Friday Catch Up – 16 May 2014

Friday Updates
Regional School Commissioner for the North

As announced in Wednesday’s Education Select Committee Meeting on Academies and Free Schools, Janet Renou is the new Regional School Commissioner for the North.  Ms Renou is Head Teacher at Skipton Girls’ High School.  The meeting saw MPs quiz witnesses on the role of RSCs and how Head Teacher Boards would be constituted and you can find a written response from the DfE which provides more detail on the RSC role and the constitution of Head Teacher Boards here Written answer

Education Select Committee inquiry into PSHE and SRE

The House of Commons Education Select Committee has announced an inquiry into the Personal, Social, Health and Economic education (PSHE) and Sex and Relationship Education (SRE). The committee are looking at four key questions:

  • whether PSHE ought to be statutory, either as part of the National Curriculum or through some other means of entitlement
  • whether the current accountability system is sufficient to ensure that schools focus on PSHE
  • the overall provision of Sex and Relationships Education in schools and the quality of its teaching, including in primary schools and academies
  • whether recent government steps to supplement the guidance on teaching about sex and relationships – including consent, abuse between teenagers, and cyber-bullying – are adequate
  • how the effectiveness of SRE should be measured

Public Accounts Committee (PAC) publishes report into free schools

Following an inquiry into the establishment of free schools, the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has published its report, which includes a number of recommendations. At the time of writing, there were 174 free schools open, with over 100 more due to open in September. The Department for Education (DfE) has estimated that by March 2014 it will have spent £1.1bn on the free school programme of which £0.7bn was capital expenditure on buildings and land.

The report makes a number of recommendations, one of which specifically relates to oversight and governance. The report states “one of our primary concerns in relation to the implementation of this policy is that arrangements for the audit and governance of free schools are not yet effective.”  It noted that although there is a statutory requirement for free schools to submit audited accounts, for the last financial year available (2011-12), 56% did not submit their accounts to the Education Funding Agency (EFA) by the deadline.

The committee’s other recommendations relate to the capital costs of setting up new free schools; learning lessons from already open free schools about how many places will be filled in the first years after opening and more transparency from the DfE about how it ultimately decides which applications are approved.

Friday Catch Up – 9 May 2014

Friday Updates

NCTL publishes research on Headteachers’ performance management

The National College for Teaching and Leadership recently released a report on research it had commissioned into the effective performance management of Headteachers. The report contains a good summary of the process of performance management and suggestions of good practice and you can use this link to access it Headteacher performance: effective management

The researchers have identified 20 ‘challenges’ which face governing bodies and provide recommendations on how to tackle them.  While for many governors the challenges will be well understood, the document does set them out in one place: these include setting objectives which knit together individual and school development; identifying and interpreting appropriate performance information; mutual respect and trust, and clear roles; and developing the capacity of the Governing body with regards to Headteacher performance management (HTPM). The report says that some of the hardest things to manage are how to identify and tackle under performance and how to reward system leadership.

At the end of the report is a list of what the researchers have identified as the ten characteristics of effective HTPM.

Pupil premium awards for the next two years

The Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, and the Schools Minister, David Laws, announced the 2015 and 2016 Pupil Premium Awards last week.  These are an opportunity to showcase innovative and effective practice and to give public recognition to schools that are excelling in raising the attainment of disadvantaged pupils.  Up to 500 schools will receive prizes. There will be a top prize of £250,000 for secondary schools and £100,000 for primary and special schools.  In addition there are regional awards and smaller ‘qualifier’ awards (for up to 300 primary and 100 secondary schools.

The assessment criteria have been changed to so that the awards reflect sustained improvement over time in raising attainment of disadvantaged pupils.  To win the larger prizes, schools will need to provide evidence of implementing effective strategies to improve achievement.

The 2015 Pupil Premium Awards are being run by the Department for Education in partnership with TES. Schools can find out more about the 2015 Pupil Premium Awards at www.pupilpremiumawards.co.uk.  The awards ceremony will be held in March 2015.

 

Friday Catch Up – 25 April 2014

Friday Updates

Regional Schools Commissioners:

During the Easter holidays, the appointment of six of the eight new Regional Schools Commissioners was announced.

The two as-yet unfilled posts are for the North region and East Midlands & Humber. The DfE have said that it would be appointing commissioners for its North and East Midlands and Humber regions “shortly”.

Graham Stuart, the Education Select Committee Chairman, told The Yorkshire Post that it was more of a concern that two of these posts remain unfilled “with each passing month” but that the DfE might be taking time to ensure it got the right people in place.

In addition, the all-male list of those announced to date has attracted criticism from some observers for its apparent lack of diversity.

Meanwhile, an internal DfE document leaked to the Guardian appears to give new details on the precise role of Commissioners, including:

  • Commissioners will approve or reject DfE intervention plans in “underperforming” academies, recruit academy sponsors and “pause” the expansion of those not felt to be doing well;
  • Commissioners will be “advocates for the academies programme” as a whole;
  • Commissioners will be tasked with building “relationships with key players in their region – Ofsted directors, sponsors, dioceses, local authorities, teaching schools and alliances”.

Universal free school meals

The School Food Plan has produced a Q&A for Headteachers about the introduction of universal free school meals and much of this will also be of interest to governors. This can be found at http://www.schoolfoodplan.com/qa-for-head-teachers/

What next for Careers Guidance?

The DfE has released new guidance for schools, aimed at inspiring pupils to pursue ambitious careers by using inspirational employers and business leaders as mentors.

The guidance states that a school’s careers and inspiration guidance strategy should:

  • Offer mentoring and coaching, inspirational speakers, workplace and higher education visits, networking events and careers fairs;
  • Use initiatives that help to forge links between schools and employers, such as Business in the Community, Career Academies and Inspiring the Future;
  • Ensure pupils have information on the full range of education and training options;
  • Measure the effectiveness of their careers and inspiration activity by using official data on the education, training and employment of previous pupils.

The guidance highlights the innovative careers guidance already offered by Woodham Academy in Newton Aycliffe, where employers working in the local business park are invited to discuss careers with their pupils. This led to conferences between their 14-year-old pupils and local employers, and an Apprenticeship Challenge day involving speed-networking sessions with businesses and employers mentoring pupils.