Category Archives: Schools

Labour pledges to overhaul England’s school ratings with ‘report card’

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Shadow education secretary to announce policy aimed at giving parents more information than Ofsted’s current system

School ratings such as outstanding and inadequate would be scrapped in England under a Labour government and replaced with a “report card” aimed at helping parents, the shadow education secretary is to announce.

Bridget Phillipson will tell a headteachers’ conference in Birmingham on Saturday that Ofsted’s current system of ratings “is high stakes for staff but low information for parents” because it fails to convey important details about a school’s strengths and weaknesses.

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Teachers’ strikes in Wales called off after revised pay offer

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NEU members had been due to strike for two days next week but will now consider Welsh government’s proposal

Two days of strike action by teachers in Wales next week have been called off after the Welsh government proposed a revised pay offer.

Members of the National Education Union (NEU) were due to stop work on 15-16 March in a dispute over pay.

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Schools in England seeing more pupil absences on Fridays

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Change in parents’ work patterns since Covid may have led to pupils staying home

Schools in England are seeing “a huge amount” of pupil absence on Fridays with children staying at home with their parents following a shift in attitudes post-Covid, MPs have been told.

Dame Rachel de Souza, the children’s commissioner for England, told the education committee that persistent absence from schools is “one of the issues of our age” and called for a “razor sharp focus” on the problem.

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Heads warn UK parents not to back pupil protests spreading via TikTok

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Teachers condemn family support for trend escalating on social media that leads to school ‘stampedes’

The TikTok videos show pupils throwing bins, tables and even urine. Across England and Wales, a handful of schools have been hit by protests against rules such as banning trips to the toilet during lessons or regulations against rolled up skirts.

Schools admit they are extremely worried about the copycat protests that have erupted in the last two weeks, typically sparked by videos shared on TikTok with many thousands of views. But what has shocked many leaders most is the number of parents on social media applauding pupils taking part.

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Services in England for children with special needs to be ‘transformed’

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Government’s long-awaited plan promises thousands more specialist school places and new national standards

Services for children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) in England are to be “transformed”, with the introduction of new national standards and thousands more specialist school places, ministers have announced.

The long-awaited changes are being introduced to end the postcode lottery that families currently face and ensure that children and young people with Send get “high-quality, early support” wherever they live, the government says.

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Thousands of pupils in England lose out on first-choice secondary school place

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Of 33 councils polled, 18 reported a decline in the proportion of families getting their first preference

Thousands of 10 and 11-year-olds have failed to get into their first choice of secondary school as offers were made across England, but the expected increase in demand for year 7 places in some big cities once again failed to materialise.

There were predictions that the proportion of children awarded a place at their top choice could hit a record low nationally this year as a result of a baby boom 11 years ago, but in London and Birmingham the number of applications and success rates were similar to last year.

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England’s poorer pupils face ‘geographic exclusion’ from top state schools – study

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Offering places by proximity results in selection of pupils from more affluent households, say researchers

Disadvantaged children are suffering “geographic exclusion” from England’s best state schools because they cannot afford to live near those with the best exam results, according to new research published by the University of Bristol.

The research found that very few state secondary schools give priority to pupils who qualify for free school meals, despite the government’s admissions rules being redesigned more than eight years ago allowing them to do so.

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Tens of thousands of teachers prepare to strike in England and Wales

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Teachers in north of England to strike on Tuesday followed by members in other regions over course of three days

Tens of thousands of teachers will strike this week resulting in the closure of some schools as members of the National Education Union (NEU) take part in three days of industrial action.

With little sign of a solution to the dispute on the horizon, teachers in the north of England will strike on Tuesday, followed by members in the Midlands and eastern regions on Wednesday.

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At least 39 schools closed in last three years in England due to unsafe buildings

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Some state schools had to close down permanently due to extensive safety concerns

At least 39 state schools in England have been forced to close either partially or entirely in the last three years because one or more buildings have been deemed unsafe, the government has confirmed.

In three cases, concerns about building safety were so extensive that the entire school site had to be closed down permanently, with pupils moved off-site to alternative accommodation.

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Texting parents may help schools tackle ‘truancy crisis’ in England, say experts

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Call for more personalised approach on back of broader efforts to build deeper relationships with families

Personalised text messages to parents could be used to help improve school attendance rates, as teachers struggle to re-engage children and their families after the disruption of Covid, according to experts.

Lee Elliot Major, professor of social mobility at the University of Exeter, said there was a “national persistent truancy crisis” in England, with significantly more children now missing lessons compared with before the pandemic.

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Children returning from school trips delayed for six hours amid Calais strikes

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Home Office rejects suggestions strikes by Border Force staff in Calais, Dunkirk, Dover and Coquelles impacting wait times

Children and teachers returning to the UK from half-term school trips have endured delays of more than six hours at Calais, amid strike action by Border Force staff.

P&O Ferries told customers that long wait times were “due to the queues at border control who are also on strike”, though the government rejected suggestions that industrial action was having an impact on wait times.

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Teachers handing out toothpaste as rising UK costs hit pupils’ dental health

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Three-quarters of teachers surveyed say they have noticed children lacking access to toothpaste and toothbrushes

Four out of five UK teachers have given toothbrushes and toothpaste to students, with the cost of living crisis affecting the oral health of children, according to new research.

A survey of secondary teachers by hygiene poverty charity Beauty Banks and the British Dental Association (BDA) has revealed that 81% of teachers say some children in their school have no access to toothpaste, with 41% saying this leads to them being socially excluded because of poor oral hygiene.

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Ministers and unions dig in amid widespread strike action across UK

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Little prospect of breakthrough as strikes hit schools, trains, universities and border checks across country

Unions and the government appeared as far apart as ever, after Wednesday’s widespread strike action closed thousands of schools across England and Wales.

Striking workers from participating unions held rallies in cities including Bristol, Brighton, Birmingham and London, as teachers, university staff, rail workers and civil servants stopped work to demand better pay.

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No 10 refuses to deny Sunak was given informal warning about Raab’s behaviour before he made him deputy PM – live

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Dominic Raab under increasing pressure as civil servants’ union calls for him to be suspended until bullying inquiry concludes

MPs have been told that paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland have coerced young people with drug debts to take part in rioting, PA Media reports. PA says:

A community worker gave an example of a user’s debt being reduced by £80 for doing so.

Megan Phair, coordinator of the Journey to Empowerment Programme and member of the Stop Attacks Forum, said both loyalist and dissident republican groups use the tactic to force people on to the streets.

It’s time for the prime minister to come out of hiding and face the music. The public deserves to know the truth about what he knew and when, including the full disclosure of any advice given to him by the Cabinet Office.

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Disruption across UK as strikes hit schools, trains, universities and border checks – as it happened

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UK public warned of ‘significant disruption’ from strikes involving teachers, civil servants, Border Force staff and train drivers

Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, speaking from a teachers’ picket line in Warwick, said:

I think Gillian Keegan [the education secretary] is hoping our strike is ineffective and people won’t do it again.

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Up to half a million to strike across UK as talks go ‘backwards’

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Action by teachers, civil servants, Border Force staff and train drivers to go ahead, with ministers accused of ‘stonewalling’

Up to half a million workers will go on strike on Wednesday with thousands of schools shut, rail lines closed down and significant border disruption, as unions said negotiations on ending strikes were “going backwards”.

Ministers have been accused of “hoodwinking the public” and freezing any moves towards a settlement with NHS workers and rail unions. Government sources privately conceded that optimism at the beginning of the month about bringing an end to industrial action had faded.

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Woman, 29, arrested for allegedly posing as high school student in New Jersey

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Investigators accuse Hyejeong Shin of providing fake birth certificate to enroll in New Brunswick high school

A 29-year-old woman who allegedly enrolled in a New Jersey high school and posed as a student has been arrested, authorities said this week.

The woman – identified by police as Hyejeong Shin – faces a charge of providing a false government document with the intent to lie about her age in a case which again demonstrates that officials in real life do not respond kindly to the plots of movies such as 1999’s Never Been Kissed and 1987’s Hiding Out being carried out under their watch.

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Good early years teaching may boost earnings of children in England – study

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Study reports one in 40 primary schools in England produce entire classes likely to earn more than their peers

Never mind getting a place at Oxbridge – a child’s future earnings can be significantly improved by the quality of their teachers at the age of four, according to new research.

The researchers used Department for Education (DfE) databases to connect adults’ earnings to the reception classes attended. The results highlight the outsized influence of early years’ education, finding that one in 40 primary schools in England produce entire classes likely to gain more money than their peers.

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Most UK voters still back strikes by nurses and ambulance crews

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Public support for industrial action by health workers remains strong in the face of government claims it is putting lives at risk

A majority of voters continue to support striking nurses and ambulance workers, despite government claims that they are putting the public at risk, according to the latest Opinium poll for the Observer.

Labour has also increased its lead over the Tories by 1 percentage point, to 16 points, after the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, and other cabinet ministers tried to make political capital by accusing Keir Starmer and his party of being in the pockets of the unions at a time of industrial unrest, the survey shows.

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Labour look to force vote on ending private schools’ tax breaks

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Opposition day debate seeks to establish committee to investigate reforming tax benefits enjoyed by independent schools

Labour will attempt to force a binding vote on ending private schools’ tax breaks and use the £1.7bn a year raised from this to drive new teacher recruitment.

The motion submitted by Keir Starmer’s party for the opposition day debate on Wednesday is drafted to push the charitable status scheme that many private schools enjoy to be investigated, as the party attempts to shift the political focus on to education.

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