23 March 2020 Government to focus on improving the exam results of children in need

The Department for Education (DfE) is launching a consultation to change the role of the designated safeguarding leads in schools so there is a greater focus on improving the academic achievement of vulnerable pupils

The change will include more a detailed tracking of attendance and attainment data for children in need

Children in need often have lower educational outcomes than other pupils; they are more likely to be persistently absent and excluded from school

16 March 2020 Government anoounces specialist mathematics school in every Englsh region

Last week's budget stated that £7m would be available to open eleven specialist mathematics schools, one in each English region, for 16 to 19 year olds.

Secondary schools will receive £90m a year to invest in arts programmes and extra-curricular activities, whilst there will be £29m a years towards improving primary school PE teaching.

9 March 2020 Key Stage 1 SATs replacement rolled out in September

The Department for Education (DfE) has announced that from September 2020 all new primary school pupils will take the new reception baseline assessment (RBA) that will replace SATs in Year 2

Following pilots all over the country, the RBA, a one-to-one exercise done in 20 minutes with a teacher in an informal setting, will be taken by chldren in their first six weeks of a primary school

The move paves the way for the removal of the Key Stage 2 SATs from 2022/23

In the RBA, children will be assessed orally through simple tasks such as counting or desribing pictures, reflecting the types of activities which many parents already do with their children at home

2 March 2020 Experts to tackle poor behaviour in schools

The Department for Education (DfE) is setting up a new team of experts to help schools tackle poor behaviour

Schools with exemplary behaviour practices are being invited to lead the Government's new programme to improve discipline in schools

They will be supported by behaviour experts and help schools which are facing challenges, yet at the same time recognising that different schools require different approaches

The behaviour hubs will build on the work of Ofsted, and headteachers will also continue to be backed to use exclusions where they are warranted, together with a focus on raising the quality of alternative provision in order to improve outcomes for excluded pupils

The programme aims to recruit up to 20 lead schools in this application round, with plans to support over 500 schools over a three-year period from September of this year

24 February 2020 Schools get an extra year to bring curriculum into line with new Ofsted framework

Schools will get an extra year to bring their curriculum into line with Ofsted's new inspection framework, after the inspectorate announced an extension to its transition period

The new framework, which places greater weight on curriculum content and less on outcomes, came into effect last September.  However, Ofsted also gave a year-long transition period so that schools which have a plan to review their curriculum, and can demonstrate action to do so, are not penalised

Now Ofsted has said that the transition period will be extended for another year, so that schools will have this protection until July 2021.  However, the transition arrangements will only apply to the descriptors of 'what good looks like' and not to the 'outstanding' and 'inadequate' judgements

10 February 2020 DfE extends academy trust capacity fund to rural maintained schools

Rural schools maintained by local authorities will be able to access DfE funding for the first time in order to encourage them to become academies and form new multi-academy trusts

The DfE has extended the trust capacity fund, which was originally launched last year.  The fund will continue to be used to support strong trusts to grow and innovate, accelerate the development of mid-sized trusts and create new strong trusts

However, it can now be used to support outstanding or good local authority maintained schools to collaborate and create new, strong multi-academy trusts

6 February 2020 NGA advises that trust chair and member roles should be separate

The National Governors' Association (NGA) has advised academy trust chairs also serving as members to give up one of their roles

Sam Henson, director of policy and information at the NGA, said that members have a role in 'casting an eye over how effective the governance of the trust is, and so they have to be free from conflict to do so'

The Department for Education's strong preference is for a majority of the members to be independent of the board of trustees