANDATORY NEW SCHOOL FOOD STANDARDS FROM JANUARY 2015
Back in June we reported on the launch of new food standards which become mandatory from January 2015 in all maintained schools, and academies that opened before 2010 or after June 2014. Academies set up between these dates should use the national school food standards as a guide.

The Department for Education (DfE) has produced guidance for governing bodies on the new school standards. This states:

“The Governing body should ensure that it receives regular reports on compliance with the school food standards as well as take-up of school lunches and financial aspects of school food provision”.

Perhaps this could form part of the Spring term Headteacher’s Report or be provided as a separate report to the Governing body.

MEASURES ANNOUNCED TO HELP SCHOOLS INSTILL CHARACTER IN PUPILS
Education Secretary Nicky Morgan has announced a package of measures to help schools instill character in pupils. Eight projects will be given almost £5 million over the next 2 years to support the development of character in schools using the values and expertise of the armed services to help young people do better at school and develop their character, including values such as self-confidence, respect and leadership.

Schools that develop and build character, resilience and grit in their pupils will also be recognised for the first time through the new character awards – so that more schools focus on developing well rounded pupils prepared for life in modern Britain.

Applicants will be judged on their approaches and practices to develop character by a panel of education experts, with awards including:

• £15,000 each for up to 27 schools in all 9 regions of the country, to be announced in February;
• A further national prize of £20,000 to 1 winner, to be announced at an awards ceremony in March.

RESEARCH STUDY SUGGESTS BOYS ARE HELD BACK BY THEIR RELUCTANCE TO WRITE OUTSIDE OF SCHOOL
Research reported by the BBC suggests that boys’ reluctance to write outside school could be holding them back. The research, carried out by the National Literacy Trust, found a third of boys never or rarely write for fun outside class, compared with 18% of girls. It also found that a significant number of boys appeared to think that writing is not “cool”.

The Trust cites evidence that those who write for fun outside school are four times more likely to be writing above the expected level at the end of primary school than those who do not.

In a busy week for the Education sector we highlight the publication of Ofsted’s Annual Report for 2014, the 2014 Primary school league tables, revised statutory Guidance on Exclusions that comes into force from January 2015, the creation of a new careers body for 12-18 year olds and consultation on a new independent college of teaching.

OFSTED ANNUAL REPORT FOR 2014
Yesterday saw the launch of Ofsted’s Annual Report for 2014 and the Chief Inspector of Schools, Sir Michael Wilshaw highlighted the stalling of improvement in secondary schools as the main finding of the report. Whilst the proportion of primary schools rated good or outstanding continued to grow over the last year (up to 82%), the proportion of good or outstanding secondary schools stagnated nationally at 71%.

The stand out concern for the North East continues to be the achievement of students from disadvantaged backgrounds. The report shows that gaps emerge in the Early Years and continue through to Key Stage 1. By the end of Key Stage 2, the success of North East primary schools mean that pupils eligible for free school meals exceed the national average for this group, but there is still a wide gap between outcomes for these pupils and non Free School Meal pupils. At Key Stage 4 there is a 30% gap between the proportion of Free School Meal eligible students gaining 5 GCSEs (A-C including English and Maths) and their more advantaged peers.

PRIMARY SCHOOL PERFORMANCE TABLES 2014
The performance tables show the achievements of pupils in each state funded primary school in England last academic year.

REVISED STATUTORY GUIDANCE ON EXCLUSIONS FROM JANUARY 2015
The revised guidance contains a small number of updates and clarifies:

• the power to exclude
• independent review panel processes
• Governing body reconsideration

It governs the exclusion of pupils from local authority maintained schools, academies and free schools and pupil referral units and will apply to exclusions from 5 January 2015.

NEW CAREERS BODY
Education Secretary Nicky Morgan has announced the creation of a new careers and enterprise company for schools aiming to ‘transform the provision of careers education and advice for young people and inspire them about the opportunities offered by the world of work’.

The new company will be employer led and independent of Government and will focus on young people aged 12 to 18 to help them ‘access the best advice and inspiration about the world of work by encouraging greater collaboration between schools, colleges and employers’. To be launched in Spring 2015, the Government is investing £20 million of start up funding, £5 million of this which will constitute an investment fund to support innovation and stimulate good practice across the country.

PROPOSED INDEPENDENT COLLEGE OF TEACHING AND IMPROVED PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Plans to support the set up of a new, independent, professional body to represent and champion high standards in the teaching profession were announced on Tuesday 9 December by Education Secretary Nicky Morgan and Schools Minister David Laws.

The package of measures published for consultation aims to put the teaching profession in England on a par with the best in the world by:

• supporting the creation of a new, independent, professional body for teaching – a college of teaching -that will give the profession greater responsibility over things like professional standards and development, placing teaching on an equal footing with high-status professions like law and medicine;
• establishing a new fund to support more high quality, evidence-based professional development programmes – designed and delivered by a network of more than 600 leading teaching schools, working in partnership with others to spread the findings of their work across the teaching profession.

This week we highlight potential Department for Education consultations which would make changes to regulations affecting Governors and new rules barring certain people from working with the under 8s

POTENTIAL CONSULTATIONS ON CHANGES TO REGULATIONS                                                        The Department for Education is considering launching consultations on several changes to regulations as follows:

•  to require all governors to have Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks;
•  to allow Governing bodies to set individual terms of office for governors;
•  to remove the veto enjoyed by Foundation governors of voluntary controlled schools on amending the Instrument of Government;
• to require maintained schools to publish their Governors’ Register of Interests on their websites.

If these go through they would come into effect on 1 June 2015, apart from the requirement on DBS checks, which would be deferred to 1 September.

NEW RULES BARRING CERTAIN PEOPLE FROM WORKING WITH CHILDREN UNDER 8 YEARS OF AGE  
In October the Department for Education published Keeping Children Safe in Education: Childcare disqualification requirements –supplementary advice.  This reiterated previous stipulations that people who had been convicted of, or cautioned for, various offences relating to children were barred from providing or managing any form of childcare for children under the age of eight.  However, this provision also extends to anyone “living in the same household where another person who is disqualified lives or works”.  This “disqualification by association” means that anyone whose partner or relative living with them that has been convicted or cautioned would be barred.

Schools will have been conducting the requisite checks on staff as part of their statutory safeguarding procedures, but might now want to check with existing staff and new staff whether the “by association” rule applies to them.  The DfE’s advice is for schools to ask staff to “complete and sign a declaration which would help identify those caught by the ‘by association’ requirement”.

This guidance only refers to staff and does not state that the restriction applies to Governors.