Jess Staufenberg | Schools Week

Council leaders defend taking parents to tribunal over SEND support

Council leaders have defended their decisions to take families to tribunal to settle disagreements about provision for pupils with special educational needs to MPs this morning. Parents are occasionally taking “unreasonable positions” about what provision their child is entitled to, leaving councils with little choice but to settle the matter in court, one council leader […]

Trust hopes PGCE ‘franchise’ will boost Russell Group grad recruitment

A trust is in talks to “franchise” a university’s PGCE programme, allowing it to dodge UCAS recruitment and target more Russell Group graduates. The STEP academy trust, which has 14 primary academies in south London and East Sussex, is finalising an agreement with the University of Buckingham to deliver its PGCE programme. The arrangement is […]

Pupils face £2 ‘fines’ to get their phones back

A school has been accused of holding pupils’ mobile phones to “ransom” after charging parents £2 to return confiscated devices. South Wigston high school in Leicester bans mobile phones as it says the devices are a major tool for bullying and a distraction to learning. However, its electronic device policy says that a £2 contribution […]

Quality of music education should affect a school’s Ofsted rating, says report

Failing to provide a high-quality music education should have an “adverse impact” on a school’s Ofsted rating, an influential parliamentary committee has said. The all-party parliamentary group for music education said inspectors should “make it clear” that delivering only the academic subjects prescribed under EBacc will affect schools’ inspection outcomes. The cross-party group of MPs and […]

Landmark judicial review hands schools more power to challenge council SEND placements

An eight-year-old autistic boy with severe learning needs was denied specialist schooling for at least four months after a council unlawfully “eviscerated” his plan for provision. The high court ruled Medway council was “irrational and unlawful” when it stripped requirements for specialist provision from the boy’s education, health and care plan (EHCP), forcing a mainstream […]

DfE could lose ‘millions’ under faith academies plan

The government could lose millions in contributions towards capital funding if religious groups convert their schools into academies en-masse. Damian Hinds, the education secretary, met with representatives from major faiths this week to encourage their schools to academise. The meeting follows the disclosure last week that half of all pupils now study in an academy. […]

Gibb calls for more attention on ‘oracy’ in knowledge-rich curriculum

The schools minister wants oracy to receive more attention from schools with knowledge-rich curricula, alongside the more traditional “three Rs”. Nick Gibb said that “while there has been great public attention” on reading, writing and arithmetic, “little attention has been paid to the important role of oracy”. Speaking to the Parents and Teachers for Excellence […]

New headsets monitor pupils’ brain waves to track concentration

English universities are interested in researching controversial headsets that claim to monitor if pupils are concentrating in class, say the products’ developers. BrainCo, an American company, says its $350 (£266) headsets called Focus 1, can help teachers to identify pupils who need extra help, with data presented on a dashboard that shows the “average” brain […]

Pupils won’t lose SATs marks for back-to-front commas, DfE tells primary heads

Primary school pupils will no longer lose marks if they write a comma back-to-front, the government has told headteachers after an outcry over the way SATs were marked two years ago. The Department for Education has written to primary schools explaining key stage 1 and 2 mark schemes have changed to make clear that examiners […]