DfE | Schools Week

School are not mini-immigration offices – and never should be

Schools should not make parents show their children’s passports. For anything. That’s a really simple rule. It’s also a rule the Department for Education won’t write that clearly. I don’t know why. But it should. So let us be clear. Schools have no right to make parents show a passport. Schools do not need to […]

DfE admits to alternative provision failures

The government “needs to do better” for pupils in alternative provision, says a senior civil servant following claims that teens have been left in “grotty” institutions with an “ad-hoc” approach to safeguarding. Harriet Becher, the deputy director of the Department for Education’s disadvantage division, said outcomes for children attending pupil referral units were “not good […]

Pupils who were not white British told to send in birthplace data

Schools are demanding copies of pupils’ passports, and asking parents to confirm if their children are asylum seekers or refugees amid confusion over a new legal duty requiring the collection of nationality data. Schools Week revealed in June that the Department for Education (DfE) had expanded the census details schools must collect from this month […]

Top DfE advisor says consultations are never a ‘sham’

Use evidence and examples and avoid insulting ministers or writing “a diatribe” if you want to get yourself heard in government consultations. This advice from Tim Leunig the Department for Education’s chief analyst, at the researchED conference on Saturday could not have come at a more relevant time, as educationists across England prepare to tell […]

Special needs funding plan shown to be ‘unreliable’

The government’s proposed new way of funding early education for children with special educational needs will fail to distribute resources adequately and result in some being “turned away”, an expert claims. A Department for Education (DfE) consultation on changes to how free childcare and early education for three and four-year-olds is funded, including a new […]

Complaints lodged against schools triple in 3 years

The Department for Education (DfE) has been hit with an alarming rise in complaints made against schools, with the figure more than tripling over the past three years. There were more than 4,500 complaints made to the department in the period between August 2014 and July 2015, a dramatic rise on the previous 12 months, […]

Schools community welcomes early years funding overhaul

School funding experts have broadly welcomed government proposals to overhaul early years funding and invest an extra £1 billion so providers can deliver the Conservative party’s manifesto pledge for 30-hour free childcare. The Department for Education yesterday launched a consultation over plans to fund early years providers by a national funding formula – with providers […]

Meet Nick Gibb’s new ‘teacher in residence’

If you’ve heard the schools minister Nick Gibb deliver a speech in the past few years, there’s a strong chance it was written by one of his “teachers in residence”. The scheme, which sees serving teachers employed as civil servants by the Department for Education (DfE) for periods of between eight and 12 months, has […]

Gibb becomes ‘school standards’ minister in DfE reshuffle

A shake-up of ministerial roles at the Department for Education has been announced, with some interesting changes following the appointment of new education secretary Justine Greening. Nick Gibb, the former schools minister, is getting an expanded brief under a new “school standards” remit, while many key responsibilities have been passed to Lord Nash, one of […]