Category Archives: Department for Education

England childcare scheme may struggle to deliver places, finds ‘damning’ report

Posted on by

Watchdog says only a third of local authorities are confident they will have enough places for September

The deployment of the government’s childcare scheme to tens of thousands more families is facing “significant uncertainties” and may struggle to meet its own targets, according to a report by Whitehall’s spending watchdog.

The National Audit Office revealed the Department for Education (DfE) had assessed the likelihood of being able to deliver the funded childcare places it promised for September 2024 and 2025 as “amber/red problematic”.

Continue reading...

Cold, damp, unsafe: record number of UK schools refused funding for repairs

Posted on by

DfE allocates £450m to 826 building projects at 733 schools, a fall of almost 60% – in terms of total projects – compared with 2020-21

A record number of schools have had bids for building repairs turned down by the government, with experts warning that buckets on desks, freezing classrooms and power cuts are all becoming commonplace.

The Department for Education (DfE) announced on Tuesday that it had allocated £450m to 826 building repair projects at 733 schools through its annual condition improvement fund (CIF), which is designed to help academies and small academy trusts keep buildings “safe and in good working order”. But this is a fall of nearly 60% – in terms of total projects – compared with 2020-21, when the government awarded £563m to 2,104 repair projects.

Continue reading...

‘Profiteering off children’: care firms in England accused of squeezing cash from councils

Posted on by

A local authority leader claims private equity groups are exploiting vulnerable youngsters in care homes in the pursuit of profit

Care companies are insisting on unnecessary and expensive support packages for vulnerable children to boost their profits, a council leader has claimed.

Barry Lewis, the Tory leader of Derbyshire county council, said that former family-run businesses acquired by private equity groups were trying to get “as much cash as possible” out of local authorities.

Continue reading...

Fines for unauthorised absence from school in England to rise by 33%

Posted on by

Daily registers will also be shared online with DfE as part of government drive to improve attendance

Taking an unauthorised family holiday is about to get more expensive, with the government announcing that fines for children in England missing school are to rise by 33%.

The education secretary, Gillian Keegan, is to overhaul the way local authorities fine parents for unauthorised school absences by bringing penalties “under a national framework to help tackle inconsistencies”.

Continue reading...

DfE to investigate claims of bad practice in recruitment of international students

Posted on by

Move follows reports overseas students face lower entry requirements, a claim universities reject

The Department for Education is to investigate allegations of bad practice by agents who recruit international students to study at British universities.

It follows reports over the weekend claiming that overseas students are being admitted to prestigious institutions while subject to lower entry requirements than domestic students.

Continue reading...

Ofsted single-word judgments on schools must end, say MPs

Posted on by

Committee calls on government to heed widespread concern and consider a more nuanced inspection system

The government should stop the use of single-word judgments such as “inadequate” or “outstanding” in Ofsted’s headline grades of schools in England, a committee of MPs has urged.

MPs on the education committee said relations between Ofsted and teachers had become “extremely strained”, with trust in the watchdog “worryingly low” in the wake of the headteacher Ruth Perry’s suicide last year after a traumatic inspection.

Continue reading...

Government to fund school ‘attendance mentors’ in worst-hit areas of England

Posted on by

Latest attempt to tackle pupil absences criticised as failing to tackle the magnitude of the problem

The government is to make a new effort to repair sagging school attendance figures in England, with the education secretary to announce funding for “attendance mentors” in some of the worst-affected areas.

Pupil absences remain stubbornly higher than before the Covid pandemic, and during a visit to Liverpool on Monday Gillian Keegan is expected to announce plans for caseworkers to offer one-to-one support for pupils in 10 areas including Blackpool and Walsall, where rates of unauthorised absences remain far above national levels.

Continue reading...

‘Shocking’ scale of UK government’s secret files on critics revealed

Posted on by

Dossiers were compiled by 15 departments after scouring social media activity to vet people invited to speak at official events

Fifteen government departments have been monitoring the social media activity of potential critics and compiling “secret files” in order to block them from speaking at public events, the Observer can reveal.

Under the guidelines issued in each department, including the departments of health, culture, media and sport, and environment, food and rural affairs, officials are advised to check experts’ Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn accounts. They are also told to conduct Google searches on those individuals, using specific terms such as “criticism of government or prime minister”.

Continue reading...

Mobile phone ban in English schools ‘smokescreen’ to mask real issues, say critics

Posted on by

Most schools had policies before government’s plan, and there are concerns about safety and implications for carers of outright ban

Glyn Potts, head teacher at Newman Roman Catholic College in Oldham, could not hide his irritation at the morning headlines announcing a government ban on mobile phones in state schools in England.

His school, like the vast majority, already has a mobile phone policy. “All banned and have been for 10 years,” he said, dismissing the announcement by the education secretary, Gillian Keegan, as a “smokescreen” to distract from the real challenges facing schools, such as underfunding, teacher recruitment and providing for pupils with special educational needs.

Continue reading...

Leicester school told by DfE to close building finds it has no Raac

Posted on by

Willowbrook Mead primary will now shut for a day to move furniture back after scramble to create new spaces

A school that scrambled to set up temporary classrooms after the Department for Education (DfE) ordered closures because of Raac has received a government apology after it turned out it did not have the crumbly concrete after all.

The government has published a list of 145 schools with Raac, nine fewer than it announced last Thursday, suggesting that last week’s order to close buildings was overcautious in several cases.

Continue reading...

More than half of dilapidated English schools were refused rebuilding money

Posted on by

Only four schools were rebuilt in 2021 in government scheme intended to cover 500 schools over 10-year period

More than half of English schools that are so dilapidated they are at risk of partial closure were refused money under the government’s school rebuilding scheme, Department for Education (DfE) statistics show.

Amid mounting concerns about a wider apparent neglect of the schools estate in recent years, beyond the immediate alarm about crumbling concrete panels, it emerged that of 500 rebuilt schools planned for England over 10 years from 2020, just four were completed in 2021.

Continue reading...

Concrete crisis: Labour compares Gillian Keegan’s response to mayor in Jaws

Posted on by

Opposition posts spoof on education department’s ‘most schools unaffected’ tweet, referencing minimisation of shark attacks

Labour has launched a tongue-in-cheek attack on the government’s response to the school buildings crisis, comparing the response of the education secretary, Gillian Keegan, to that of the fictional mayor in Jaws.

Keegan on Tuesday defended her department’s handling of the problems surrounding crumbling concrete, publishing a Twitter picture with the phrases “Raac update” and “Most schools unaffected”.

Continue reading...

New school safety warning prompted by beam collapse at building considered safe – UK politics live

Posted on by

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...

More English schools could close due to crumbling concrete, minister warns

Posted on by

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...

Nearly 100,000 fewer top A-levels this year in grading plan, research suggests

Posted on by

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...

Ofsted school inspection reforms ‘nowhere near enough’

Posted on by

Sister of Ruth Perry, who killed herself after her primary was downgraded, ‘disappointed’ single-word judgments not removed

Changes by Ofsted to the way it inspects schools have been criticised as “nowhere near enough” to reduce the resulting high levels of stress involved, which were linked to the recent death of a popular headteacher.

The reforms announced by Amanda Spielman, Ofsted’s chief inspector, are intended to ease the burden felt by school leaders such as Ruth Perry, 53, the head of a primary in Reading who killed herself earlier this year after an Ofsted inspection lowered her school’s grade from “outstanding” to “inadequate”.

Continue reading...

Give teachers in England a deal similar to nurses to avoid strikes, says union

Posted on by

Dr Patrick Roach of NASUWT calls on education secretary Gillian Keegan to reopen pay talks

Ministers could avoid teachers’ strikes in England this summer if they make an improved pay offer as good as that made to NHS nurses, the leader of one teaching union has proposed.

Dr Patrick Roach, the general secretary of the NASUWT union, called on the education secretary, Gillian Keegan, to reopen talks to allow pay negotiations to continue, saying strikes were “not inevitable” if a better deal could be reached.

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...