In the news: your weekly round-up

Top stories

The DfE’s teacher workload taskforce publishes early recommendations to help cut 5 hours from teachers’ working week. Recommendations include scrapping performance related pay and plans for a revised list of tasks teachers shouldn’t do to be reinserted into the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD) [Schools Week]. 

Support from GovernorHub Knowledge: Find out how you can promote a healthy staff work-life balance without stepping on the toes of the day-to-day running of your school.

School leader mental health support scheme extended for 3 years, as DfE promises new guidance to tackle harassment of staff. The guidance is expected this spring, but the National Association of Headteachers (NAHT) has asked the government to go further to communicate that aggression towards school staff should never be tolerated [Schools Week]. 

Support from GovernorHub Knowledge:  Learn how your board might be involved in reviewing bans of parents or visitors who behave aggressively or abusively on the school site.

Education secretary Gillian Keegan admits the current SEND system isn’t working well “for anybody” during a start of term live event. She said her focus is on new special schools to tackle place shortage, but that this could take time [Tes Magazine - registration required]. 

Support from GovernorHub Knowledge: Understand your role and key tasks as an SEND link governor or a governor in a special school with our course for governors.

This week's headlines

 Schools Week

• Cabinet office spends £20k in attempt to cover up £13k influencer fee
• Inspections restart, but Ruth Perry's sister expresses “deep concern”
• Ofsted promises to start recording inspection pauses in new era
• Lack of SEND places driving trusts to plan their own private SEND schools
• GCSE maths re-sit pass rate lower than 2019
• Schools offered £3k by charity Axiom to appoint “maths champions”
• “Detailed” net-zero roadmap for schools promised by ministers
• 9 Ofsted inspection reform recommendations from the NAHT

Tes Magazine - registration required

• £30K bursaries to attract career-swap teacher recruits
• Performance-related pay to be scrapped following recommendation from workload reduction taskforce
• School leaders demand ungraded inspections until reforms finalised
• Trusts alarmed by Keegan’s “change of tone” on academies
• Under-threat National Tutoring Programme (NTP) “boosted 400,000 grades”

The Telegraph - registration required

• Girls outperforming boys from primary school to university according to new data

Upcoming dates

Sunday 21 January – World Religion Day

Thursday 25 January – Burns Night

Thursday 25 January – Tu B’Shvat

Get your weekly reminder

Sign up to the news briefing email