Government reviews options for plan 2 loans, such as increasing repayment thresholds, amid growing pressure
Ministers are examining ways to ease the burden of student loans after weeks of pressure over a policy pulling more people into repayments, the Guardian understands.
The Treasury and the Department for Education are reviewing different options to offer relief to graduates with Plan 2 student loans, often paying tens of thousands more than their original loan amount.
Continue reading...Demand is rising at unsustainable rate and could cost £3.4bn by 2030-31, local authorities warn
Families who have children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) should be means tested for school transport, according to councils in England, who say demand is rising “at an unsustainable rate”.
Local authorities are urging the government to be “radical” in its Send reforms, which are expected imminently, warning that annual costs on home-to-school transport for children with Send could rise to £3.4bn by 2030-31, up from £2bn last year.
Continue reading...University leaders says planned levy on international student fees will leave many institutions even worse off
University students in England get just two-thirds of the funding they would have received a decade ago, after inflation and government cuts have reduced the resources available for teaching, according to vice-chancellors.
University leaders said the situation was likely to get worse if the government went ahead with a new levy on international student fees in Wednesday’s budget.
Continue reading...Parentkind charity also says 33% of parents of children with special educational needs reported financial strain
One in three parents have sought a special needs assessment for their child, according to a survey that reveals a surge in demand for special needs support in schools across the UK.
The figures were released amid mounting apprehension in England over national plans to reform special needs provision amid rising costs and a severe shortage of dedicated special school places.
Continue reading...Loughborough University and ONS study of 1 million school-age children reveals risks increase with longer absence
School absences “significantly contribute” to children’s mental ill health, according to research backed by the Office for National Statistics that shows the risks increase the longer a child is absent.
“Our research shows that the more times a child is absent from school, the greater the probability that they will experience mental ill health,” the authors, from Loughborough University and the ONS, concluded.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Ecctis alleges Cloud Bai-Yun used profits from government contract to buy out her shares in breach of fiduciary duty
The company that runs visa services for the UK government is suing its former chief executive for £6m over her alleged improper use of profits earned during a period of record immigration.
Cloud Bai-Yun, who once represented the UK on an international ethics and fraud advisory body, is accused by Ecctis of a breach of fiduciary duty, according to court filings.
Continue reading...Department for Education criticised over funding rise from £2.58 to £2.61 per child per meal in September
Primary schools in England will be forced to subsidise free school meals for infants from their own budgets after the government’s “pitiful” 3p increase in funding, according to school leaders.
The Department for Education announced that its funding for universal infant free school meals would rise from £2.58 to £2.61 per child in September, with the 3p rise well below expected inflation and wage increases facing schools.
Continue reading...NASUWT conference votes to launch strike ballot if spending review does not top up school budgets in full
A second teaching union in England has vowed to strike if the government fails to compensate schools in full for next year’s teachers’ pay award.
The NASUWT union’s annual conference voted to reject any pay offer from the government that did not top up school budgets in June’s spending review, and to “move immediately to ballot members for industrial action”.
Continue reading...Schools combining incentives with sanctions saw better response than those relying purely on punishment
Pizza parties and iPads are being offered to pupils as incentives to improve school attendance, according to a new report which says sanctions alone are less likely to work.
While some schools in England are using fines, detentions and letters home to crack down on absence, others prefer a rewards-based approach, with prize draws for bikes and iPads, trips and “praise stamps” which pupils collect then trade in for chocolates or stationery.
Continue reading...Bridget Phillipson instructs Public Sector Fraud Authority to look into whether millions of pounds falsely claimed
Fraud experts will investigate the university loans system amid concerns that students are falsely claiming millions of pounds without intending to study, the education secretary has announced.
Bridget Phillipson has instructed the Public Sector Fraud Authority to coordinate the response to allegations that individuals with no genuine academic intent are enrolling in degree courses to secure loans.
Continue reading...Charity calls for move after poll finds ‘crisis’ levels of reading for pleasure and rise in 8- to 18-year-olds enjoying audio
The government has been urged to include audiobooks in the new schools curriculum in England, after research showed fewer children were reading books for pleasure and more were listening to them instead.
A poll by the National Literacy Trust (NLT) found that children’s enjoyment of listening to audio and podcasts had risen compared with the previous year, overtaking their enjoyment of reading for the first time since the charity began asking about audio in 2020.
Continue reading...Unions as well as school leaders say proposed changes to replace four-grade approach in England are ‘demoralising’
Moves to overhaul the way schools are inspected in England have been criticised by headteachers and teaching unions as “demoralising” and worse than the system they are aiming to replace.
The changes by the Ofsted schools inspectorate would replace single judgments such as “outstanding” with a new report card for parents. They will be unveiled by Ofsted’s chief inspector, Martyn Oliver, on Monday alongside the launch of a public consultation.
Continue reading...DfE urged to delay ending funding of popular programme so that hundreds of students can complete their courses
• Axing the Latin excellence scheme: a classic mistake
State school pupils taking GCSE Latin may be forced to drop the subject or even have to teach themselves after the government ends funding for a popular programme that has increased the numbers learning Latin across England.
School leaders, scholars and authors are urging the Department for Education to offer a reprieve to the Latin excellenceprogramme, to enable hundreds of students to complete their GCSE courses and allow schools time to find additional support.
Continue reading...Speakers banned after criticising government in social media posts
The information watchdog has been asked to investigate “authoritarian” government vetting that caused speakers to be banned from official events for criticising ministers.
Two experts, who discovered that civil servants had combed through years of social media posts to judge them “unsuitable” to address conferences, believe the practice was covert and unlawful.
Continue reading...Inspectorate aims to replace single headline grade such as outstanding with assessment of 10 key areas
Schools could be judged on a five-step scale of colours or descriptions across 10 separate areas, such as inclusion and belonging, according to proposals by England’s schools inspectorate.
The proposals by Ofsted aim to replace inspection reports that culminate in a single headline grade such as outstanding, which Labour pledged to scrap after a coroner’s report said Ofsted’s inspection had contributed to the death of headteacher Ruth Perry last year.
Continue reading...National Audit Office report finds no signs of improvement in lives of pupils despite record spending
The bill for special needs education in England has hit £10bn a year, with the number of children and young people entitled to government support in the form of education, health and care plans set to double to 1 million within a decade, a landmark report has found.
The investigation by the National Audit Office (NAO) found that despite record levels of spending there had been no signs of improvement in the lives of children with special educational needs (SEN).
Continue reading...Exclusive: Experts say ‘desocialised’ pupils home schooled through Covid are entering traditionally most disruptive years
Teachers returning to work next month will confront a worrying “behaviour bubble” as younger children who were most severely affected by the pandemic reach the teenage years renowned for peak classroom disruption.
The warning from experts and school leaders in England comes as evidence shows that children of primary school age during the pandemic – when schools were closed to most pupils – have been accruing exclusions and suspensions at a record pace since moving to secondary school.
Continue reading...Experts say the next head of the Office for Students must oversee a programme that will protect higher education
The new head of the Office for Students (OfS) will have to oversee rescue plans to avoid a “domino effect” with a number of universities going under, experts have warned.
The new government’s Department for Education (DfE) announced on Tuesday that it had accepted the resignation of the OfS’s controversial chair, James Wharton, a former Tory MP who ran Boris Johnson’s leadership campaign. Lord Wharton, who was given the job of running the independent regulator in 2021 despite having no experience of higher education, did not give up the Tory whip in the Lords and was widely criticised for being too close to the Conservative government.
Continue reading...Education select committee concerned that excessive workload is driving teachers out of profession
Teachers’ workloads are being increasingly stretched by their pupils’ mental health and family difficulties, according to MPs who were critical of the government’s efforts to tackle chronic staff shortages in England’s schools.
The education select committee said it was “concerned that since the pandemic teachers are spending more time on addressing issues that would typically fall outside the remit of schools, including family conflict resolution and mental health support,” and called for the government to support better provision inside and outside schools.
Continue reading...Review of serious safeguarding failures finds young people from abusive environments ‘less visible’ to agencies
Children who grow up in neglectful or abusive environments are safer attending school than being educated at home, according to a review of serious safeguarding failures in England in which six children died and 35 were harmed in one year.
The report, by the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel, emphasised that while home education was not a safeguarding risk, it found that vulnerable children were “less visible” to safeguarding agencies than those regularly in school.
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