coronavirus | Schools Week

Year 7 pupils ’22 months behind expectations’, finds writing study

New year 7 pupils are 22 months behind where they should be, an online assessment provider has said after testing the writing skills of over 112,000 children. But it is not clear whether the fall in attainment is as a result of “disruption due to COVID-19 alone”. No More Marking, a company that produces comparative […]

Decrease in schools getting top grades, and 6 other findings from Ofsted’s inspections data

Ofsted judged a lower proportion of schools to be ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ in the first year of its new inspection framework. The watchdog has published management information on inspections conducted in the 2019-20 academic year, which takes into account reports published between April and the end of August. However, the data is based on a […]

Over 18,000 entries for autumn GCSEs, but that’s not including English and maths

There have been 18,450 entries for GCSE exams being held this autumn for those who weren’t happy with their grades issued this summer. But that number is likely to rise when entries in English and maths – which are routinely offered in the autumn and have a later entry deadline – are added to the […]

Coronavirus: Attendance rates vary hugely across England, finds EPI report

School attendance rates vary hugely across England, new research has found, prompting concerns that pupils in some parts of the country are more likely to be left behind. Analysis by the Education Policy Institute found that secondary school attendance rates in October ranged from 61 per cent in Knowsley in the north west to 94 […]

No evidence for minister’s claim parents ‘prefer to pay’ for school dinners

A government minister stands accused of misleading the public after he falsely claimed that research showed parents “actually prefer to pay a modest sum” of “£1 or £2”, instead of receiving free school meals. It is pretty desperate to see ministers making misleading claims in order to justify voting against feeding hungry children in a […]

We fear next summer’s exams, say lockdown heads

School leaders in lockdown areas say their pupils should not be penalised in exams, with year 10s at one Liverpool school already spending four weeks of this term self-isolating at home. Department for Education statistics show about 89 per cent of pupils in state-funded schools across England attended last week. However, levels differ greatly for […]

Consider allowing pupils to wear additional clothing indoors, DfE tells schools

Schools should consider allowing pupils to wear “additional, suitable indoor items of clothing” during the winter as classrooms get colder because of the need for ventilation, the Department for Education has said. In updated action for schools guidance published today, the DfE said increased ventilation “may make school buildings cooler than usual over the winter […]

Gibb ‘misspoke’ when he said all schools were in ‘tier 1’

The schools minister “misspoke” when he told MPs yesterday that all schools are at tier one of the government’s contain framework, the Department for Education has clarified. When asked during an education select committee hearing yesterday how the tiers in the contain framework interact with the separate system of tiers of national lockdown, Nick Gibb […]

Nick Gibb at education committee: 7 things we learned

Schools minister Nick Gibb has suggested some grade inflation will be allowed again next year to cater for lockdown learning losses, but revealed he’s more worried about making exams fair for pupils in worst-hit areas who are more likely to have missed school since September. Education select committee MPs grilled Gibb for over two hours […]