coronavirus | Schools Week

DfE to spend £7m on hundreds more school cost-cutting consultants

The Department for Education will spend £7 million expanding its army of cost-cutting consultants by up to 600 – with a similar “mentor” scheme now to be rolled out for chief finance officers. Tender documents show the government will soon invite bids from organisations to train 200 school resource management advisers (SRMA) a year until […]

Ofsted pilot to look at whether framework ‘tweaks’ are needed ahead of full inspections

Ofsted will conduct “full” on-site inspections at about 25 schools over the next fortnight to assess whether its framework needs to be tweaked ahead of a return to graded inspections in September. Amanda Spielman, the chief inspector, revealed this week that full inspections would not return until the new academic year. The watchdog will instead […]

‘Flimsy’ medical evidence for Greenwich schools Covid legal threat revealed

The medical advice received by Gavin Williamson before he used emergency Covid powers to order a London council to keep its schools open has been branded “astonishing” for its lack of evidence. The education secretary issued a “temporary continuation order” on December 14, ordering the London borough of Greenwich to rescind its request for schools […]

£22m from recovery premium to ‘accelerate’ numeracy and literacy progress

The government is planning to set up a National Tutoring Programme-style subsidised scheme to “accelerate” pupils’ progress in numeracy and literacy, Schools Week can reveal. Ministers are using £22 million of the £302 million recovery premium cash to “scale up” evidence-based interventions identified by the Education Endowment Foundation as having the strongest potential to boost […]

Ofqual chair: Exam grade evidence not a ‘topic for negotiation’ between teachers and students

Evidence used to issue exam grades this year will not be a “topic for negotiation” between teachers and students, the chair of Ofqual has said. Ian Bauckham, interim chair of the exams regulator, told the annual conference of the ASCL school leadership union today it would be “wrong and fundamentally unfair” for teachers’ decisions to […]

Labour calls on DfE to ‘guarantee’ free school meals support over Easter

Labour is calling on the government to provide free school meals vouchers or cash payments over the Easter holidays, warning extensions to a Covid grant for councils and the holiday activities and food programme don’t go far enough. The government has said free school meals vouchers won’t be offered over Easter, although some councils are […]

DfE’s Covid failures revealed: the NAO’s key findings

The Department for Education has been told to take “swift action” to review its response to the covid-19 pandemic to ensure poorer pupils don’t miss out again. A National Audit Office report into how children were supported during the early stages of the pandemic has highlighted several flaws in the department’s response (see key findings […]

Attendance: 1 in 10 secondary pupils not in school in second week of reopening

More than one in ten secondary pupils were not in school yesterday, the day attendance for older pupils became mandatory, new data shows. The latest attendance survey data published by the Department for Education shows 89 per cent of pupils were on-site in state secondary schools yesterday. The data also shows that tens of thousands […]

Government unable to back up promises on school mental health support

The government has pledged to accelerate the roll-out of mental health support teams (MHSTs) for schools – but was unable to provide figures to back up promises the programme will now reach more children. The NHS Long Term Plan, published in January 2019, said that the MHSTs in schools will be rolled out to between […]