In the news: your weekly round-up

Top stories

New warnings published by the National Audit Office about the SEND system being “unsustainable”. Watchdog highlights that the system is failing to improve children’s outcomes despite significant funding increases [BBC News]. 

Support from GovernorHub Knowledge:  Find questions to ask when reviewing your school's special educational needs and disability (SEND) policy and SEN information report. Use our checklists to make sure your school is meeting the requirements.

The School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD) has been updated with the new pay scales for 2024/25. This comes after the government approved teacher and leader pay rises of 5.5% [Schools Week]. 

Support from GovernorHub Knowledge: Find the pay ranges from the current STPCD all in 1 place.

Leaders have raised concerns that changes to attendance codes risk making pupil attendance worse. Sector experts have also raised that the changes could make data on absence unreliable [Tes Magazine – registration required]. 

Support from GovernorHub Knowledge:  Read our tips on monitoring and challenging your school's attendance figures by questioning your senior leaders, benchmarking against national data, and understanding how Ofsted will use your data.

This week's headlines

Schools Week

• New report published on how Labour might meet its work experience goal
• School league tables for 2024 delayed until secondary school selections are in
• Support staff unions accept new pay deal
• Future of 44 planned free schools uncertain after launch of review
• Long-serving teachers no longer to receive gifts from some councils
• £180k spent before 'build up' school scheme shelved
• DfE told by experts that new law mustn't categorise CEOs as support staff
• Councils bothered by repeated review of new special school buildings
• Unions demand schools be reimbursed for any national insurance increase
• ‘Very high’ bar for new estates improvement notices
• Zero-hour contract changes for schools
• Coroner warning about suicide risk over EHC confusion
• SEND tribunal costs reach £13m
• Academy trust top jobs still affected by diversity gap

Tes Magazine - registration required

• Year 8 English scores' best predictor are maths tests
• School absence targets not off the table, according to minister
• MATs contracted to run subject knowledge enhancement courses
• 44 mainstream free school projects up for review by DfE
• DfE exam results data has far more errors than usual
• Disadvantaged pupils far more likely to suffer maths anxiety
• Homophobic language heard by 75% of primary pupils
• Plans to grow rugby popularity begin with 5000 schools playing non-contact rugby
• Staff more likely to leave if they have poor view of leaders in November
• Trusts' leader warning over potential inconsistency of new ungraded inspections

BBC News

• 20,000 more children benefit from free school meals trial

The Guardian 

• Despair over teachers' pension delays
• London mayor begins 'vital' fight against misogyny in primary schools

Upcoming dates for this week

Sunday 27 October – Daylight saving time ends

Thursday 31 October – Halloween

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