Category: Governance

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Governance

Sir Theodore Agnew named new parliamentary under-secretary of state for education

On Thursday 28 September, the Department for Education announced (external link) that Lord Nash would be stepping down from his role as parliamentary under-secretary of state for education with responsibility for governance. He will be replaced by Sir Theodore Agnew DL who will be given a life peerage.

Sir Theodore has cross-sector governance experience and is the founder and chair of trustees for the Inspiration Trust, a Multi-Academy Trust consisting of schools in Norfolk and North Suffolk.

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Governance

Revised national school funding formula published

The Secretary of State for Education Justine Greening announced details of the new national funding formula for schools (external link).

This is the outcome of the second stage of the consultation, which closed in March, and follows July’s announcement(external link)  of £1.3 billion additional funding for the core schools budget in each of the next two years.

Key points from this week’s announcement include:

  • funding will be distributed via local authorities for both of the next two years;
  • the DfE’s formula will provide for secondary schools to receive a minimum of £4,600 per pupil in 2018/19 and £4,800 per pupil in 2019/20, while primary schools will receive £3,300 per pupil in 2018/19 and £3,500 in 2019/20;
  • every school will receive a £110,000 lump sum and an additional £26 million will be allocated to rural and isolated schools;
  • every school will see a minimum cash increase of 1% by 2019-20 and many schools will see larger increases;
  • an increased emphasis in the formula on low prior attainment.

More details are available on the Department for Education’s website (external link)  including tables where you can see how your school’s budget (external link) would be calculated under the national funding formula (NFF). Governors and trustees need to remember that as funding for the next two years will be calculated according to Haringey’s formula agreed by the Schools Forum.

 

 

 

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Governance

MPs launch inquiry into alternative provision

The House of Commons Education Select Committee has announced one of the first inquiries of the new parliament will be on Alternative Provision (AP) (external link) for pupils who do not attend mainstream schools for reasons such as school exclusion, behaviour issues, or illness.

The inquiry will look at:

  • routes into alternative provision;
  • the quality of teaching in alternative provision;
  • educational outcomes and destinations of pupils;
  • safety, accommodation and provision of resources for pupils;
  • in-school alternatives to alternative provision;
  • regulation of independent providers.

Any individual or organisation is free to submit written evidence to the inquiry and details of how to do so are on the parliament website (external link)

 

 

 

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Governance Schools

New Wellcome report on science teaching in primary schools

A new report by the Wellcome Trust (external link)  examines the current state of science teaching in the nation’s primary schools. Key findings include:

  • just half of science leaders (51%) are receiving specific release time to lead science;
  • a far smaller proportion of teachers and science leaders thought science was ‘very important’ to their school’s senior leadership than for English and maths;
  • on average, primary school pupils receive 1 hour and 24 minutes of science teaching per week but older year groups tend to receive more than others.

Science is part of the national curriculum for primary schools and is an important part of preparing pupils for the next stage of their education. Governing boards have a duty to ensure that the children in their school(s) are receiving a broad and balanced curriculum and it may be useful to consider the time and resource available for science teaching in upcoming meetings.

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Governance Ofsted

Ofsted: changes to short inspections

Changes to short inspections

Following a consultation earlier this summer, Ofsted have revised their proposals for changes to short inspections (external link) A number of changes will take place from October half term:

  • some ‘good’ schools will automatically receive a full, two-day inspection instead of a short inspection;
  • where a short inspection converts to a full inspection, this will usually continue to be within 48 hours but may take up to 7 days in some cases;
  • short inspections of secondary schools with more than 1,100 pupils will be carried out by three inspectors (rather than two as is standard).

The proposals set out in the new consultation are that:

  • where short inspections pick up serious concerns, they will continue to convert to full inspections within 48 hours;
  • where, following a short inspection, inspectors are not confident that the school remains ‘good’ but “the standard of education remains acceptable, and there are no concerns about safeguarding or behaviour”, the inspection will not convert. The school will receive a letter setting out the inspection findings and a full inspection will take place within 1 to 2 years. It will remain a ‘good’ school;
  • where, following a short inspection, inspectors believe the school may be ‘outstanding’, the inspection will not convert. As above, the inspection findings will be set out in a letter, the school will remain ‘good’, and a full inspection will take place within 1 to 2 years.
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Governance Schools

Primary assessment: consultation outcomes announced

Improvements  are planned to the primary assessment system, aimed at creating a stable system for the long term.

The following information is taken from the announcement received from the STA on 14 September (external link), following the government response to the primary assessment consultations. The reforms will:

  • improve the way writing is assessed, giving teachers more scope to use their professional judgement when assessing performance;
  • introduce a new assessment at the start of reception from September 2020, to act as a starting point for measuring progress. This will acknowledge/give credit to schools for the progress they help pupils make in reception, year 1 and year 2;
  • remove the statutory status of end of KS1 assessments at the earliest possible point, from 2022 to 2023 academic year, once the reception baseline is fully established;
  • remove the requirement to carry out statutory TA in English, reading and mathematics at the end of KS2 from 2018 to 2019;
  • improve the early years’ foundation profile, including revising the ELG to make them clearer and align them more closely with teaching in KS1;
  • introduce an online multiplication tables check, to be taken by pupils at the end of year 4, from 2019 to 2020 academic year onwards.

The government has also responded on the recommendations made by the Rochford Review:

  • to implement the review’s proposal to extend the pre-key stage standards to cover all pupils who are working below the standard of national curriculum tests but are engaged in subject-specific learning;
  • there will be a pilot of the review’s recommended approach to assessing those pupils not engaged in subject learning;
  • these plans will ensure there are effective assessment arrangements in place for primary school children working below the standard of the national curriculum tests.

2017 to 2018 revised writing assessment frameworks at the end of  Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2.

Revised frameworks for the assessment of English reading, mathematics and science will be published for use from 2018 – 2019.

The interim pre-key stage standards for English writing for KS1 and KS2 has also been updated to align with the changes to the frameworks. These standards should be used in 2017.

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Governance

Updated model documents

Governance Services has recently updated a bank of model documents. These include a revised skills audit, general governor role profile and role profile for the Chair of the governing body, Chair of Finance, and new role profiles for SEN, Literacy and Numeracy.

If you would like copies of any of these please contact Carolyn Banks, Governance Services Manager: carolyn.banks@haringey.gov.uk

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Governance

New service replaces Edubase

The Department for Education (DfE) has launched ‘Get Information About Schools’ (external link)  the new register for schools and colleges which replaces the previous Edubase system.  

The new service allows individuals to search, view, and download information on schools via three tabs: ‘find an establishment’; ‘find an establishment group’ and ‘find a governor’. The latter is used for locating not just governors, but also trustees, accounting officers, chief financial officers and members of an academy trust.

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Governance

Updates to FFT Aspire system

FFT, a non-profit organisation established as part of the Fischer Family Trust, has updated their Aspire system with the latest 2017 Key Stage 2 results.  Schools will be able to analyse their results and look at how various different pupil groups compare with national trends.  There is also an eight page FFT School Dashboard for those governing and school leaders, including a new report that compares the performance of disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged pupil groups.

Any governor/trustee can access FFT’s free training modules about the FFT Governor Dashboard here (external link)

Once registered you can work through the two Key Stage 2 modules at your own pace, saving your progress as you go.

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Governance

Update to School Teachers Pay and Conditions document (STPCD)

In August, the Department for Education (DfE) released the latest version of the Update to School Teachers Pay and Conditions document (STPCD) (external link)

The STPCD provides a framework for teachers’ pay and conditions, and is statutory for all maintained schools, although many academy trusts also choose to adopt the STPCD for their schools.

The main change is to take account of the September 2017 pay award, which gives a 2% uplift to the statutory minima and maxima of the main pay range and a 1% uplift to the minima and maxima of all other pay ranges in the national framework (including headteacher groups) and all allowances across pay ranges. This means that where a classroom teacher/leadership group member is paid on the minimum of their pay range, this must be uplifted to the new minimum.

The LA has updated the locally agreed pay policy, which has been circulated to all Chairs and headteachers for adoption by their governing bodies.