Queen’s speech set to include crackdown on unregulated schools

Proposals to include threat of jail and unlimited fines for proprietors who ignore safeguarding concerns

A planned crackdown on unsafe or unregulated independent schools is expected to be included in next week’s Queen’s speech, including the threat of jail sentences and unlimited fines for proprietors who ignore safeguarding concerns.

The Department for Education (DfE) said it was ready to submit legislation to give the government and Ofsted wider powers to investigate and close private schools in England, with plans to broaden its definition of a school to force more settings to officially register.

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Ban permanent exclusions from English primaries, says ex-children’s tsar

Anne Longfield says ‘exclusions culture’ rewards removal of some vulnerable children from school roll

Primary schools should no longer permanently exclude pupils, and measures of wellbeing should be included alongside exam results in school league tables, according to a report by the former children’s commissioner for England.

The Commission on Young Lives, headed by Anne Longfield, argues that exclusions can be highly damaging to those affected, putting young people at risk of exploitation, serious violence and criminal activity.

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Ofsted will step up early-years focus to address lockdown impact

Young children thought to be lagging behind in communication and skills due to Covid disruption

The schools watchdog Ofsted is to increase its focus on early-years education as part of its new five-year strategy, to address the devastating impact of the pandemic on some of the youngest children in England.

Ofsted is concerned that children in early years are lagging behind in their communication and language skills owing to Covid disruption, while the sector is under pressure as thousands of staff have left since the first lockdown and childcare providers are down by 5,000.

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UK teachers popping pills as workload grinds them down, union told

NASUWT conference delegates condemn non-stop culture that puts colleagues on long-term sick leave

Teachers are “popping pills” and are on long-term sick leave, ground down by a culture of non-stop school emails and WhatsApp messages that “ding and ping” day and night, a conference has been told.

Delegate after delegate took to the platform at the annual conference of the NASUWT teachers’ union in Birmingham to condemn the increase in workload and describe the devastating impact on health and wellbeing.

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Bring back free Covid tests for exam candidates, UK schools urge

Pupils set to take first GCSEs and A-levels for three years, but invigilators are wary of working in halls with no protective measures

After the disruption of the pandemic, Helen Fields knew this Easter holiday would be a crucial time for her sons to revise for their GCSE and A-level exams. Instead, 16-year-old Solomon caught Covid and has been too unwell to concentrate, and 18-year-old Gabriel is suffering “serious anxiety”, having never sat high-stakes exams.

Summer term starts this week for many, but the Association of School and College Leaders union (ASCL) told the Observer that the first public exams for three years, which start on 16 May, will “certainly not be a return to business as usual”. The union says soaring infection rates played havoc with exam preparation last term, and their members can’t see why the government won’t bring back free Covid tests for these pupils, to avoid the virus spreading in exam halls.

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Primary school children in Victoria set to no longer have to wear masks in the classroom in term 2

Health minister Martin Foley to ‘reconsider all health orders’ including mask requirements once Covid cases hit expected plateau later this month

Mask requirements for primary school-age students in Victoria are expected to be scrapped in term 2 if Covid cases continue to stabilise, as the state government reconsiders all the state’s restrictions.

The state recorded 12 deaths and 10,293 new cases on Tuesday – a slight increase from Monday’s 9,597 infections – while there were 376 people in hospital with the virus, including 19 people in intensive care.

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As Britain learns to live with Covid, it faces a new pandemic of disruption

Staff shortages, delays and rising prices are playing havoc with the healthcare, education, farming, hospitality and travel sectors

Although the UK no longer faces the threat of lockdowns or intensive care units being imminently overrun, coronavirus is still disrupting much of society and the economy.

As Britain learns to live with Covid, the virus is still playing havoc with our daily lives, and these difficulties have been compounded by post-Brexit chaos in some in sectors.

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‘Pop quiz’ Ofsted tests are downgrading schools unfairly, say heads

New inspection system requires pupils to face questions without prior notice

Schools are being downgraded by Ofsted if children questioned by inspectors cannot recall the names of rivers in geography or struggle to explain key concepts in history, according to headteachers.

Under a new inspection framework, schools risk being marked down if pupils fail to adequately recall or articulate what they have been taught, sometimes years before, when given an impromptu “pop quiz” by inspectors. At one flagship secondary school, an outstanding rating was lowered to good when 11- and 12-year-olds were unable to explain clearly “the principle of the rule of law”.

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Ministers to make school week a minimum of 32.5 hours in England

Unions and Labour criticise plan that is among suite of changes to be set out on Monday

Schools in England will have to offer a minimum school week of 32.5 hours as part of a package of reforms aimed at raising standards, which Labour and unions have condemned as insufficient to support schools that have been left “battered and bruised” by the pandemic.

Most schools already deliver a 32.5 hour school week, which is equivalent to 8.45am to 3.15pm from Monday to Friday. However, the government believes there are discrepancies across the country, since 20 minutes less teaching time a day equates to a loss of two weeks of schooling a year.

However, teaching unions said they were “unconvinced by the benefits” of introducing a minimum length for school weeks since Department for Education figures suggest three-quarters of schools already offer 32.5-hour weeks.

Geoff Barton, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said it was important to understand the reasons why some schools have fewer hours, for example, some rural schools may choose start and finish times to suit transport arrangements.

He said: “Adding time on to the school week may sound straightforward, but there are many issues which need to be considered in individual schools, and we would encourage the government not to rush any changes.”

Paul Whiteman, the general secretary of school leaders’ union National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), was sceptical that adding under 20 minutes to the school day would “bring much, if any, benefit”, and asked that the plan be underpinned by a review of evidence.

Labour criticised the plans for being too limited in scope to tackle the scale of the problems with educational standards, with 200,000 primary age children living in areas with no schools rated as good or outstanding and the pandemic widening the learning gap between richer and poorer children.

Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, said: “After two years of pandemic chaos and six years since the government’s last schools strategy, parents, teachers and pupils will be left wondering where the ambition for children’s futures is. For almost eight in 10 schools the education secretary’s big idea is to carry on as normal.”

Kevin Courtney, the joint general secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), said the plans would not “address the huge challenges that battered and bruised schools face to support all their pupils during and beyond a pandemic”.

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Two Met officers who strip-searched school girl removed from frontline duties

Police commander also admits Met has problem with officers treating inner London children as ‘adults’

Two of the five officers who were involved in the traumatic strip search of a 15-year-old black girl in her school in Hackney, London, have been removed from frontline duties, the Metropolitan police has confirmed.

The admission came at a community meeting on Wednesday evening as anger over the treatment of the girl, known as Child Q, continues. The meeting was originally supposed to take place in person but had to be moved online after the police force could not find a venue. More than 250 people attended, with more wanting to but unable to join because of the meeting’s limit.

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Racism cited as factor in police strip search of girl, 15, at London school

Black child’s ordeal, which involved exposure of intimate body parts, took place without parental consent, review finds

A black child was subjected by police to a strip search at her London school that involved exposure of intimate body parts, according to an official investigation which found racism was likely to have been an “influencing factor” in the officers’ actions.

No appropriate adult was present during the 15-year-old girl’s ordeal, described by a senior local authority figure as “humiliating, traumatising and utterly shocking” and which took place without parental consent and in the knowledge that she was menstruating.

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Restrict phones to improve child social mobility in UK, says commission chair

Katharine Birbalsingh tells school leaders’ conference ‘all the problems start on smartphones’

Schools and parents can improve the social mobility of disadvantaged children by restricting access to smartphones, the chair of the government’s social mobility commission has said.

Katharine Birbalsingh told the Association of School and College Leaders annual conference: “If we genuinely want things to be fairer, and we want our disadvantaged children to be socially mobile, the best thing I can do for them is getting them not to have a smartphone.”

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Museum visits do not improve GCSE results, study reveals

Report finds no correlation between better exam grades and exposure to ‘middle-class’ outings

A family trip to the theatre or an afternoon at a museum may be a fun day out, but new research suggests that such cultural outings will not actually help children secure higher grades.

There have been persistent theories that wealthier children may be given an advantage in their school careers by being pressed into visits to art galleries and exhibitions. According to a new academic study, however, outings often regarded as “middle class” had no correlation with improved GCSE results.

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Covid made parents ‘more relaxed’ about unauthorised holidays – Ofsted

Chief inspector tells leaders the pandemic has ‘fractured the social contract between parents and schools’

The Covid pandemic has made families “more relaxed” about their children staying home or going on unauthorised holidays, fracturing the social contract between parents and schools in England, according to the head of Ofsted.

Amanda Spielman, Ofsted’s chief inspector, said she was concerned about the high level of absences among pupils, telling the Association of School and College Leaders annual conference: “Some parents have health concerns for themselves or family members and wait in hope for a highly unlikely zero-Covid future.

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National tutoring scheme failing disadvantaged pupils, say MPs

Consultancy firm Randstad’s contract ‘must end’ unless it delivers learning missed during Covid

A national tutoring programme is failing to help the children who need it most, according to MPs, who say ministers should terminate their contract with the consultancy firm running the scheme unlessit “shapes up”.

A report by the education select committee gives a scathing account of the government’s £5bn national tutoring programme (NTP), which aims to help children in England catch up on learning missed during the lockdowns of 2020 and 2021.

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Revealed: money for educating excluded children funded Bolton bar owner’s social life

Call for ‘seismic change’ in social care system after Robert McGuinness’s use of funds

The owner of a children’s home in Bolton shut down for “serious and widespread failures” spent thousands intended for educating marginalised children on drinking, foreign trips and his pub business, the Guardian can reveal.

Between 2015 and 2021, £1.5m was paid by two local authorities to a “community interest company” (CIC) run by Robert McGuinness, the main director of the children’s home. The CIC was set up to provide vocational training to children from years 9 to 11 (ages 14-16) excluded from mainstream schools.

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‘I last went to school in December’: a headteacher’s battle with long Covid

Steve Bladon led his Lincolnshire school tirelessly through the pandemic and thought the worst was over – then fatigue set in

Last month, Steve Bladon, a father of four, watched with some unease as the prime minister announced the lifting of all Covid restrictions in England. After two years of the pandemic – the lockdowns, the legal requirements to self-isolate, the social distancing and mandatory masks – the message from government was that it may not be over, but it’s time to learn to live with Covid.

As the headteacher of a primary school in a small town in Lincolnshire, Bladon, 46, knows as much as anyone about living with the virus. He has led his team and school community tirelessly through the pandemic, delivering remote education and food parcels, reassuring anxious parents and keeping colleagues calm.

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Children ‘breathe out fewer aerosols’, which may reduce Covid risk – study

Primary-aged children produce about four times fewer particles than adults, which may help explain their lower transmission risk

Primary school-aged children produce about four times fewer aerosol particles when breathing, speaking or singing compared with adults, which could help explain why they seem to be at lower risk of spreading Covid.

Various studies have suggested that young children are about half as susceptible to catching Covid as adults, and, despite carrying a similar amount of virus in their noses and throats, appear to pass it to fewer people if they do become infected.

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Lifting of Covid rules in England ‘will lead to rise in home schooling’

Fears over ‘forced exclusion’ of vulnerable pupils whose families will be too scared to send them to school

The lifting of Covid restrictions in England will lead to a further rise in home schooling and the “forced exclusion” of immunosuppressed pupils whose families will be too scared to send them to school, an academy trust leader has warned.

Steve Chalke, the founder of the Oasis academy trust of 52 schools, said the scrapping of twice-weekly testing in school communities and the legal requirement to self-isolate after a positive test was “a huge gamble”.

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Zimbabwe’s striking teachers told to return to work or lose their jobs

Government sets deadline for 135,000 teachers to end pay strike, ignoring court order, after year of school closures due to Covid

The classrooms of Kambuzuma high school are deserted, with no staff to be seen and Tanaka Mupasiri*, 16, and his friends are milling around the school yard. It is 9am on a Thursday, normally a time when the school, in a high-density suburb or township on the outskirts of Harare, would be a hive of studious activity but Zimbabwe’s national teachers’ strike has thrown the education system into crisis.

Teachers in state schools have not been at work since 7 February and face a government deadline of Tuesday to return or lose their jobs.

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