Closure of schools and list of key workers
Clearly the situation regarding COVID-19 has changed considerably since this time last week.  Schools will close their doors this afternoon to the majority of children until further notice. Only children of key workers – those considered critical to the country’s response to the coronavirus pandemic – and vulnerable pupils will attend schools for the foreseeable future.

In guidance published late yesterday evening, the Cabinet Office and DfE published a list of roles that are considered to be those of key workers, and these are listed below as published.

The Government has also clarified that vulnerable children include those who are supported by social care, those with safeguarding and welfare needs, including child in need plans, on child protection plans, ‘looked after’ children, young carers, disabled children and those with education, health and care plans.

The Government has said that “many parents working in these sectors may be able to ensure their child is kept at home”, and that “every child who can be safely cared for at home should be”.

It has also been confirmed, in separate guidance for parents, that children will be eligible to attend school even if just one parent or carer is identified as a “critical worker”.

List of key workers

• Health and social care – includes but is not limited to doctors, nurses, midwives, paramedics, social workers, care workers, and other frontline health and social care staff including volunteers; the support and specialist staff required to maintain the UK’s health and social care sector; those working as part of the health and social care supply chain, including producers and distributers of medicines and medical and personal protective equipment.
• Education and childcare – this includes nursery and teaching staff, social workers and those specialist education professionals who must remain active during the COVID-19 response to deliver this approach.
• Key public services – this includes those essential to the running of the justice system, religious staff, charities and workers delivering key frontline services, those responsible for the management of the deceased, and journalists and broadcasters who are providing public service broadcasting.
• Local and national government – this only includes those administrative occupations essential to the effective delivery of the COVID-19 response or delivering essential public services such as the payment of benefits, including in government agencies and arms length bodies.
• Food and other necessary goods – this includes those involved in food production, processing, distribution, sale and delivery as well as those essential to the provision of other key goods (for example hygienic and veterinary medicines).
• Public safety and national security – this includes police and support staff, Ministry of Defence civilians, contractor and armed forces personnel (those critical to the delivery of key defence and national security outputs and essential to the response to the COVID-19 pandemic), fire and rescue service employees (including support staff), National Crime Agency staff, those maintaining border security, prison and probation staff and other national security roles, including those overseas.
• Transport – this includes those who will keep the air, water, road and rail passenger and freight transport modes operating during the COVID-19 response, including those working on transport systems through which supply chains pass.
• Utilities, communication and financial services – this includes staff needed for essential financial services provision (including but not limited to workers in banks, building societies and financial market infrastructure), the oil, gas, electricity and water sectors (including sewerage), information technology and data infrastructure sector and primary industry supplies to continue during the COVID-19 response, as well as key staff working in the civil nuclear, chemicals, telecommunications (including but not limited to network operations, field engineering, call centre staff, IT and data infrastructure, 999 and 111 critical services), postal services and delivery, payments providers and waste disposal sectors.

Governance during this time
As you are aware I have been emailing you all the latest NGA guidance as it has been published.  During these uncertain times school governance should continue albeit virtually/electronically. I am liaising with Headteachers and Chairs to agree how we will conduct our business going forwards.  I will be in touch via email to share our plans in due course.

In the meantime I will continue to send you the latest Government and NGA guidance to keep you updated.

This week I report on the Government’s plans in relation to education should the coronavirus escalate, the updating of RPI so that maintained schools can enjoy the same benefits as academies and the announcement of a multi-million pound Government investment in the future of UK science.

Pupils could be sent elsewhere under UK coronavirus plans
The Government is drawing up a series of emergency laws should the coronavirus escalate. Children and teachers could be made to transfer to alternative schools if their own is shut but the Prime Minister played down the risks of widespread school shutdowns at a press conference to deliver the Government’s coronavirus “battle plan” on Tuesday. He didn’t believe schools should close in principle but confirmed that school authorities should follow the advice of Public Health England.

The legislation is expected to permit the relaxing of constraints on class sizes and the sending of pupils and teachers to other schools if theirs is closed or demand is created by staff being off sick. The powers would be strictly temporary, either through the inclusion of a sunset clause or by allowing the legislation to lapse once the Chief Medical Officer and Chief Scientific Officer declare that the disease is no longer an epidemic.

Risk Protection Arrangements (RPI)
The DfE’s RPI have been updated with new membership rules for community schools, voluntary aided, foundation and foundation special schools and voluntary controlled schools, as they can now save money by joining the scheme (provided by industry professionals on behalf of the DfE) rather than purchasing commercial insurance.

Local authority maintained schools can join the RPA using the DfE’s online portal from mid-March with cover starting from 1 April. The cost is £18 per pupil, per year and £18 per place, per year, for special and alternative provision academies, special schools and pupil referral units. For academies, this covers the academic year 1 September 2019 to 31 August 2020 and for local authority maintained schools this covers the financial year 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021.

Multi-million government investment in the future of UK science
To mark the start of British Science Week, Business Secretary Alok Sharma and Education Secretary Gavin Williamson have announced funding to support up to 11,000 students through 41 Doctoral Training Partnerships, as well as encourage more young people, particularly girls, to study STEM subjects at school and university, and pursue a STEM-related career. The investment includes:

• £179 million for PhDs, formally known as Doctoral Training Partnerships, at over 40 UK universities in physical sciences, maths and engineering to develop the skills for ground-breaking research and high-tech industries like cyber security and chemical manufacturing.
• £8.9 million to continue funding science education programmes including Science Learning Partnerships and Stimulating Physics Networks, which aim to improve science teaching and increase the take up of science at GCSE level and A level and ultimately encourage young people to pursue a STEM-related career.

This week I report on the opening of a consultation on updating Keeping Children Safe in Education statutory guidance which will come into force in September, publication of latest guidance for schools about coronavirus, confirmation that the KS1 SATs replacement will be rolled out from September and plans launched by Great Minds Together for a new independent inspection and resolution service to support schools and councils to find solutions for families of children with SEND or SEMH needs.

Keeping Children Safe in Education consultation
On Tuesday the DfE opened a consultation on the changes it’s proposing to make to Keeping children safe in education for 2020. The DfE is working to release the updated guidance for September and the consultation will close on 21 April.

The aim is to help schools and colleges better understand what they are required to do by law and what the DfE strongly advises they should do to fulfil their safeguarding responsibilities. Many of the proposed changes are technical in nature. They are intended to improve the clarity of the guidance and ensure consistency throughout. A list with an explanation of all the proposed substantive changes is set out at Annex G of the draft guidance. The consultation document asks a number of questions about the substantial changes the DfE is proposing to make to KCSIE. The responses to these questions will inform the final guidance.

Public Health England (PHE) issues further guidance to schools about coronavirus
This morning PHE has published updated guidance for schools and other educational settings about how they should respond to the threat of coronavirus.  It has also produced a poster that educational settings should display.

Key stage 1 SATs replacement to be rolled out from September
From September all new primary school pupils will take the new reception baseline assessment (RBA) that will replace SATs in year 2.  Following successful pilots all over the country, the RBA, a one-to-one exercise done in 20 minutes with a teacher in an informal setting, will be taken by all children in their first six weeks of primary school.

The move paves the way for the removal of the national curriculum assessments at the end of Key Stage 1 from 2022/23.  It comes after a validity report based on a national pilot confirmed that the new assessments provide an accurate assessment of a pupils’ starting point from which to measure the progress they make in primary school.

Behaviour Hubs programme
The DfE believes that Behaviour hubs will enable schools and multi-academy trusts with exemplary behaviour cultures and practices to work in partnership with those that want to improve their behaviour culture.  It is now recruiting up to 20 lead schools to become behaviour hubs and work with new advisers to support at least 500 schools over three years.

The programme is based on Tom Bennett’s 2017 review of behaviour in schools Creating a culture: how school leaders can optimise behaviour and the first wave of lead schools will be matched with partners and start work this September.

Plan launched for new independent inspection and resolution service
Great Minds Together, an organisation which works to support families of children with SEND or social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) needs, has developed an idea for a new inspection and resolution service to support schools and councils to improve and find solutions for families of children with such needs.

Great Minds Together is also proposing to create a new SEMH code of practice for schools and LAs to follow and has recommended that schools face inspections focused on whether they are inclusive for pupils with SEND.

This week I report on Ofsted’s curriculum transition arrangements being extended for a further year, the outcome of this week’s Cabinet reshuffle on education, a consultation on a new national plan for music education and updated PSHE guidance in line with the statutory changes that come into force in September 2020.

Curriculum transition extended for a further year
Ofsted’s national Director of Education Sean Harford announced in his blog yesterday that schools will get an extra year (until July 2021) to bring their curriculum into line with Ofsted’s new inspection framework.

The new framework, which places greater weight on curriculum content and less on outcomes, came into effect last September. However Ofsted had originally worked in a year-long transition so that judgements were made based on where schools currently were in implementing curriculum changes, rather than expecting them to be “fully ready”.

Mr Harford has now said “The transition arrangements will only apply when it’s clear that a school is well on the way with its curriculum journey – but isn’t quite ‘there’ yet. This is not an amnesty for schools where teaching is weak or pupils’ outcomes (including, but not exclusively, national tests and examination results) aren’t good enough.”

Impact of Cabinet reshuffle on education
Gavin Williamson will continue in the role of Education Secretary following a reshuffle yesterday that saw a number of his colleagues return to the backbenches. Williamson’s re-appointment signals that the direction of travel is unlikely to change. The Education Secretary previously signalled that he would not seek to enact major system change in the near future.

Nick Gibb has also been re-appointed as Schools Minister, a role he has had since May 2015.   This morning it was confirmed that Lord Agnew, the School Academies Minister has left the DfE and Baroness Elizabeth Berridge has been appointed parliamentary under secretary of state.

DfE consultation on new national plan for music education
To help reflect advances in technology in the way music is created, recorded and produced, and to reassess the music education young people benefit from at school the DfE has launched a call for evidence to inform proposals for a refreshed national plan for music education. The consultation will run until 13 March 2020 and the updated plan will be published in the Autumn.

Updated PSHE guidance
On Tuesday the DfE updated its guidance for schools on Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) education. The guidance document focuses on the statutory changes to the curriculum requirements in respect of; relationships, sex and health education from September 2020.

This week I report on the member’s bill hoping to make school uniform guidance statutory and the release of updated GCSE results from last academic year showing the gap between disadvantaged pupils and others has increased for the second year in a row.

Government backs proposal to cut the cost of school uniforms
On Wednesday a private member’s bill was introduced to seek to make the DfE’s 2013 school uniform guidance statutory. The Government has announced it will back this draft law aimed at cutting the cost of school uniforms and discouraging deals between schools and single uniform suppliers which potentially restricts competition and drives up costs for parents.

Private member’s bills rarely get past the early stages of their development because of Parliamentary time, but the Government’s backing means the school uniform bill is likely to pass. The bill is called the Education guidance about costs of school uniform bill and will have its second reading in the House of Commons on 13 February.

Attainment gap widens between disadvantaged pupils and their peers
An updated breakdown of GCSE results issued by the DfE this week showed the gap between disadvantaged pupils and others increased slightly for the second year in a row. The DfE classes about one in four state school pupils as disadvantaged, defined as having been eligible for free school meals within the five years before sitting GCSEs or if they have been in care or adopted from care.

While more than two-thirds of non-disadvantaged children achieved grade 4 or higher in maths and English, just 36% of those eligible for free school meals did so.

This week I report on the guaranteed funding for primary and secondary schools for next year, the publication of the Opportunity North East delivery plan and updated DfE guidance on the statutory policies schools and academies must have.

Guaranteed minimum funding levels for all schools
New legislation laid in Parliament on Wednesday guarantees every secondary school at least £5k per pupil next year, and every primary school at least £3,750 per pupil, with funding per pupil for primary schools rising to £4k the following year.

Parents will now also be able to find out how much extra funding their local school will attract next year using a new, easy-to-use website which allows anyone to look up allocations under the National Funding Formula for schools in England for 2020-21.

Publication of the Opportunity North East (ONE) delivery plan
At the Schools North East Academies Conference held on Wednesday, the Education Secretary, Gavin Williamson announced the Government would not stop in its drive to transform the lives and prospects of young people across the North East.

This comes as the Department published its Opportunity North East (ONE) delivery plan, setting out a series of ambitions to deliver on the programme’s long-term commitment to level up on educational outcomes and unleash the potential of young people in the region.

Updated guidance on statutory policies for schools and academy trusts
This week the DfE has updated its guidance on the policies and documents that governing bodies and proprietors of schools must have. It has:

• added a link in section 8 ‘Relationship and sex education’ to statutory guidance published in June last year which schools must follow from September 2020;
• added references to specify if policies also apply to maintained or non-maintained nursery schools;
• updated the ‘Register of business interests of headteachers and governors’ section to reference that it is a live document;
• updated the ‘Capability of staff’ section to reflect that academies can set their own terms for approval.

This week I highlight the latest series of free webinars offered by Governors for Schools, the announcement that LA maintained schools can join the insurance scheme already available to academies, that free sanitary products are now available to order for all schools and colleges and notice that the Education Secretary has outlined pay increases for teachers to the STRB.

New programme of free webinars for governors
Supported by Lloyds Banking Group, Governors for Schools has announced another series of free webinars for governors as follows:

• Safer recruitment (with Better Governor) on Thursday 30 January 2020 from 8 to 9 am – will look at what governors need to know about safer recruitment procedures, criminal record and other vetting checks, and the training governors and staff involved in recruitment should undertake.
• Managing exclusions (with The Key for School Governors) on Tuesday 11 February from 12:30 to 1:30 pm – will set out boards’ specific legal duties in relation to pupil exclusions. Explore how boards can monitor exclusion levels effectively. This can help to provide assurance that exclusion is being used proportionately and in a non-discriminatory manner.
• Behaviour and attitudes in the new Ofsted framework (with Better Governor) on Thursday 27 February from 8:00 to 9:00 am – will explore in detail this element of Ofsted’s recently updated inspection framework. The new judgement covers behaviour, attendance, exclusion and attitudes to learning.
• Reputation management (with Irwin Mitchell Solicitors) on Tuesday 10 March from 12:30 to 1:30 pm – will look at how to manage a school’s reputation when the world of social media reigns: when to engage and when not to engage.
• Personal Development in the new Ofsted framework (with Better Governor) on Thursday 26 March from 8 to 9 am – will explore in detail this element of Ofsted’s recently updated inspection framework. The new judgement covers many aspects of personal development including confidence, character, personal safety and readiness for the next stage of education.

If you are interested in signing up for any of the webinars listed above please use this link.

LA maintained schools to be allowed to join the RPA from April 2020
This week the Government published its response to the consultation carried out late last year on whether the existing risk protection arrangement scheme for academies and free schools could be extended to maintained schools.

From mid-March LA maintained schools will be able to join the RPA using the DfE’s online portal. The cover will start from 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021 and whilst voluntary, could provide savings for maintained schools as cover costs just £18 per pupil.

Free sanitary products for all schools and colleges
From Monday this week, schools and colleges are able to order a range of sanitary products from supplier phs Group, giving pupils easy access, helping break down stigmas and ensure no young person’s education is disrupted.

Schools and colleges should have received an activation email from the phs Group on Monday which will enable them to order products from the phs Group portal – a range of products will be available so that schools and colleges can offer choice to young people, including eco-friendly options.

Teachers set for biggest sustained pay increase since 2005
Under proposals submitted on Tuesday to the independent School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB), the Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has outlined plans to increase starting salaries to at least £26,000 in September 2020, with those in outer and inner London to rise to £30,000 and £32,000 respectively. Experienced teachers, heads and school leaders would see an above inflation pay increase of 2.5% to their pay ranges, with early career teachers’ salaries increasing by up to 6.7%, supporting an attractive career path for the whole profession.

The STRB will now consider the Department’s proposals and respond with their recommendations later in the year.

This week I highlight the latest school governance update from the DfE and news that Ofsted is in talks with the Government about running longer inspections to improve schools that have been ‘stuck’ i.e. not judged good or better since 2006.

Latest DfE School Governance update
Yesterday the DfE published its third governance update for LA maintained schools and for academies. Lord Agnew, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the School System, provided a new year message indicating the updates would be published approximately twice per term.

He also advised he was looking forward to publishing the response to the consultation on financial transparency which included levelling up the reporting requirements for local authority schools and academies. The update provides the following:

• Encouragement to participate in the consultation on the removal of the outstanding exemption.
• Encouragement to take part in the NFER and DfE survey of governance in the sector (5000 schools across England have been invited to take part) with the deadline for responding extended to 24 January.
• Information highlighting the clerking competency framework which demonstrates the importance of professional clerking and the knowledge, skills and behaviours needed to deliver it.
• An opportunity for clerks to speak to the DfE governance policy team to help develop their policy work.
• A reminder that seven organisations have been contracted to provided funded training and development programmes for Chairs, Vice Chairs, Committee Chairs and Clerks.
• Information on how to access the DfE’s financial benchmarking service to compare how much a school is spending on agency staff compared with similar schools.
• A reminder that keeping governor details on GIAS (Get Information About Schools) up to date will ensure they receive governance update email alerts direct. For governors in academies this year’s Academies Financial Handbook set out a new requirement for all academy trusts to provide a direct email address for all their members and trustees in the governance section of GIAS.

Ofsted in talks with the Government to run longer inspections to improve ‘stuck schools’
New research from Ofsted has found that 415 schools have not been judged as good or better since 2006 and have had at least four full inspections during that time. Common characteristics of these “stuck” schools included that they were resistant to change and were “chaotic” with one school having had 14 different headteachers in 10 years.

Ofsted has said it is “well-placed” to help these schools but that it needs to “increase the depth of diagnosis” it gives. Ofsted is now in talks with the Government over funding a trial of “longer, deeper” inspections with the aim of “not passing judgement but enabling support to improve”.

This week I highlight a new Government consultation on removing the Ofsted outstanding exemption, the announcement of six new Teaching School hubs and the latest Ofsted blog focusing on making curriculum decisions in the best interests of children.

Government consultation on the removal of the outstanding exemption
Some schools and colleges delivering publicly-funded education and training, which were rated outstanding by Ofsted at their last inspection, are legally exempt from further routine Ofsted inspection. In some cases this has meant that some schools and colleges have not been inspected for over a decade.

Today the DfE has opened a consultation seeking views on the removal of the exemption and under the proposals all outstanding schools and colleges will be brought back into a regular inspection cycle, with Ofsted visiting every 4 to 5 years. The consultation closes on 24 February 2020 and subject to the outcome, the Government intends to remove the exemption with effect from September 2020.

Announcement of six new Teaching School Hubs
On Tuesday the Schools Minister announced six successful new Teaching School Hubs to support struggling schools. Schools will benefit from a three-year programme of support, with each of the six successful schools acting as a regional hub and will receive funding to support between 200 to 300 other schools in the local area.

The aim is to give struggling schools direct access to expertise from school leaders with a track record of improving challenging schools. Support could include delivering tailored professional development for teachers, hosting observations and visits or deploying system leaders to offer advice and guidance to local schools.

The six successful new Teaching School Hubs are:

• North: Harrogate Grammar School and Red Kite Learning Trust
• Lancashire and West Yorkshire: Copthorne Primary School and Exceed Academies Trust
• East Midlands and Humber: Silverdale School and Chorus Education Trust
• East of England and North East London: Harris Academy Chafford Hundred and Harris Federation
• East of England and North East London: Saffron Walden County High School and Saffron Academy Trust
• South West: Kingsbridge Community College

Latest Ofsted blog on making curriculum decisions in the best interests of children
In a blog published on the Ofsted website today, Sean Harford, Ofsted’s national director for education discusses how inspectors will be judging the curriculum and whether length of key stage matters. He said it was “simply not the case” that Ofsted was opposed to lengthened key stage fours, and schools “do not automatically get marked down if their Key Stage 3 is less than three academic years long”.