coronavirus | Schools Week

Autumn catch up must not make pupils feel ‘penalised’

Children who have fallen behind during the coronavirus crisis must not be made to feel they are being “penalised” by having to attend after-school catch-up classes, schools have been warned. The move came after Mossbourne Victoria Park Academy, a secondary in Hackney, emailed parents to say a catch-up programme for pupils who have “not engaged” […]

Grading system ‘flies in the face’ of promises pupils won’t lose out

The government has promised that no pupil will be disadvantaged by the cancellation of exams. But a new study shows that thousands of youngsters in turnaround schools will indeed be penalised. Schools Week investigates. “Kids have given up their weekends, we’ve had holiday interventions, 7.30am revision sessions, teachers teaching until 7pm,” says Elroy Cahill, headteacher […]

Autumn 2020 exam dates confirmed

Dates for the autumn exam series have been confirmed by the Joint Council for Qualifications. The organisation, which represents exam boards AQA, OCR, Edexcel and WJEC, said today that AS and A-level exams will take place between October 5 and October 23, and GCSEs will go ahead between November 2 and November 23. The autumn […]

No joint SEND inspections in the autumn, but Ofsted and CQC will still ‘visit’ areas

Joint area SEND inspections will not resume in the autumn term, Ofsted has announced. But the watchdog and the Care Quality Commission will conduct “a series of visits” to council areas to understand the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and support local areas to “respond effectively”. The inspectorate will also produce a new area SEND […]

Broadcast Oak Academy lessons on TV, says education committee chair

Recorded lessons such as those put together by the Oak National Academy should be shown on television, the chair of the Parliamentary education committee has said. Robert Halfon has written to culture secretary Oliver Dowden to ask what “incentives and funding could be put in place to encourage the creation and transmission of such content […]

Schools to get energy-efficiency grants from £1bn fund

Schools will be able to apply for grants from the government to make their buildings more energy-efficient under a new public sector decarbonisation scheme. The Treasury confirmed today that schools would be among the public sector organisations eligible for the scheme, which will attract £1 billion in funding over the next year. According to the […]

Ofsted visits: ‘Serious issues’ may lead to ‘immediate action’

“Serious issues” identified during lighter-touch Ofsted visits in the autumn could result in “immediate action”, the watchdog has said. The inspectorate promised its new programme of visits, which will start in September and target mostly ‘inadequate’ schools, will be collaborative, and not about “passing judgment”. A letter setting out the outcome of discussions over back-to-school […]

Seven things we learned from Ofqual’s 2019-20 annual report

The exams regulator Ofqual has published its annual report for the 2019-20 financial year. Here’s what we learned. 1. Sixteen disqualified over Pearson maths A-level leak The leak of Pearson’s Edexcel A-level maths paper is described by Ofqual as the “most significant security breach in 2019”. However, the paper had been targeted before, and […]

Attendance rates continue to rise as proportion of reopened schools flatlines

The proportion of schools that have reopened more widely has flatlined, but pupil attendance has continued to rise, new figures show. The Department for Education estimates that 88 per cent of primary schools and 75 per cent of secondary schools were open to at least one of the returning year groups as of last Thursday, […]