In the News 3 July 2017 www.nasbm.co.uk

Featured news: New DfE Ministerial team, fire safety, class sizes, grammar schools

DfE announces new ministerial team- follow link to see who’s who in the new team (gov.uk, 3 July 2017)

Boris Johnson has become the latest senior cabinet minister to put pressure on the chancellor and the PM to end the public sector pay cap. Sources close to the foreign secretary made it clear that he wants better pay for public service workers. He joins those, including Michael Gove, who have suggested the government's 1% pay cap should be lifted (BBC, 3 July 2017)

The NUT, Fire Brigades Union and the ATL have combined forces to call on the Government to review fire safety measures in England’s schools, and to ensure checks are carried out on cladding. Ministers say cladding on schools over four storeys high is being checked, and the Local Government Association added fire safety checks were continuing in council-run schools. Meanwhile, a number of student accommodation providers are checking buildings for fire safety issues (BBC, 28 June 2017)

Number of pupils in crowded classes close to 900k- DfE figures show that the number of children in classes of more than 30 pupils has reached 886,098, up 86,000 on two years ago – a 10.7% increase (Daily Mirror, 29 June 2017)

Plans to lift the ban on new grammar schools has been scrapped, the Education Secretary has confirmed. Justine Greening said: “There was no education bill in the Queen’s Speech, and therefore the ban on opening new grammar schools will remain in place.” (The Sun, 27 June 2017)

Leading Support Services

National education policy (see Finance section for education funding policy news)

Theresa May has appointed a former teacher as her head of policy. Before entering politics at the start of this decade, James Marshall, 37, was an English teacher at Shrewsbury School, one of Britain's original seven public schools (The Times, 27 June 2017)

Rod Bristow, the head of exam board Edexcel, has voiced his "profound regret" after leaks hit two of its A-level exams in the past few days. Some of an economics exam appeared on social media and a maths paper was apparently for sale online. Police have arrested and released two men pending further inquiries in the case (BBC, 28 June 2017)

Arrests made over exam leak- Edexcel says a breach that saw A-level maths and economics papers published on social media before the exams is being treated as a criminal matter. Sharon Hague from Pearson, which owns Edexcel, says arrests have been made (The Times, 30 June 2017)

School remembers missing students-It has been revealed that Kensington Aldridge Academy lost four pupils in the Grenfell Tower tragedy, as well as a fifth student who had recently left the school. The school has held special assemblies for the students who are missing and presumed dead.

Principal David Benson said the school is helping students in the grieving process, adding: “We have spoken to extended families of those missing to ensure that they are supportive of us doing this". With the school building shut since the fire, pupils have been moved to Burlington Danes Academy and Latymer Upper School (The Guardian, 29 June 2017)

A boy of 15 has been convicted of the murder of Quamari Serunkuma-Barnes, a 15-year-old who was stabbed outside Capital City Academy, Willesden, where the victim was a student (BBC, 30 June 2017)

A 16-year-old girl has pleaded guilty to killing seven-year-old Katie Rough. The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to manslaughter by diminished responsibility (BBC, 3 July 2017)

A secondary school has been criticised by parents over plans to introduce a standardised veil for Muslim girls. Sir John Thursby Community College, in Burnley, has been forced to clarify its position after an online petition was launched by parents warning that the new headscarves resemble a "swimming cap" and are "too short" (The Daily Telegraph, 26 June 2017)

Local level school leadership and policy

SNP and Conservative MSPs have voted in favour of Scottish education reforms that will see powers extended to headteachers and give parents more say in the running of schools (The Scotsman, 28 June 2017)

Worship petition to be reviewed -The Welsh Assembly petitions committee is to write to Education Secretary Kirsty Williams asking her to consider whether school worship goes against human rights laws. This follows a petition launched by two schoolgirls, Rhiannon Shipton and Lily McAllister- Sutton from Ysgol Glantaf in Cardiff. Their petition asks the National Assembly for Wales to urge the Welsh Government to pass a law that removes the obligation on schools to hold acts of religious worship, and has gained 1,333 signatures (Daily Express, 29 June 2017)

A police force has been criticised by parents after inviting school pupils to an open day in which they brandished replica guns and were encouraged to 'shoot terrorist' targets on a mock firing range (The Telegraph, 26 June 2017)

Head saves school- Headteacher Christopher Haggett managed to save Long Field Academy in Melton Mowbray when a fire broke out, dousing most of the flames with fire extinguishers before firefighters arrived (Melton Times, 29 June 2017)

Grenfell Tower appeal to see Philip Pullman character named after victim- Drive to commemorate teenager Nur Huda el-Wahabi, who died in the tragedy, has raised in excess of £19,000, with the proceeds to go to support fund (Guardian, 26 June 2017)

Health and wellbeing

Doctors call for dental hygiene classes- The British Medical Association has called for the introduction of compulsory dental hygiene lessons in primary schools as part of the National Curriculum. The union has also suggested that the Government should provide free toothbrushes to every child aged five and under and are calling for health warnings on packages of children’s food with a high a sugar content (Daily Telegraph, 29 June 2017)

Health and safety

Unions have called on the Government to offer guidance on what schools should do if caught up in a terror attack. Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT, said the safety of children and staff “should be a key priority,” saying their wellbeing “cannot be left to ad hoc arrangements” (The Daily Telegraph, 30 June 2017)

Safeguarding

Every school in London will be offered a metal detecting wand as part of new plans to reduce knife crime, Mayor Sadiq Khan has announced. The handheld devices will be supplied to headteachers at the capital's 484 state secondaries (BBC, 27 June 2017)

Equality and social mobility

New Stonewall report: experiences of LGBT pupils in Britain's schools (via NAHT)

The level of homophobic bullying in secondary schools has fallen by a third in a decade (BBC, 27 June 2017)

Chains benefit ‘low-achieving poor pupils’ most- Analysis published by the Sutton Trust suggests bright pupils from socially disadvantaged backgrounds do less well in schools in multi-academy chains (Financial Times, 30 June 2017)

SEND

The Northern Ireland Department of Education nor the Education Authority cannot demonstrate they are achieving "best outcomes" for more than 75,000 children with special educational needs (SEN), according to findings of an Audit Office (NIAO) report (BBC, 27 June 2017)

Finance

Education funding and finance – national and international level reports

NAHT publishes opinion “The government must lift the public sector pay cap now” (DfE)

The National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) says the funding increase offered to nurseries in England to cover extra free childcare falls short of what is needed to deliver 30 hours' free nursery education (BBC, 30 June 2017)

Local and regional level reports and commentary on funding

The Scottish Government has said spending on local authorities for 2016/17 is to be cut by £119m to £11.8bn, though spending on education will go up by £86m to £4.8bn. Welcoming the extra money for schools, Education Secretary John Swinney said: “I very much welcome this increase by local authorities - both in terms of last year’s expected spend and allocated budgets for the year ahead.” (The Scotsman, 27 June 2017)

Council rules 'not broken' over Llanfyllin school funds- Governors at a Powys school which misused funds to pay for transport did not break council rules, the public service ombudsman has said. An investigation found Llanfyllin High School subsidised transport to almost 200 pupils from outside the catchment area, spending more than £460,000 over five years, which should have gone on education (BBC, 27 June 2017)

Budget cuts impact- Joyce Frankland Academy in Essex has cut music lessons because of budget cuts. (BBC, 28 June 2017)

Norfolk County Council figures show that more than 140 children are not getting a school education with exclusions hitting a record high. A report to the council’s children's services committee said there were concerns exclusions were not being used as a "last resort" and instead as a "mechanism for fairly low level behavioural issues" (BBC, 26 June 2017)

Teaching and learning

Curriculum, standards and testing

Lord Baker of Dorking, chairman of Edge Foundation and Baker Dearing Educational Trust, calls on the government to require all secondary schools to teach coding (The Times, 27 June 2017)

Higher education Socio-economic and ethnic background counts in degree success- Official data has revealed that 8.8% of young, full-time undergraduates from poorer homes dropped out after first year in 2014, up from 8.2% the year before. For middle-class students, the figure was less than 5%. The non- continuation rate also seems linked to ethnicity, as for black students it is almost 1.5 times higher than for white and Asian students (The Times, 29 June 2017)

Oxford and Cambridge universities have failed to recognise potential among disadvantaged applicants and need to improve their efforts, according to the government’s higher education access tsar. In outspoken remarks at an education conference, Les Ebdon, director of the Office for Fair Access (Offa), said: “Do I think there’s fair access at Oxbridge? Well, obviously not.” (The Guardian, 29 June 2017)

Halls of residence confirms cladding removal- cladding removed from new Lincoln student block after Grenfell Tower fire (The Lincolnite, 28 June 2017)

Careers

The IFA has opened consultations regarding the Apprenticeship Standards, to make submissions please use the following channels on the gov.uk website:

Draft standards (Level 4 SBM Apprenticeship): https://consult.education.gov.uk/apprenticeships/standardsjune2017

Draft assessment plans (Level 6 SBD Apprenticeship): https://consult.education.gov.uk/apprenticeships/copy-of-may2017

Once you click on the ‘Online Survey’ link you can then select the correct standard and assessment plan to comment on. The deadline for the public consultation process is 10th July.

Government announcements, guidance, consultations and funding

The DfE has published guidance for exemption from the EYFS Learning and Development requirements for both children and providers (28 June 2017)

Department for Education reports Gender Pay Gap. (28 June 2017)

PM: mental health training for teachers will "make a real difference to children's lives" (press release)via DfE (27 June 2017)

A publication by DWP setting out proposals to improve outcomes for children who grow up in workless families and face multiple disadvantages (23 June 2017)

Letter sent from Peter Lauener, chief executive of Education and Skills Funding Agency, to academy trust accounting officers in June 2017 (DfE) (30 June 2017)