PM dismissed claims that he failed to properly fund school rebuilding plans when he was chancellor
Lisa Nandy has been made shadow cabinet minister for international development. She was shadow levelling up secretary.
Lisa Nandy MP @LisaNandy has been appointed Shadow Cabinet Minister for International Development.
Continue reading...PM shown evidence of ‘critical risk to life’ when chancellor, says former top civil servant at Department for Education
Rishi Sunak refused to properly fund a school rebuilding programme when he was chancellor, despite officials presenting evidence that there was “a critical risk to life” from crumbling concrete panels, the Department for Education’s former head civil servant has said.
After the department told Sunak’s Treasury that there was a need to rebuild 300 to 400 schools a year in England, he gave funding for only 100, which was then halved to 50, said Jonathan Slater, the permanent secretary of the department from 2016 to 2020.
Continue reading...Party to use parliamentary mechanism to force reveal of English schools affected by concrete safety crisis
Labour plans to force a vote to compel the government to reveal the full list of schools affected by the Raac building safety crisis.
It comes amid growing demands for transparency over the extent of the impact of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) in public buildings.
Continue reading...Senior civil servant says ‘many alerts’ crossed education secretary’s desk, but UK government was more concerned with saving money
A senior civil service whistleblower has told the Observer that Tory ministers and their political advisers were “dangerously complacent” about crumbling school buildings constructed with aerated concrete, and that they were more concerned with saving money than improving safety.
The source, who worked in the private office of Nadhim Zahawi, the then education secretary, saw regular alerts crossing his desk. He said ministers and special advisers were “trying to get away with spending as little as they could” and hoping to “make do” rather than treating the problem with the urgency it required.
Continue reading...Labour demands urgent audit of government’s handling of longstanding concerns about Raac
England’s growing buildings crisis could expand beyond schools to other public buildings such as hospitals and courts, experts have said.
More than 100 schools were forced to partially or fully close this week after a dramatic escalation of the government’s approach towards crumbling concrete.
Continue reading...Labour calls for audit of handling of longstanding safety fears as government pledges to fund repairs expected to cost at least £100m
Headteachers are racing to find temporary classrooms for thousands of children amid a growing building safety crisis that has left ministers under pressure to explain why they were slow to shut buildings in more than 100 schools.
With the new academic year due to start next week, Labour demanded an urgent audit of the government’s handling of longstanding safety fears about aerated concrete found in the roofs, floors and walls of hundreds of schools, hospitals and other public buildings.
Continue reading...From Essex to Cumbria, many are dismayed by timing of the government’s action on aerated concrete in buildings
On Thursday, the emails that have left headteachers reeling started to arrive. A ruling from ministers in the Department for Education said their schools, built using potentially dangerous concrete, would need to close or partially close.
Within hours, parents and children had been informed. Many were left angry and confused by the timing of the announcement, just before the start of a new school year. Schools across England were left with days to improvise temporary classrooms from marquees or empty office buildings, or arrange to share space with unaffected schools. The majority of schools will open as usual but for tens of thousands of pupils the new academic year will start like no other.
Continue reading...Schools minister Nick Gibb said the collapse happened at a school previously thought to have been at no risk from aerated concrete
We want to speak to school leaders and staff at affected schools or colleges in England. Does your building contain aerated concrete? What are you planning to do?
What communications have you received? How will this affect you?
Continue reading...Nick Gibb says buildings continue to be surveyed for risk of collapse after over 100 were told to shut
The schools minister has warned more schools in England could face closure after more than 100 were told to shut just days before term starts for thousands of pupils.
The government has refused to publicly reveal the 104 education facilities that have been told to shut buildings due to the presence of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC), a material at risk of collapse.
Continue reading...A week before start of term, DfE says buildings should be taken out of use regardless of assessed risk
More than 100 schools are facing the immediate closure of buildings constructed from potentially dangerous aerated concrete panels, plunging the beginning of term into chaos for thousands of pupils.
The government has found that 156 schools in England have reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) materials but only 52 have put mitigations in place against risks including collapse, it admitted on Thursday. Engineers have warned the material is at risk of cracking and spalling and of “shear failure”.
Continue reading...DfE guidance sent days before start of term means students and teachers at dozens of schools in England will need to be moved off site
Thousands of pupils in England may have to begin the autumn term taking lessons remotely after the government ordered more than 100 schools to immediately shut buildings made with aerated concrete until safety work is undertaken.
The guidance from the Department for Education was sent to 156 schools and colleges just days before the start of the new school year.
Continue reading...North-east school leaders call for government to recognise challenges for pupils in different parts of England
The largest gap on record between top GCSE grades awarded to pupils in London and those in north-east England has prompted warnings of a “continuing widening” in the north-south education divide.
School leaders in the north-east accused the government of “London-centric” policies, while Labour said it showed that “levelling up is dead and buried” through the failure to help disadvantaged communities.
Continue reading...School leavers in the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man will also receive their results today
The number of students accepted on to UK degree courses has fallen this year, Ucas figures show.
Press Association reports:
Firstly, I want to say a huge congratulations to the hundreds of thousands of students up and down the country who are celebrating their results and next steps today.
I am delighted to see more than 200,000 UK 18-year-olds have secured their first choice, which is testament to their hard work and commitment to progress to higher education in a year that has seen many complex factors at play, such as geopolitics, the economy and job market, and cost of living.
Labour recognises the enormous effort that all of our young people have put into their studies over the past year.
Young people have achieved these results despite the challenges they’ve faced: with a Labour government behind them, offering them pathways to good prospects, there will be no limit on what they can achieve.
Continue reading...Social Mobility Foundation says it expects GCSE and A-level attainment gap based on income to grow this year
Disadvantaged students are likely to bear the brunt of grade deflation when this year’s A-level and GCSE grades are published, according to experts, who said the government’s decision to impose pre-pandemic grading in England was premature.
This week hundreds of thousands of sixth-formers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will receive the results of their A-level, BTec and other exams. But a survey of students by the Social Mobility Foundation (SMF) found that those from disadvantaged or low-income backgrounds in England were less likely to have received the help they needed to restore learning lost during the pandemic.
Continue reading...Inverclyde welcomes second largest number of twins on record to start primary education
Seventeen sets of twins will start primary school in one Scottish local authority next week, the second largest number on record.
Schools in Inverclyde will welcome the twins for the first time on Friday 18 August, in an area that has colloquially become known as “Twinverclyde”.
Continue reading...Tens of thousands of students face likely drop in As and A*s as ministers aim to return results in England to pre-pandemic levels
Tens of thousands of A-level students face disappointment on results day next week, amid warnings that nearly 100,000 fewer As and A*s could be awarded as the government seeks to return grades to pre-pandemic levels.
Up to 50,000 candidates this summer are likely to miss out on the top grades they might have expected last year, according to one estimate, throwing applications for the most competitive universities into doubt.
Continue reading...While many welcome the end of strike action, the campaign for fair pay and better funding for state schools looks set to continue
Ministers will have heaved a huge sigh of relief to see teachers and school leaders in England vote to accept a 6.5% pay offer and end strike action in state schools in England.
After months of disruption as a result of strikes by members of the National Education Union (NEU), there were real fears in government of an escalation of the dispute, with coordinated strike action in the autumn term by four unions.
Continue reading...Mayor of London hits back at prime minister over ‘pathetic gesture politics’
Rishi Sunak has failed to give his full backing to Sir Howard Davies, chairman of NatWest, in interviews this morning, PA Media reports.
PA says that Sunak did not back calls for the resignation of Davies in a pooled interview this morning – but also that Sunak would not say whether he had confidence in him.
What I said right at the start of this was that it wasn’t right for people to be deprived of basic services because of banking, because of their views.
This isn’t about any one individual, it’s about values – do you believe in free speech and not to be discriminated against because of your legally held views?
As a result of this policy, a dozen classrooms of children, including some of the most traumatised and vulnerable children in the world, have gone missing and, sickeningly for us, 50 children are still missing from the hotel used in Brighton and Hove.
Importantly the high court also makes clear that the home secretary already has the power to require local authorities across the country to take children into foster care via a statutory rota system called the national transfer scheme.
Continue reading...Gavin Newsom, the state governor, said his office will provide new school textbooks and send a bill for violating state laws
A school district in southern California will be fined more than $1m after rejecting a curriculum that included Harvey Milk, the pioneering gay rights leader who the the school board’s president has called a “pedophile”.
Gavin Newsom, the California governor, announced on Wednesday that his office will send textbooks to the Temecula school district that include Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in the state, as well as fine the district $1.5m for failing to “adopt an updated social studies curriculum”.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Government funding since landmark education review released ‘has gone to those least in need’, says national convenor of Save Our Schools
Real government funding to private schools has increased almost twice as much as funding to public schools in the decade since the landmark Gonski review recommended changes designed to fund Australian schools according to need.
From 2012 to 2021, per student funding to independent and Catholic schools rose by 34% and 31% respectively, while funding to public schools increased by just 17%, according to parliamentary library data provided exclusively to Guardian Australia. In Queensland, the growth in government funding to independent schools per student has been nine times greater than to public schools.
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