This week I report on the publication of the new Ofsted Inspection Framework that comes into force in September this year and changes to assessment in primary schools with the introduction of the new Reception Baseline Assessment from September 2020.

Changes to Ofsted Inspections from September 2019
This week Ofsted published the finalised version of its new inspection framework, which will govern school inspections from this September. The key changes from the draft version are as follows:

• On-site preparation plans have been scrapped – Ofsted had proposed that the lead inspector would arrive the afternoon before an inspection to do their preparation on-site. This has been replaced with a 90-minute phone call between the lead inspector and headteacher the day before an inspection begins.
• ‘Good’ small schools avoid two-day inspections – plans to increase the length of time inspectors spend in previously ‘good’-rated schools will go ahead, however ‘good’ or non-exempt schools with 150 or fewer pupils on roll will continue to receive a one-day inspection.
• Schools will get time to shake up their curriculums – Ofsted’s new “quality of education” judgement will be implemented as planned but it’s proposing to phase in part of the new framework which looks at the “intent” of schools’ curriculums. The transitional phase will be reviewed in the summer of 2020.
• Separate judgements for ‘behaviour and attitudes’ and ‘personal development – clarifying amendments have been made to the ‘behaviour and attitudes’ grade criteria to better reflect the realities of providers working in challenging circumstances. The absence of bullying is no longer focused on instead, emphasis is now placed on whether or not providers tolerate bullying and how swiftly and effectively they take action if issues occur. Changes have been made to the ‘personal development’ grade criteria to allow inspectors to properly recognise the importance of high-quality pastoral support.
• Headteachers use of internal data will not be assessed – inspectors will not look at schools’ internal data during inspections and has made some amendments and clarification to its inspection handbook “to try to ease concerns” raised by those who objected. The clarification recognises that school leaders draw on “a variety of sources when considering pupil performance, including internal assessment information”. It explains that inspectors will consider “the actions taken by schools in response to whatever internal assessment information they have”. Inspectors will review the impact of those actions without reviewing the assessment information itself.
• Up-to-date private school judgements delayed to 2020 – Ofsted will issue up-to-date judgements following emergency “additional inspections” of the private schools it inspects, but this will not commence until September 2020.

Changes to assessment in primary schools
All state-funded primary schools with a reception cohort will need to carry out the Reception Baseline Assessment (RBA) scheduled for introduction in September 2020. This year over 9,600 schools are participating in the RBA pilot in autumn 2019. Schools will no longer have to carry out Key Stage 1 assessments from September 2022, following the scheduled statutory introduction of the RBA.

The RBA is a short assessment carried out by a teacher in the first 6 weeks of reception. Teaching assistants and other qualified school staff, such as early years leads and special educational needs co-ordinators, can also carry out the assessment with individual pupils.

It is similar to the on-entry checks that many schools already conduct when children start school. The RBA takes about 20 minutes per child and is not a timed assessment. It is an assessment of a child’s early language, communication, literacy and mathematics. Children will provide answers by speaking, pointing or moving objects. The teacher inputs yes or no answers onto an online system for each task.

Teachers will receive a series of short, narrative statements that will tell them how the children performed in the assessment. The DfE will collect the data from the assessments to create school-level progress measures for primary schools, showing the progress schools make with their pupils from reception to the end of Year 6. The DfE will use the data at the end of Year 6 to measure pupils’ progress from reception to the end of Key Stage 2. The RBA will not be used to track individual pupils or as a performance measure for early years providers.

This week I report on the publication of the Timpson Review on exclusions, a new scheme to help teachers tackle bad behaviour in schools and a new programme to protect children at risk of exploitation.

Timpson Review on exclusions published this week
The Timpson review was finally published this week and makes 30 recommendations for the Government to consider, and the Education Secretary Damian Hinds has confirmed he accepts them all “in principle”.

Addressing Mr Timpson’s recommendation that changes should be made to strengthen accountability around the use of exclusions, the Government announced that it will launch a consultation later this year. This will include how to make schools accountable in the most effective and fair way, so they can fulfil their responsibilities for permanently excluded children. This may include through reform to commissioning and funding arrangements for alternative provision.

£10 million scheme to help teachers crack down on bad behaviour in the classroom
The Government has announced that more than 500 schools will be part of a new scheme to tackle bad behaviour in schools, backed by £10million investment. The programme will launch in September 2020 and the programme will run for an initial period of 3 years. Behaviour expert and former teacher Tom Bennett, who led a national review to identify the best ways of dealing with disruptive behaviour in schools, will lead the programme, where a network of expert schools will be identified to help teachers and school leaders in need of support.

A team of advisers (education professionals with a track-record and understanding of improving behaviour in schools) will be appointed to work alongside Mr Bennett to help develop and deliver the programme of support. They will help select the lead behaviour schools which will deliver additional support to others; work with supported schools to develop an understanding of the causes of the behaviour issues and how these could be addressed; develop comprehensive, bespoke action plans for the supported schools;
carrying out a series of follow-up visits; and participating in behaviour conferences to share best practice and ideas.

New programme to protect children at risk of exploitation
Yesterday the DfE announced a new ‘Tackling Child Exploitation Support Programme’ which has been designed to improve how different local areas respond to child exploitation such as gang, ‘county lines’ drug dealing, online grooming, sexual exploitation, trafficking or modern slavery and is backed by £2 million. It will help equip professionals involved in the protection of young people to identify those most at risk from dangers in their communities and online.

Councils in England will be able to apply for bespoke support from the scheme to tackle specific threats in their area, bringing social workers, police forces, schools, health services and charities together to improve how they respond to cases of exploitation, and learn from what works. The programme will be led by a team of academics and experts led by Research in Practice, together with The Children’s Society and the University of Bedfordshire.

This week I highlight a series of free Governor training webinars available this term from Governors for Schools and the Education Secretary’s call for evidence on the funding arrangements for pupils with SEND.

Free Governor training webinars this term
Governors for Schools (previously School Governors One Stop Shop) has announced a series of free webinars for Governors this term as follows:

• Thursday 16 May from 8 to 9 am and Monday 20 May from 7 to 8 pm – Latest education hot topics such as new Relationship & Sex Education Guidance, the new Teacher Recruitment Website and Interactive School Financial Value Standard for 2019/20.
• Thursday 27 June from 8 to 9 am – Headteacher recruitment.
• Thursday 18 July from 8 to 9 am – Self-evaluation of governance.

All sessions will be hosted by governance experts Steve Barker and Linda Waghorn. They’ll include a mix of information and advice, opinion polls and the opportunity to ask your own questions. Recordings of the webinars will be available on their website shortly afterwards.

Education Secretary calls for ideas on to improve SEND funding system
In a speech to the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) today, the Education Secretary will launch a Call for Evidence on the funding arrangements for pupils with complex Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and praise the work of schools, teachers and support workers for enabling those pupils to achieve great outcomes.

Ministers have already identified high-needs funding as one of two areas most in need of a funding uplift in the forthcoming spending review, the other being post-16 funding. The call for evidence launches today and will run until 31st July.

This week I report on the appointment of the National Schools Commissioner, the Upskirting law that came into force on 12 April 2019  and funding to provide sanitary products extended to primary schools from early next year.

National Schools Commissioner appointed
The Government has appointed Dominic Herrington as its permanent National Schools Commissioner. Mr Herrington, also the Regional Schools Commissioner for south London and south east England, was appointed on an interim basis last September to succeed Sir David Carter but will now take on the job permanently.

He will also oversee “operational changes to the work of regional schools commissioners in the coming months to help schools, academy trusts and local authorities work with them by creating an even more joined-up team in each of the eight RSC regions”.

Upskirting now a crime
‘Upskirting’ – the act of taking a picture or video under another person’s clothing without their consent – has been made a criminal offence punishable by up to two years in prison, under the new Voyeurism Act.

Almost 100 cases of upskirting have been reported to the police in the last year, including incidents in schools.

Schools will need to review their Child Protection and Safeguarding Policy in line with the new law and make amendments/additions as appropriate.

Government funding to provide sanitary products in primary schools
The Government committed to fund sanitary products in England’s secondary schools and colleges in last month’s Spring Statement, and the Children and Families Minister Nadhim Zahawi has now confirmed access to sanitary products will also be fully-funded by the DfE in all primary schools across the country from early 2020.

Extending the programme to primary schools follows feedback from teachers, students and parents, and the DfE is now working with key stakeholders in the public and private sector to roll-out the programme in a cost-effective manner.

This week I report on the publication of a new technology strategy aiming to reduce workload and improve outcomes, plans for a new register of children not in school along with providing support to parents who choose to home educate and the Education Secretary’s response to the Home Office’s proposal to give schools a legal duty to take action to prevent knife crime.

Realising the potential of technology in education
This week the DfE published a strategy to help education providers make the most of the opportunities presented by technology. It indicated there were a range of benefits to using technology including workload reduction, supporting inclusion and driving improvements in educational outcomes.

The DfE also published a range of guidance (Assessing your school ICT infrastructure, Choosing the right broadband for your school, Moving your school to the cloud) on things schools should consider when implementing or changing their use of technology.

Proposed new register of children not in school
The Government has set out plans for a register of children not in school, enabling councils to act effectively if they have concerns for a child’s education. Estimates suggest almost 60,000 children are deemed to be educated at home – a figure that is thought to be rising by around a quarter every year.

The Department is also proposing new measures to support parents who choose to educate their children at home, in the form of a legal duty for local authorities to provide assistance such as helping to pay for exam costs and providing teaching resources.

Under the plans, it will be parents’ responsibility to register their child if they are not being taught in a state-funded or registered independent school.

The consultation follows a call for evidence carried out last year which collected views from across the sector. The consultation will be open for 12 weeks until Monday 24 June.

Protecting teachers from knife crime burden
The Education Secretary, Damian Hinds has pledged to protect teachers from “unnecessary burdens” after the Home Office said earlier this week that it wanted to give schools a legal duty to take action to prevent knife crime.

In an interview with the Times Education Supplement the Education Secretary reassured the profession over the controversial proposals that unions claim are “scapegoating” teachers. “What I will make sure is that we don’t add unnecessary burdens on teachers because I have said many times before, teacher workload is a real issue, teachers are working too many hours, and we don’t want to add to that.”

The proposals would mean that schools are held accountable if they fail to spot the warning signs of violent crime among pupils. The consultation on the plan says that schools would be held to account “by their relevant inspectorates, or possibly through joint inspections”.