This week I report on the launch of the DfE’s call for evidence on improving the curriculum and assessment system, the announcement of an early adopter scheme for free primary school breakfast clubs and updated information on sustainability leadership and climate action plans for schools.

DfE launches call for evidence on improving the curriculum and assessment system
As part of its ongoing review of the national curriculum, the DfE has launched a call for evidence on improving the curriculum and assessment system, seeking feedback on what works in the current system, what doesn’t work or isn’t helpful, and suggestions for potential improvements. The call for evidence itself covers matters including general views on the curriculum, assessment and qualification pathways, social justice and inclusion, assessment and accountability and closes on 22 November.

Breakfast club early adopters scheme
The DfE has announced that it will be running an early adopter scheme during the summer term for free primary school breakfast clubs, ahead of this being rolled out to all primary schools nationally. The programme will invite up to 750 state-funded schools in England with primary aged pupils to take part, focusing on how breakfast clubs can be delivered in a way that builds on what is already happening in schools, meets the needs of parents, and ensures children start the day ready to learn. The delivery model will be revealed in late autumn.

DfE Sustainability leadership guidance updated
The DfE has updated its page on sustainability leadership and climate action plans to provide further information on the support that is available to nurseries and schools. The non statutory guidance is there to help schools get started on their sustainability journey, or take the next step, as the DfE expects all schools to have a nominated sustainability lead and a climate action plan in place by 2025.

This week I report on the updated Ofsted inspection handbooks which now align to the updated inspection process and the publication of information from the DfE and Ofqual on this year’s National Reference Test.

Ofsted updates inspection handbooks
Ofsted has updated its ‘School inspection handbook’ and ‘School monitoring handbook’ to align with its updated inspection process. It clarifies some of the outstanding questions about the interim period before it introduces report cards. Among the clarifications is a clearer definition of what would lead to a school being put in a category of concern and the rules around displaying judgement logos on websites or banners on school sites. The changes to the handbooks come into effect immediately, with routine inspections resuming on 23 September.

New information on this year’s National Reference Test
The DfE and Ofqual have released new information on this year’s National Reference Test, which will take place between late February and early March 2025. The Government selects a sample of secondary/high schools, which then must submit pupils for tests in maths and England language. The results are considered by Ofqual and the exam boards as evidence of performance standards in these subjects over time. It is mandatory for the selected schools to have pupils take part.

This week I highlight a free webinar looking at governance hot topics this term, the announcement of the closure of the ESFA and a new DfE technology service for schools.

Free Governors for Schools webinar
On Thursday 26 September from 8-9am Governors for Schools, in conjunction with Better Governor, is offering a free webinar on Governance hot topics for this term.

It aims to get governors up-to-speed on the new government’s education priorities, school teachers’ pay award, new attendance regulations, the recently announced Curriculum and Assessment Review, and the changes announced by Ofsted relating to inspections in schools. Clearly any new announcements in education between now and then might necessitate some changes to the topics.

You can use this link to register for the webinar on the Governors for Schools website.

Closure of the ESFA
The Education and Skills Funding Agency is set to be closed next March as part of the latest changes to the academies system being rolled out by the new Labour government. It’s been announced that the move will happen in two stages. The ESFA’s Schools Financial Support and Oversight (SFSO) teams will transfer to the Regions Group from 1 October, in time to support the launch of Regional Improvement Teams by January 2025 and the funding and assurance functions will be fully centralised by the end of March.

DfE releases new technology service
The DfE has released a new service on how to ‘Plan technology for your school’, which aims to show schools how they can plan and use digital technology to improve pupils’ outcomes, save money and reduce workload. Using the service requires schools to answer questions about their technology and leadership, which then generates recommendations to support the school.

In my first update of the new academic year I provide information on governor training opportunities, updated/new statutory and non-statutory guidance from the DfE and changes to Ofsted inspection.

Governor training
Governors for Schools are offering a free webinar on the range of recruitment services that they offer to help Governing bodies to recruit new governors. The webinar is taking place on Wednesday 18 September at 12.30pm and you can register via their website using this link.

North Tyneside’s Governor Services Team have published their training offer for this term and the North Tyneside Learning Trust has just finalised its training offer for Trust schools for this academic year. I will share full information at our first Governing body meeting this term.

The DfE is offering online training for governors to help them to understand their responsibilities and the importance of the Prevent duty. The sessions are taking place on the following dates:

• Thursday 17 October from 7-8pm
• Tuesday 22 October from 12-1pm
• Thursday 7 November from 12-1pm
• Thursday 12 December from 5-6pm
• Monday 6 January from 5-6pm
• Tuesday 21 January from 5-6pm

To register via Eventbrite you can use this link.

DfE Update
I’ve provided a roundup of the new/updated statutory and non-satutory guidance published by the DfE which is now in force as follows:

Statutory guidance
• Keeping Children Safe In Education – this year’s version contains an updated safeguarding definition with an emphasis on early help and support, additional indicators of the potential need for early help clarification around alternative provision safeguarding responsibilities and amendments in line with the draft non statutory guidance Gender Questioning Children.

• Working together to improve school attendance – this updated guidance came into force in August and whilst governance responsibilities have not changed, updates include an emphasis on working in partnership with families to improve attendance; new absence thresholds where schools will have to consider a penalty notice; considerations for pupils absent due to mental or physical ill health or their special educational needs and/or disabilities; clarified expectations for Senior Attendance Champions and a requirement for schools to share daily attendance data (most schools were already doing this).

Non statutory guidance
During the summer break, the Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced that she would be accepting the STRB’s recommendations for teachers’ pay in full, meaning that teachers and leaders will receive a 5.5% pay increase from this September.

The DfE then released new non-statutory guidance on ‘Managing teachers’ and leaders’ pay’, which replaces the previous guidance on ‘Implementing Your School’s Approach to Pay’. One major change from the new guidance is that schools are no longer required to implement performance-related pay for teachers and leaders.

The DfE also released new non-statutory guidance on ‘Teacher appraisal’ and ‘Teacher capability’, replacing the department’s teacher appraisal and capability model policy. No doubt the LA’s Schools HR Team will share updated policies with schools in due course.

Ofsted update
Ofsted has now scrapped single headline grades for schools but inspections this academic year will continue to have four grades across the existing sub-categories: quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development and leadership and management. School Report Cards will be introduced from September 2025 aiming to provide parents with a full and comprehensive assessment of how their child’s school is performing and ensure that inspections are more effective in driving improvement.

The DfE has advised that schools that would have been judged to be Inadequate will still receive an academy order and while there is no longer a threat of conversion or transfer for those that may once have been deemed Requires Improvement (now termed “struggling” by the DfE based on sub-judgements), there is an immediate intervention from a “high-performing school”. From early next year the government will introduce Regional Improvement Teams that will work with struggling schools to quickly and directly address areas of weakness.

On Tuesday a summary of the findings from Ofsted’s Big Listen consultation was also published with changes including a new inspection framework, a new focus on inclusion and a new policy of only notifying schools of their impending inspection on a Monday.

In my final update of this academic year I report on key messages from the Education Secretary in her webinar held earlier this week, the introduction of a children’s wellbeing bill as outlined in the King’s Speech and a blog post from Ofsted outlining the changes to ungraded inspections from September.

Takeaways from the Education Secretary’s Webinar
On Tuesday in a webinar attended by 14,000 people, the new Education Secretary advised that a decision on teacher pay awards would not be published this week and indicative school funding allocations wouldn’t be published to the usual timescales. The report of the School Teachers’ Review Body, along with the Government’s response and decision, is usually published in mid to late July each year.

Whilst not proposing any wholesale structural change to schools, meaning the current dual system of academies and maintained schools will remain, Ms Phillipson confirmed that Academy Trusts will be brought into the framework of Ofsted inspection.

A review of the curriculum and assessment was announced with the Education Endowment Foundation’s Chief Executive, Professor Becky Francis, leading the review as its chair. A call for evidence will launch in September along with national roadshows to ensure the voice of staff working in schools is considered. The results will published in 2025 so any major curriculum changes might not be introduced until as late as September 2026.

The review will cover KS1 to KS5 and the Government has said it wants a curriculum that “delivers excellent foundations in reading, writing and maths, and ensures every young person gets the opportunity to develop creative, digital, and speaking and listening skills particularly prized by employers”. It will also look at the key challenges to attainment and the barriers that hold children back, in particular those who are socio-economically disadvantaged and those with special educational needs. Views will also be sought on whether the current assessment system can be improved for both young people and staff, while protecting the important role of examinations.

Acknowledging there was a range of opinion on how behaviour should be managed Ms Phillipson did not say the Government’s approach to tackling behaviour in schools would change.

The King’s Speech 2024 and the impact for the education sector
On Wednesday the King’s Speech confirmed that the Government will introduce a children’s wellbeing bill in the next year to legislate for a raft of its education policies. The aim is to raise standards in education and promote children’s wellbeing. There are also proposed laws that will likely affect schools in the proposed employment rights bill and equality bill. A summary has been provided as follows:

Children’s wellbeing bill

• Strengthen multi-agency child protection and safeguarding arrangements
• Require free breakfast clubs in every primary school
• Limit the number of branded items of uniform and PE kits that a school can require
• Create a duty on councils to have and maintain children not in school registers and provide support to home-educating parents
• Provide Ofsted with stronger powers to investigate the offence of operating an unregistered independent school
• Enable serious teacher misconduct to be investigated, regardless of when the misconduct occurred, the setting the teacher is employed in, and how the misconduct is uncovered
• Require all schools to cooperate with the local authority on school admissions, SEND inclusion, and place planning, by giving local authorities greater powers to help them deliver their functions on school admissions and ensure admissions decisions account for the needs for communities
• Require all schools to teach the national curriculum. This measure will be commenced after the review of curriculum and assessment is concluded and is reflected in programmes of study. The review will set the foundations to equip every child with the essential knowledge and skills for the future
• Ensure any new teacher entering the classroom has, or is working towards, Qualified Teacher Status (QTS).
• Bring multi-academy trusts into the inspection system and enable direct intervention when schools and trusts are not performing to the highest standards

Employment rights bill

• Reinstate the School Support Staff Negotiating Body, to establish national terms and conditions, career progression routes, and fair pay rates for support staff
• Update trade union legislation so it is fit for a modern economy, removing unnecessary restrictions on trade union activity – including the previous government’s approach to minimum service levels – and ensuring industrial relations are based around good faith negotiation and bargaining

Equality (race and disability) bill
Introduce mandatory ethnicity and disability pay reporting for larger employers (those with 250+ employees) to help close the ethnicity and disability pay gaps

Ungraded Ofsted inspections from September
In a blog post on Wednesday, Ofsted’s National Director, Lee Owston outlined the changes to ungraded inspections from September.

Key areas of focus will be agreed in advance with the Lead Inspector and the Headteacher in the phone call the day before the inspection. They will discuss the school’s context, what it does well and where it has improved and anything leaders still need to tackle to make the school the best it can be.

Inspectors won’t focus on one subject and there won’t be deep dives. Instead, they will look at a group of subjects together, for example in a primary school they might look at early English and maths together, or they might look at a group of subjects from the wider curriculum. In a secondary school, there could be a focus on the core subjects and another on, for example, vocational subjects. These inspections will focus more on a dialogue between headteachers and their senior leaders, so while conversations with subject leads will still take place they won’t be as intensive.

New inspection handbooks will be published in September alongside some webinars and more details about these webinars will be made available in due course.

This week I report on the open letter from the new Education Secretary to the education workforce alongside an invitation to join her for a live online event next week, publication of the headline data from this year’s KS2 SATs and confirmation that Sir Kevan Collins has been appointed as a new non-executive DfE Board member.

Education Secretary addresses the education workforce
The new Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson, has published a letter addressing the education workforce to introduce herself and highlight that education will be at the heart of change under the new government. The letter also invites people to join her for a live online event on Tuesday 16 July at 4pm where she will share her vision for the sector and take questions from the participants. You can register to attend the online event using this link.

SATs 2023/24 headline facts and figures
The proportion of Y6 pupils reaching the expected standard in all three areas of reading, writing and maths has increased slightly but is still behind pre-Covid levels, according to the latest Government data. Overall, 61% of pupils taking this year’s KS2 SATs tests met the expected standard in all three areas, compared with 60% last year. This is still behind the pre-pandemic 2019 figure of 65%. Last year’s published figure was originally 59% before being revised earlier this year.

This year, the proportion of pupils reaching the expected standard in reading attainment was 74%, a slight increase from 73% last year. The proportion of pupils meeting the expected standard in writing was 72%, also up from 71% last year. the proportion of pupils reaching the expected standard in maths was 73% , which is unchanged from 2023. In grammar, punctuation and spelling (GPS), 72% of pupils met the expected standard, also unchanged since 2023. In science, 81% of pupils met the expected standard, a slight increase from 80% last year.

DfE hires Sir Kevan Collins as schools standards adviser
On Wednesday the DfE announced that Sir Kevan has been appointed as a new non-executive board member on a three-year term to provide scrutiny and advice on the government’s delivery of high and rising standards in schools. Sir Kevan was the former education recovery commissioner appointed under Boris Johnson’s government in 2021 but resigned after his plans for a national recovery effort were not supported financially by ministers.

The DfE also revealed it is restructuring to place special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and alternative provision (AP) within its schools group in a bid to ensure it can deliver improvements to inclusion in mainstream schools.

This week the only talking point is the election result and what that could mean for the education sector as Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to “repair our public services” under a “mission of national renewal to start to rebuild our country” after Labour won a landslide victory in the general election this morning.

Labour inherits an education system beset with problems, with schools starved of funding and almost as many teachers leaving as joining the profession each year and Councils facing bankruptcy because of ballooning SEND costs.

The party will almost immediately have to make a decision on teacher pay and a decision on how much funding schools will receive from next year will likely come as part of a spending review in the autumn.

Bridget Phillipson is now set to become the next education secretary and Gillian Keegan has lost her seat in Parliament. She had served as the Education Secretary since October 2022, when she was appointed to the role by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. She was the tenth Conservative to hold the role since 2010, and the sixth since the last election in 2019.

Given that this is the final week before the General Election there is very little to report on in terms of governance, but I have highlighted the publication of an Education Policy Institute report analysing the main parties’ manifestos regarding education.

EPI report analyses manifesto plans for education
The EPI has released a report analysing the main parties’ manifestos regarding education and topics it covers includes early years, school organisation and outcomes, funding, post-16 education and workforce. In each of these areas EPI pinpoints what each party is saying about it and what a new government should do to combat challenges.

The EPI highlights the key issues facing the education sector, with one of the main challenges being SEND support and funding. The EPI warns that “SEND support was the most pressing funding concern” and that “schools, local authorities, and some of our most vulnerable children are at risk if the current situation is not addressed.” Other challenges explored include staff recruitment and retention, support for disadvantaged pupils and under-investment in school estates.

This week I report on the success of Norham High School in this year’s Pearson National Teaching Awards, uncertainty around the September teachers’ pay deal with a potential change in government and DfE research into risks posed by older school buildings

Norham High School celebrates success as a Silver Pearson National Teaching Award winner
Outstanding teachers, support staff and leaders from across the UK’s schools and colleges have been honoured in this year’s Pearson National Teaching Awards. A total of 102 winners scooped silver awards and their names were announced to coincide with national Thank a Teacher day.

Norham High School was a winner in the Making a difference – secondary school of the year category and all the winners in each category will now be shortlisted to win one of 16 gold awards and this will be announced at a ceremony to be held later this year. Congratulations Norham!

Decision on the September teachers’ pay deal
Teaching Unions have signalled that they would give an incoming Labour government time to find its feet before expecting a decision on teachers’ pay for September. With Sir Keir Starmer’s party odds-on to win the 4 July election, teachers’ pay will be one of the first big decisions facing Bridget Phillipson, who is likely to become the Education Secretary.

Whilst the Conservative government received the recommendations of the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) in May, it delayed the decision when the election was called. Although inflation has recently fallen to 2%, it stood at around 4% when the STRB made its deliberations in the spring. DfE analysis suggests that schools would be able to afford a rise of 2% from their own budgets, although many leaders would say they cannot afford this.

The new government is likely to face the most pressure from the National Education Union, whose members voted at Easter to wait to hear the teachers’ pay offer for September before moving to a formal strikes ballot.

DfE to research risks posed by older school buildings
Back in May the Times Educational Supplement reported that the DfE would be conducting research to improve their understanding of future building safety risks and condition issues in the education estate, particularly in post-war buildings (constructed between 1945 and 1990).

The research will include desk-based analysis, structural surveys and qualitative research of a representative sample of post-war buildings, reflecting different construction types, material, age, and degrees of maintenance.

It is expected that the research from the project which is estimated to cost £4.8 million will include policy recommendations on mitigating future risks.

This week I report on the delay of the Government’s response to the STRB’s recommendations for teachers’ pay for next academic year and a free webinar from Governors for Schools on the Headteacher appraisal process.

Delay to teachers’ pay offer for 2024/2025
The Education Secretary, Gillian Keegan, recently stated that, due to the pre-election period of sensitivity, the Government will not publish its response to the School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendations for teachers’ pay in 2024/2025 until after the general election on 4 July.

Governors for Schools free webinar on Headteacher appraisal: 27 June from 8-9am
In conjunction with Better Governor, Governors for Schools is running a free webinar on Thursday 27 June 2024 from 8 to 9am on the Headteacher appraisal process. The session will explore how headteacher appraisals underpin the strategic oversight offered by governors in both maintained schools and academy trusts. Participants will be provided with tools and strategies to support governors’ oversight of school effectiveness and put headteacher appraisal into the context of school improvement. Please use this link to register.