In the news: your weekly round-up

Top stories

Complaints around assessments and exams being allowed to “dictate the curriculum” is a key theme emerging from the government’s curriculum review. Other issues include not having enough time to cover all the required content and the “deprioritisation of certain subjects” [Schools Week].

Support from GovernorHub Knowledge: Find out how to make sure you have a robust monitoring system for your school’s curriculum and what this might look like for your board.

Government urged to target funding at “persistently disadvantaged” pupils. Falling rolls could offer an opportunity to target these pupils, with it costing “as little as £80million a year”, according to a new report from the Education Policy Institute [Schools Week]. 

Support from GovernorHub Knowledge: Know what your role is in monitoring pupil premium spending, and get up to speed with the rules on what it should and shouldn't be spent on.

Almost 1/5 of disadvantaged pupils in years 9 and 10 were suspended or excluded at least once in the last year. Suspension and exclusion rates rose across the board in the 2023/24 academic year, and were most likely to happen to disadvantaged pupils in years 9 and 10 [Tes Magazine - subscription required].

Support from GovernorHub Knowledge: Understand the statutory framework surrounding suspensions and exclusions, and what you might be asked to do as part of the process.

This week's headlines

Schools Week

• New school inclusion panel to be led by MAT CEO
• Wellbeing and inclusion front and centre in Bridget Phillipson's first sector speech
• Narrow compliance culture leading to teachers being “enslaved”, says DfE's Sir Kevan Collins
• Uncertainty around accountability for government's new RISE teams
• Returning academies to LA oversight up for consideration by education secretary
• Some MAT CEOs making “the inspection process more adversarial”, according to Ofsted boss
• What the budget means for schools
• Exam board AQA aims to cut down on exam paper cheats with High Court injunction
• More than 50,000 pupil records leaked in Capita cyber attack
• New Centre for Education Systems (CES) targets policy-making reform
• Impossible for schools to be judged on middle-class pupil admissions, according to Ofsted Academy
• Outcomes of 300 schools across the country to be boosted with Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) regional partnerships
• 20 hours of mentor training requirement removed

Tes Magazine - registration required

• Use of telepresence robots could help tackle pupil absence
• Scorecard to be trialled to assess schools' effectiveness at serving disadvantaged pupils
• Lack of diversity in STEM prevents pupils from reaching their potential, new report finds
• Trusts will run inclusive schools due to “moral purpose”, according to Confederation of School Trusts
• SEND inclusion to be boosted in mainstream schools, says education secretary
• Legitimate suspensions and exclusions won’t be penalised by Ofsted
• Restraint and seclusion should not be the norm in schools
• School dinner debt negatively impacting school budgets
• ”Significant scepticism” of the benefits of artificial intelligence (AI
• Reading fluency could be key to halving the Key Stage (KS) 2 gender gap
• SEND crisis created by last 10 years of curriculum reforms, according to MAT leader

BBC News

• Tweaks to exam arrangements could make all the difference

GOV.UK

• Children set up for success with a strong start to school, according to new Ofsted report

The Guardian 

• RAAC update: 100s of schools and government buildings still affected

Upcoming dates for this week

Sunday 17 November – Road Safety Week begins

Wednesday 20 November – World Children’s Day

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