This week I report on the Education Secretary’s five foundations for character education, a series of trials testing different approaches to supporting young people’s mental health and an EEF trial of an English mastery programme at Key Stage 3.

Vision for character and resilience
This week the Education Secretary, Damian Hinds laid out the 5 Foundations for Building Character and pledged to work with schools and external organisations, including membership bodies and charities, to help every child access activities within each of those foundations. The foundations are:

• Sport – which includes competitive sport and activities such as running, martial arts, swimming and purposeful recreational activities, such as rock climbing, hiking, orienteering, gym programmes, yoga or learning to ride a bike.
• Creativity – this involves all creative activities from coding, arts and crafts, writing, graphic design, film making and music composition.
• Performing – activities could include dance, theatre and drama, musical performance, choir, debating or public speaking.
• Volunteering & Membership – brings together teams for practical action in the service of others or groups, such as volunteering, litter-picking, fundraising, any structured youth programmes or uniformed groups like Beavers, Brownies, Cubs, Guides, Scouts, Cadets and Duke of Edinburgh.
• World of work – practical experience of the world of work, work experience or entrepreneurship. For primary age children, this may involve opportunities to meet role models from different jobs.

To help to make this happen the Education Secretary announced:

• Plans for an audit of the availability of out of school activities across the country, to help understand where more focus is needed to increase access and choice.
• A call on businesses and charities to offer more work experience and volunteer placements to young people.
• Relaunching the Department for Education’s Character Awards, which highlight innovative or outstanding programmes that develop a wide variety of character traits.
• A new advisory group will develop a new framework to help teachers and school leaders identify the types of opportunities that will help support their pupils to build character. The framework will also provide a self-assessment tool for schools to check how well they are doing.

Mental Health trials launched in 370 schools
To mark Children’s Mental Health Week (4-10 February), the Education Secretary Damian Hinds has announced that up to 370 schools in England will take part in a series of trials testing different approaches to supporting young people’s mental health.

Children will benefit from mindfulness exercises, relaxation techniques and breathing exercises to help them regulate their emotions, alongside pupil sessions with mental health experts. The study will run until 2021 and aims to give schools new, robust evidence about what works best for their students’ mental health and wellbeing.

Mr Hinds also confirmed the nine areas across the country that will trial new high-quality mental health assessments for young people entering care, helping them get the support they need to meet their individual needs at a time when they are more vulnerable.

English mastery programme trial by the EEF
A Key Stage 3 English mastery programme has been selected for a trial by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF). The EEF will test the approach, which is supported by Ark Ventures, an arm of Ark Schools, in 110 schools over two years to find out if it will boost pupil progress. Around 700 teachers and 40,000 pupils are expected to be involved.
Ark recently announced that it is developing a school curriculum programme covering “all the major subjects” that it plans to sell to other schools. It comes as Ofsted’s new framework shifts its focus from exam results to how schools deliver curriculum.

The new trial is one of five unveiled today by the EEF, which exists to test approaches that “break the link between family income and educational achievement”. Other successful projects include a scheme to improve access to glasses, and programmes for struggling readers.

This week I report on the announcement that funding will be available for the expansion of Grammar schools and an increase in Faith and Free schools; publication of a series of questions for governors to use to help their schools to manage their resources and money efficiently and a programme being rolled out in the North East to bring experienced Maths and Physics teachers from other countries to work in the UK.

Funding to allow Grammar school growth
This morning the Education Secretary announced a series of measures to allow Grammar schools, Faith and Free schools to expand:

• A new wave of free school applications, targeting areas where there is demand for places and a need to help raise school standards;
• £50 million funding available for 2018/19 through the Selective Schools Expansion Fund, to expand the number of places at existing good or outstanding selective schools, alongside measures to give more disadvantaged pupils the opportunity to attend these schools;
• Working with local authorities to provide support for faith schools where there is demand for good school places, and
• fresh agreement with the independent schools’ sector to help improve outcomes for pupils of all backgrounds.

Publication of school resource management: top 10 planning checks for governors
Governors at schools and academies can use information provided by the DfE as a starting point to check if their school is managing resources and finances effectively. Particularly useful for Finance/Resources Sub Committees as the checks can be used early in the annual budget planning cycle and when looking ahead at the 3 to 5 year position.

Programme to recruit Maths and Physics teachers rolls out to the Northern region
Following a successful pilot in the South-East region last year, a new DfE-funded programme is being rolled out to the Northern region to help to address the teacher recruitment crisis, by bringing across experienced Maths and Physics teachers from the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand to work in the UK.

Schools will be required to pay the teacher’s salary, but the recruitment costs are being covered by the DfE and schools will also be given logistical support by the DfE’s appointed international recruitment provider, Prospero Teaching.

The international teachers will receive pre-arrival support, attend an acclimatisation residential and receive an on-going package of quality-assured professional support led by the Great North Maths Hub. If you would like to hear more about the programme, SCHOOLS NorthEast will be hosting a webinar at 4.00pm on Wednesday 16th May (go to http://www.schoolsnortheast.com/events for more information), or alternatively your school can register its interest in the programme by contacting Paul Johnson at paul.johnson@ntlp.org.uk.