Back to School....

As children start gathering up their backpacks and troop back to school for a new term, here's a little encouragement - interesting snapshots of fellow pupils from various classrooms around the world, pens poised, ready to work...

Image: theguardian.com

Breakfast clubs

The outcomes of a project titled 'Magic Breakfast' have now been published by the Education Endowment Foundation, the results of which have been positive. Support and resources were provided for free breakfast clubs to be set up at 106 schools from Year 2 up to Year 6 pupils, with the aim being to improve attainment outcomes by increasing the number of children who ate a healthy breakfast. 

For those considering setting up a breakfast club, this publication is a useful starting point.

Work in progress...

DfE are currently consulting on proposals to amend the literacy and numeracy qualification requirements for qualified Early Years Educators.

The National Audit Office has begun a study on DfE’s plans to improve teacher retention and workforce quality. It will examine progress made so far, in regards to improving the quality of the teaching workforce and teacher retention and encouraging trained ex-teachers to re-enter the workforce. Earlier this year, the DfE set out plans to achieve educational excellence across the country, following on from the NAO report Training new teachers.

Estyn are seeking the views of teachers, senior leaders, policy makers and everyone with an interest in education, on proposed changes to the ways schools and other providers will be inspected from September 2017 onwards. 

To help boost standards in schools across Wales, plans have been announced to set up a new National Network of Excellence for Mathematics.

Education Update

The Government has now decided to scrap the Education Bill introduced earlier this year; many were relieved that state schools will not be forced to become academies by 2022. Parts of the bill expected to survive include the proposed revamp of initial teacher training and an overhaul of the National College for Teaching and Leadership.

The DfE has also been busy with two other bills: the children and social work bill and the higher education and research bill; there is also the technical and further education bill which will have its second reading debate next Monday.  Also expected from Justine Greening, new education secretary, are proposals on extending grammar schools in the 'Schools that Work for Everyone' consultation to be published early next year.

In the meantime, authorities are concerned about the planned cuts of £600m from the education services grant awarded to councils and academies. 

Conference: Building Parental Confidence and Enabling SEND Success

Birmingham City Council's SEND service will be hosting a one day conference on 29th June. Attendees can expect to :

• Hear from the leading experts in the field. 
• Discover how effective parental engagement can have a dramatic impact upon pupil attainment in a very short period of time; for all groups of pupils, including those children considered ‘hard to reach,’ SEND pupils and those from disadvantaged backgrounds. 
• Find out how schools can best move forwards to build parental confidence and bring about success for all pupils, including those with SEND.  Find out more

Regional Schools Commissioners

Eight Regional Schools Commissioners (RSCs) were appointed in September 2014 to oversee the growing numbers of academies in England and have since become increasingly prominent. In fact, their roles are likely to expand to include decision-making in tackling poor performing local authority (LA) maintained schools as well as coasting schools. 

Further to the Government's report laying out plans to turn all maintained schools into academies by 2022, research by the Local Government Association (LGA) found that 86% of council-maintained schools are now rated 'good' or 'outstanding' by Ofsted, compared with 82% of academies. They also found that 'inadequate' council-maintained schools are more likely to improve if they stay with their local authority, rather than being forced to convert to an academy.

Duty of Care for Excluded Children

Campaigners of the School Exclusion Project are urging the government to hold headteachers to account for their duty of care towards pupils they have excluded "to ensure that such children are in practice met by a parent, guardian or approved carer".

Free School Meals

More than 100 MPs from various parties have introduced a bill to Parliament to compel local authorities to automatically register all children who are eligible, for free school meals. To set the ball rolling, the new Birmingham City Council leader, John Clancy, has pledged to set up a Free School Meals Trust to begin the process of making Birmingham a ‘free school meals city.’ It would be an incremental roll out, school by school, as funding is secured. He said the Free School Meals Trust would attract funding and sponsorship from businesses and charities to speed up the process. He hopes the trust will appeal for support from businesses, such as Asda and Primark, as part of their commitments to corporate social responsibility.  

Recent Stories...

Here's a round-up of research and news:

A new report, 'Supporting the attainment of disadvantaged pupils' was published in November. Written by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), it is based on national research, gathered through surveys and interviews from 1,329 primary, secondary and special schools across the country.

There has been an amendment to the DfE's ‘Getting the simple things right: Charlie Taylor’s behaviour checklists’: from January 2016, schools will no longer have an obligation to use home-school agreements and it explains the powers members of staff have to discipline pupils. A supporting guide, 'Behaviour and discipline in schools', has also been produced for headteachers and school governing bodies.

The BBC reported that super-size schools, accommodating upto 3000 children will need to be created over the next ten years to cope with the rapid rise in England's birth rate. This coincides rather neatly with another recent story about the world's largest school - City Montessori school in Lucknow, India, which accommodates about 52,000 students in 1,050 classrooms. Meanwhile, head teachers in England say schools are facing increasing difficulties in recruiting new teachers and are having to spend a growing share of their budget on supply staff.

Finally, the Royal Society of Edinburgh says having Stampy Cat, one of the world's most popular YouTube stars, deliver its Christmas lecture, was the "biggest event" in the organisation's history. Joseph Garrett's lecture offered an insight into how he makes the videos, showing children how careers could be forged in industries that did not exist three or four years ago.

Religious Education

This briefing introduces the rules around RE in state-funded schools; it addressess concerns that have been raised about the quality of RE teaching, including the number of RE teachers with qualifications relevant to the subject. It also provides information on other related issues, such as the parental right of withdrawal from RE, and the rules on collective worship in schools.

A separate report 'Collective Worship and Religious Observance in Schools' has been published recently; it recommends that Governments in the UK should reappraise the duties on schools to organise acts of collective worship (England, Northern Ireland, Wales) or religious observance (Scotland) for their pupils. It also includes recommendations with respect to the current implementation of the law and policy surrounding collective worship and religious observance.

The 'Westminster Faith Debates' bring together leading academic and public figures to debate the latest research on religion and values. A debate in June entitled: 'A New Settlement: Religion and Belief in Schools' has been documented online.

Related links:

National Association of Teachers of Religious Education

Religious Education Council of England and Wales

Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education (SACRE)

Faith Makes a Difference

Time for Wellbeing

Figures show that more than half of UK teachers are thinking about leaving the classroom within the next two years, largely as a result of stress, heavy workloads and low morale. To help address this issue and the wellbeing of pupils, Nuffield Health will be launching a pilot project at Wood Green School in Oxfordshire by sponsoring a head of wellbeing for two years.

Some of the tasks for the jobholder will be to look at the link between student wellbeing and attainment, to investigate new ways to use classroom time to increase wellbeing and campaigning to improve mental and physical health, with a focus on exercise and nutrition  The wellbeing of the staff will also be a primary concern; as part of this pilot, teachers will receive a health MOT, which will highlight healthy changes they can make to their routines. The role will also involve engagement with the local community, in particular parents.

On the subject of wellbeing, many UK schools have introduced yoga and are seeing the benefits to their staff and pupils. The Yoga At School website offers a range of articles, case studies and resources for teachers.

On their own terms....

A research study has found that of 500 teachers, only 4% of them would consider imposing staggered terms and more than half said they were not even aware that staggering was an option. Since September, headteachers have had the power to set their own dates for school terms with the hope that this will produce staggered school holiday dates, which could reduce holiday prices for families. The issue was debated in the House of Commons earlier this week when MPs heard that 90% of school heads would welcome advice from the government about what constitutes an “exceptional circumstance”. 

No Fall Back for Body Clocks...

The extra hour in bed as the clocks turn back is always welcomed and a sure sign that Autumn has arrived. On the topic of sleep, a study has shown that the body clocks of those aged between 10 and 55 are not compatible with rising early - it's not natural, hence the reason for using alarm clocks. This has led to a generally sleep deprived society, particularly tough for those aged between 14 and 24. Dr Kelley, who has led the research, has suggested that school days should start at 10am and university at 11am, to better match the circadian rhythms of adolescents and young adults. Teensleep, a project involving randomised trials have been carried out at schools across the UK to look at the outcomes of later starts for pupils - findings will be published in 2018.

A number of schools, including Hampton Court House, have already changed to later start times. The benefits may mean better GCSE grades by improving learning, performance and attainment.

Education Inspection: the future

Ofsted recently held a launch event for a common inspection framework which has been remodelled for further education and skills, schools and early years. The slides presented at the event are all available here.

From September, Ofsted will inspect good schools and further education and skills providers once every three years under a new short inspection model. Starting from a premise that the school or provider is still good, inspectors look to ensure that those standards are being maintained as well as checking that leaders have identified key areas of concern and that they have the capacity to address them. 

Too much homework?

The debate on whether homework should be scrapped has been an long-standing one. Now, excessive homework is being blamed on the rise of mental health illness in children and young people. A “high-stakes achievement culture” is also being cited amongst the reasons given for a rise in anxiety and depression. This follows on from a recent announcement by Cheltenham Ladies’ College, that it will be carrying out a review on whether to abolish homework. However, when one school in New York decided to scrap homework, parents were not pleased....

And whilst the West has been inspired by the success of Asian education systems, a report by Professor Yong Zhao indicates that Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore and Shanghai are turning their attention to cultivating “twenty-first century skills” in their children, such as creativity, communication, collaboration and higher order thinking skills; they are also more concerned about student social-emotional and physical health.

SEND Resources

If you are looking for statutory SEND guidance for schools, colleges or children's services, you will find all current documentation on this page. Alongside the SEND Code of Practice, there are supporting guides for teaching and learning, disabled children and a number of documents providing research and statistics.

A recent study published in the Review of Educational Research, examines predictors of success for students with disabilities in relation to their education, employment, and independent living. The extensive research gathered data on 16,957 individuals from 35 sources published between 1984 and 2010. 

For those of you who may be interested in working in Special Needs, this presentation outlines the role of a SEN consultant with useful examples on the types of support they provide.

On TV ....

'Born Naughty?', is a series of four programmes, each week looking at a different childhood issue. Last night, the spotlight was on ADHD as it followed long-suffering parents of children who they suspect may have the condition. The programme is available to view here.

On the other channel, the Tonight Programme investigated the dilemma faced by parents each year as they try to get their children into the school of their choice and some of the difficult decisions they are faced with. 

Party Policy Guide

Election Day is tomorrow and if you have been left feeling a little 'pledged-out' and perhaps none the wiser, then this might help - CYPNow have published a concise policy guide, which clearly sets out the proposals made by the Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats on key issues for children, young people and families.

The guide covers 14 key areas: careers advice, child health, child poverty, children’s rights, crime and youth justice, early years and childcare, families and parenting, joint working, post-16 learning, public spending, safeguarding and care, schools, welfare, and youth services. 

Basildon: A Model for Educational Excellence

In just two years, several failing schools in Basildon have turned the tables, receiving 'good' or 'outstanding' Ofsted ratings in 2013. Other schools have improved and by next year, headteachers across the town are confident all their schools will be rated “good” or “outstanding”.

There have been several contributing factors to these achievements: successful schools have agreed to step in and  help out struggling neighbours immediately if needed; all schools, academies and local authority-maintained schools, have signed up for the town’s excellence panel; the town’s teaching school, Lee Chapel, sees its role as training new recruits for every primary school in the town - not just its own; successful heads act as mentors to newly-appointed ones.

Now Basildon's pioneering model could be adopted by schools across the rest of the country. Plans are already underway to extend the scheme to other counties and possibly, extending the blueprint to secondary schools too.

Off on a teaching placement?

If you are off on a teaching placement soon, then this article is for you. 

Teachers share their knowledge on how to make a good impression 

while on a teaching placement, with their top 10 tips to help it to go smoothly.