John Dickens | Schools Week

Schools wait THREE DAYS for official PHE advice on how to respond to coronavirus cases

Schools have waited over three days for official advice on how to deal with coronavirus cases – leaving heads in “limbo” as local public health teams are “overwhelmed”. An investigation by Schools Week has uncovered examples across the country of schools being failed by local Public Health England (PHE) teams. The government has promised schools […]

DfE to measure lockdown learning losses without extra tests

The government will produce a baseline assessment detailing the scale of catch-up needed for pupils after coronavirus closures – without making children sit more tests. Renaissance Learning has won a government contract worth up to £143,000 to measure the full extent of lockdown learning losses. The firm will analyse data from schools already signed up […]

Exam board ‘proposed algorithm – then raised concerns about it’

An exam board which revealed that it warned ministers of flaws with the ill-fated algorithm had actually proposed the approach adopted by the regulator in the first place. Cambridge Assessment, which runs exam board OCR, had originally submitted the direct centre performance (DCP) model that was chosen and then developed by Ofqual as its algorithm […]

Ofqual cancels £80k media recovery plan

Ofqual has abandoned plans to spend £80,000 on media strategists to lead its “recovery plan” following the exams fiasco. The exams regulator had run a tender to recruit a “senior press office service to provide media advice and strategy”. The contract for the 15-week project, worth up to £80,000, was due to start this week. […]

Ofqual backs out of promise to publish exams communications

The exams regulator has backed out of a promise to publish the communications and minutes of its meetings with government officials over the exams fiasco. During the education select committee last week, Ofqual chair Roger Taylor promised MPs the regulator would “publish all the communications and minutes” of meetings they had with Department for Education. […]

Academy scandal heads barred from running schools

Two headteachers who broke academy finance rules have been barred from running schools. Liam Nolan, who was executive headteacher of the Perry Beeches Academy Trust, and Thomas Marshall, former head of Baverstock Academy, both based in Birmingham, have been banned by the government from running independent schools, including academies and free schools. The orders also […]

School leaders called on to help prevent unnecessary surge in coronavirus testing

Headteachers have been urged to stop pupils and staff with a sore throat or headache from getting unnecessary coronavirus tests to prevent a surge in demand that could threaten the government’s testing capacity, health officials have warned. Demand for testing in Scotland saw a “huge increase” from people without coronavirus symptoms as schools went back […]

Ofqual: ‘Wrong to assume’ students with deflated grades have been ‘disadvantaged’

It’s “wrong to assume” that pupils in schools who deflated teacher grades have “necessarily been disadvantaged”, an Ofqual official has claimed. The regulator is facing challenges from schools and one of its own advisory board members to offer an appeal route for schools that followed advice to mark down their own teacher grades. It is […]

Ofqual and the exams fiasco: 7 super interesting things we learned

Senior staff from the exams regulator were hauled in front of the education select committee today where they were grilled on this year’s results fiasco. Ofqual has been criticised for keeping quiet while chaos reigned on their now infamous grades-awarded-by-mutant-algorithm system, while ministers pushed blame their way. But the Ofqual team’s accounts seem to have […]