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Schools increasingly tackling mental health in-house, survey finds

Schools are increasingly taking matters into their own hands when it comes to dealing with mental health issues among their pupils, a new survey has revealed. A poll by the NAHT school leaders’ union and children’s mental health charity Place2Be found 66 per cent of schools reported commissioning their own professional help for pupils. A […]

Leading trust investigating claim pupil ‘encouraged’ to leave

England’s largest academy trust has launched an investigation into an allegation that a vulnerable child was “encouraged” to leave one of its schools. United Learning said it was “investigating with urgency” after receiving an allegation relating to a pupil studying at one of its Avonbourne academies in Bournemouth, Dorset. We also know that while most […]

Plight of SEND families shames me, admits Halfon

Ministers must issue a “serious response” to the education committee’s landmark SEND report, Robert Halfon has said, as he admitted the plight of families had “shamed” him. The newly re-elected chair of the Parliamentary education committee also believes direct inspection of academy trusts has “got to happen” and hit out at small-scale cash pledges by […]

Pupil premium rates to rise for first time in 5 years

The amount of money schools receive to support their poorest pupils is to increase for the first time in five years. The Department for Education has announced that the pupil premium rate will increase from April by £25 for primary pupils (from £1,320 to £1,345) and £20 for secondary pupils (from £935 to £955). Pupil […]

Per-pupil funding almost 2% lower than 2010 in today’s money, admits DfE

Per-pupil funding is currently 1.9 per cent lower than it was in 2010 in real-terms, the government has admitted. New statistics published by the Department for Education lay bare the extent of real-terms cuts to school budgets over the past decade. In 2019-20, schools received on average £5,940 per pupil. The amount they received in […]

New teacher training application portal will replace UCAS service by 2021

The government’s new teacher training application portal will replace UCAS’s system by 2021, ministers have announced. Nick Gibb, the schools minister, has today announced the launch of “DfE Apply”, an online government-run service that lets would-be trainee teachers and teacher training providers manage applications. Last year’s teacher recruitment and retention strategy pledged to “radically simplify […]

AQA admits two further rule breaches over re-marks, but won’t get another fine

The exam board AQA breached rules relating to the re-marking of exams again last autumn – despite having just been handed the largest ever fine by Ofqual for the same offence across earlier years. But the company will not be handed an additional fine for the latest incidents, after being ordered to shell out more […]

Three-quarters of unis appear to have ditched ‘conditional unconditional’ offers

Up to three quarters of universities and colleges appear to have ended the controversial practice of “conditional unconditional” offers, the University and College Admissions Service has said. Just over a quarter of school leavers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland received a “conditional unconditional” offer in 2019, up from just 20.9 per cent last year. […]