department for education | Schools Week

Schools face new checks to ensure pupil premium spending ‘backed by evidence’

Schools will have to show their pupil premium spending is “backed by evidence” under new requirements announced by the Department for Education. The DfE confirmed schools face new conditions attached to the £2.5bn expected in funding to support disadvantaged pupils for the next academic year. Grants now depend on pupil premium spending strategies being published […]

Free school meals: 300k more pupils became eligible in first 7 months of Covid

The number of children eligible for free school meals surged in the first seven months of the Covid-19 pandemic, official figures show. Census data published by the Department for Education shows an additional 302,397 pupils became eligible for free school meals between the first nationwide lockdown in March and the October school census. During the […]

Muhammad cartoon row school launches independent probe into RSE lessons

The trust in charge of Batley Grammar School has announced an independent investigation of its curriculum after its teacher’s use of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in class sparked a fierce backlash. The West Yorkshire trust said the probe would help it “learn the lessons” by examining the “context” in which the cartoons were used, […]

School funding: ‘Serious questions’ for government over £100m bailouts

Ministers have “serious questions to answer” over school funding bailouts for five councils, Labour has said, with calls for transparency over funding deals and other authorities demanding cash. Last week the Department for Education revealed that deals totalling almost £100 million had been struck with Bury, Hammersmith and Fulham, Kingston upon Thames, Richmond upon Thames […]

Headteacher vacancies fall despite Covid exodus fears

Fears of a Covid-fuelled mass exodus of headteachers this summer may be wide of the mark, although new figures suggest more leaders left their jobs earlier in the pandemic. The government was warned about a “post-Covid exodus” of headteachers after a poll last year found nearly half were less than likely to remain in the […]

DfE eyes wider rollout of ‘glasses in classes’ and wellbeing schemes after opportunity areas success

Ministers have said they are considering rolling out schemes trialled in their 12 “opportunity areas” more widely, including a programme offering eye tests to reception pupils and a wellbeing programme. Michelle Donelan, the universities minister, who is also responsible for the opportunity areas programme, has written to education committee chair Robert Halfon with an update […]

DfE finally deletes pupil nationality and country of birth data

The Department for Education has finally deleted its controversial migrant children database, years after it stopped collecting pupil nationality data. Data collected from children in schools is for educational purposes. Not immigration enforcement Additional questions on nationality and country of birth were added to the school census in 2016, but removed in 2018 after a […]

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 […]

Narrowing attainment gap stopped being ‘main focus’ of DfE in 2015, says former permanent secretary

Efforts to narrow the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their better-off peers ceased to be a “main focus” for the Department for Education in 2015, its former top civil servant has claimed. Jonathan Slater, who served as permanent secretary at the DfE from 2016 until last year, said until the Covid-19 pandemic struck, the […]