The national funding formula is under review, Ontario and Ireland are inspiring SEND reforms and a warning has been issued to councils and academies not co-operating on admissions.
Education secretary Bridget Phillipson appeared before the education committee for the first time today, alongside Department for Education permanent secretary Susan Acland-Hood.
Phillipson made a big admission on academy pay freedoms (you can read the full story here), but also had lots of other interestings bits to say.
Here’s the highlights…
1. National funding formula under review
Phillipson said she regularly hears of the “challenges” relating to the national funding formula, which decides how school funding is dished out.
She said it would be “impossible to find a system that delivers what everyone wants all the time in every area”.
But she added: “We are looking at this area and what the mechanism might be for determining school funding into the future.”
However, she was unable to give a timeframe for any decisions.
“We want to make sure we’ve got a fair and consistent formula that delivers for all communities, with a focus on making sure we’re targeting often quite scarce resource where it will make the biggest difference,” Phillipson said.
Acland-Hood added the funding formula had been a “really important shift towards a system that is transparent and clear about why schools are funded as they are.
“A child with same characteristics now in different areas is funded at the same level – and that’s an important principle to retain.”
2. Blame Tories for Latin scheme axe, says Phillipson
Phillipson was challenged on her reasons for cutting funding for computing and MFL hubs, and the Latin excellence scheme – all revealed by Schools Week.
“We have had to make very difficult decisions about what we can and can’t do, that was sadly because of the legacy left behind by the previous government,” Phillipson said.
Government had “prioritised” funding the teacher pay award, she said.
But Phillipson added her department was working with Future Academies, the trust that run the Latin scheme, to ensure “schools involved will have access to the resources they need to continue to deliver the programme”.
She added: “As someone who went to a state school in the 90s, we were taught Latin. This should not be the preserve of just those in private schools.
“I want all schools to be offering a broad and rich curriculum, including through a range of subjects, and that is the determination and focus not just of legislation, but also prioritising of spending in the department…we absolutely are focusing on driving up standards through investments in regional improvement teams and much more besides.”
3. Ofsted: ‘It’s high-stakes, and should be high-stakes’
When asked about proposed new Ofsted report cards, Phillipson said she was “confident” they will “not repeat the same high stakes system”.
“This will not be an easier system for schools, it will be a clearer, firmer process that I think will give a much sharper focus on how we can ensure schools are driving up standards across the system.”
But Acland-Hood added: “It is a high-stakes system, it should be a high-stakes system. Because its high stakes for children…we want a system that’s higher information [and] more rigorous, not that it should be lower stakes.”
4. SEND: Inspiration sought from Ontario and Ireland
The new government has inherited a special educational needs system on the brink of collapse, and has vowed wider-ranging reforms.
Acland-Hood said officials are looking to Ontario, Canada, and also Ireland for inspiration.
“Particularly those where there is successful work to support that mainstream integration, because that delivers better results for children. Not just children with special educational needs.
“One of the things people sometimes worry about, that if you provide more inclusive education for children with special educational needs, might you drag down the experience of other children?
“Actually, the international evidence suggests the opposite – actually it’s better for all children, if you can provide better more inclusive education.”
She also said officials were working with those in health too – highlighting three promising programmes that are skilling up teachers.
She said the Partnership for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools (PINS) programme, which aims to help schools working with neurodiverse pupils, was “promising” and they want to roll out further.
The Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI), which helps develop language skills of children aged four and give, had worked with 200,000 pupils, with an evaluation showing it improvement development of oral language skills by four months.
“We are looking internationally, but also domestically, how to grow and spread best evidence on the approaches that work,” Acland-Hood added.
5. Academy changes will introduce a pay ‘floor, but no ceiling’
Some of the more controversial and criticised parts of Labour’s schools bill are around revoking academy freedoms.
When challenged on revoking freedoms for academies to set their own pay for staff and curriculum for pupils, Phillipson described the moves as setting a “floor” on expectations, but “no ceiling”.
On academy pay, she said: “All schools will have full flexibility to innovate, with a floor and no ceiling on what that means.”
Read our full story on this here.
6. ‘Co-operate on admissions or I’ll intervene’, Phillipson pledges
One of the new duties proposed in the schools bill is for councils and academies to work collaboratively on admissions.
As part of the new duty, the secretary of state would get the power to intervene where this doesn’t happen.
But Phillipson said she expects to use the power “infrequently”.
With the number of school pupils entering the system falling each year, Phillipson said “we need to think about just how we’re managing place planning admissions in a different set of circumstances and dynamics – but also how we make sure that vulnerable children don’t slip through the cracks and end up without a school place at all.”
She said the new duty “sends a clear message, [and I’m] confident the message will be heard. I anticipate through the signal we’re sending into the system, this will lead to a step change in terms of behaviour and response.
“Should this not be the case then of course I will intervene to protect children’s interests.”
7. No news on holiday activity funding
The Conservative government was pushed into announcing the £220 million programme to provide free activities and food during holidays for children after a campaign during Covid by footballer Marcus Rashford.
The holidays activities and food programme has been running ever since, but current funding is due to end in March.
Phillipson was told that providers were anxiously waiting for a decision on whether the scheme will be extended – and needed urgent clarity to be able to organise activities for the Easter holidays.
“We’re going through a process in the department of looking at all levels of spend – that is very challenging,” said Phillipson. “But I do recognise the enormous value the programme has provided and the difference that it’s made to children’s lives.
“We’re working through it as quickly as we can. We know councils want clarity, and will set it out as quickly as we can at the earliest opportunity. I am alive to the need for certainty in this area.”
8. Hello ‘Improving Education Together’ partnership
Phillipson said there was a “need, also working with the profession, to be hopeful and optimistic about the change that we can achieve if we work together. Government can’t do this alone. the profession can’t do it alone either.
“That’s why we are establishing ‘improving education together’ – that partnership. It’s only through working together on some of these big and knotty challenges that we face when we really making teaching a great place our graduates want to come, but also crucially where people want to stay.”
Schools Week understands this is the name given to the new “social partnership” the government has built with unions and sector bodies.
3. Ofsted: ‘It’s high-stakes, and should be high-stakes’
It is this, and this alone that has killed a fabulous headteacher. And Ruth ((RIP) is just the one that hit the headlines. There are undoubtedly more that are no longer with us – or no longer in teaching at all – or driven to drink or prescription medication. What’s astonishing is that they (government) remain bemused by the exodus from the profession and the inability to train and retain teachers.
Acland-Hood should should not have been allowed to say this – or at least corrected by Phillipson or asked for an explanation or clarification.
Words like this are simply politics – to show the opposition that they are not a soft touch. But the consequences of such language could be catastrophic for the profession.