Schools Week Reporter | Schools Week

Coronavirus: £500m for ‘civic army’ of school leavers would reduce mass redundancy risk

The government should spend £500 million paying a “civic army” of school leavers for six months to stave off mass redundancy risks for youngsters, a group including academy trusts has said. The “Community Leadership Academy” would involve 75,000 disadvantaged young people under the age of 25 being given the opportunity to work for six months […]

£300m for councils to help contain local coronavirus outbreaks in schools

A new £300m funding package has been made available to local authorities to help contain coronavirus outbreaks, including in schools. It comes as the Department for Education is set to confirm tomorrow if schools can begin a phased reopening on June 1, with scientists saying a test and trace initiative is key for those plans. […]

Coronavirus: 2020 exam standardisation process will ignore school ‘trajectory’, Ofqual confirms

The “trajectory” of improving schools will not be taken into account when standardising GCSE and A-level results this year, Ofqual has confirmed. The exams regulator said today that the standardisation process for centre-assessed grades this year “will not seek to reflect any trends in improvement or deterioration in a centre’s outcomes in a subject over […]

Speed read: Five things schools need to know about plans for an autumn exam series

The exams regulator Ofqual has launched a consultation on how a new autumn exam series should work. Summer exams are cancelled this year as a result of the coronavirus outbreak and associated partial school closures. Pupils will instead receive grades from their schools. However, ministers have said they want pupils who aren’t happy with their […]

Ofsted halts parent survey asking when inspections should restart

Ofsted had to close a survey that asked parents for their views on whether inspections should restart as soon as pupils go back to school, or wait for as long as up to a year. Parents were also quizzed on what impact they believe restarting inspections would have on their confidence in sending children back […]

School loses appeal to gag Ofsted from publishing critical report

A school has lost an appeal to gag Ofsted from publishing a critical report after claiming falling from ‘good’ to ‘inadequate’ in three years “cannot be justified on any rational basis”. The secondary school, inspected in October last year, was granted an anonymity order in January to prevent publication of the report. However, this was […]

Another exam board offers payments instead of furlough

Another exam board has offered pay-offs instead of furlough for some examiners, while committing to returning savings from unspent exam fees back to schools. In an email to examiners, Pearson said it was not using the government’s furlough scheme because it “believes it has been put in place to protect primarily small and medium-sized business”. […]

Government faces legal challenge over emergency SEND powers

The government is facing a legal challenge after temporarily “relaxing” the duty of councils to provide support for SEND pupils during the coronavirus outbreak. A notice at the end of April told councils they would only need to show “reasonable endeavours” to fulfill their duty in pupils’ education, health and care plans (EHCPs) during May. […]

Schools face logistical problems just to ensure pupils travel safely

Schools are facing logistical problems just to ensure pupils get to the school gates safely without coming into close contact with others. That includes making sure pupils avoid walking in “clusters” to school, along with road safety – particularly around the school gates – should car journeys increase. Meanwhile there are fears that reports of […]