Category: Governance

The Education Funding Agency (EFA) is merging with the Skills Funding Agency to form the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) (external link)

The EFA is an executive agency of the Department for Education (DfE), responsible for all revenue and capital funding for schools. It is charged with acting on behalf of the Secretary of State with regard to academies’ financial affairs and allocates revenue funding directly to academies as well as distributing maintained schools’ revenue funding to local authorities.

The new ESFA will retain these functions and also have responsibility for overseeing funding for post-16 education and training, apprenticeships, and adult education.

Peter Lauener is the current chief executive of both agencies. He intends to retire following the merger but will remain in the role until a permanent replacement is in place.

Further to information provided in an earlier bulletin, the Department for Education has confirmed that the new service will provide schools and other existing user groups with detailed performance analysis to support local school improvement as a replacement to RAISEonline.  It is hoped that this will be ready in late April/early May. The name of the new service will be announced as soon as confirmed.

The current RAISEonline service will be available until 31 July 2017. This will allow users to familiarise themselves with the new service and provide feedback before the current one is taken offline.  

During this period of dual running the DfE will continue to develop the new service and plan to release an updated version in July 2017.  Also during this time feedback  will be sought from the DfE through formal testing and user surveys. 

Ofsted Inspectors will continue to use the data available in the existing summary report and inspection dashboard to prepare for inspections, until 2017 datasets are released in the autumn term.

The Governance Conference: Looking to the Future – Sustainable Governance takes place on 25 March from 9am – 1pm at the Professional Development Centre,, Downhills Park Road, London N17 6AR 

Governors will learn about school-led models for school improvement and alternative methods of governance. There will also be the opportunity for questions and discussion groups.

Please book your place online (external link)  

Or send an email to: school.governors@haringey.co.uk

Ofsted’s Chief Inspector Amanda Spielman has announced “a major investigation into how well schools are using the curriculum to ensure children receive a broad education”.

The study, which is currently being scoped, will look for examples of good practice across all education settings, consider the potential problems, such as curriculum narrowing, and how they can be avoided. It is expected to address concerns that the pressures of accountability are leading some schools to ‘game’ the system.

This follows Ofsted’s guidance to inspectors which highlights signs that schools are ‘gaming’ the system, for example, a drop in the numbner of pupils on roll between entry and year 11 or pupils being entered for qualifications that do not meet their needs.

Ofsted are expecting to publish a report from this investigation later in the year.

Read more (external link)

Announcing the spring budget on Wednesday 8 March (external link), the Chancellor Philip Hammond, launched T-Levels for 16-19 year olds. T-Levels are designed to raise the status of vocational and technical qualifications and eliminate the “lingering doubt about the parity of esteem attached to technical education pursued through the Further Education route”.

The new levels will be based around a “framework of 15 routes to skilled employment extending from level 2 and level 3 up to higher skill levels, with a streamlined set of valuable qualifications”. Each course will last two years – with the first year focusing on core skills and the second on specialisation. As part of the course, students will be expected to achieve a Maths and English qualification.

In launching these T-levels, teh Chancellor announced that the number of training hours would be doubled for 16-19 year olds, with an average of 900 hours per year of training per course. This will require an additional £500 million of funding per year once the scheme is rolled out in 2019-20.

Finally, to encourage students to train in high quality institutions (such as the National Colleges or Institutes of Technology), the government will be offering maintenance grants similar to those offered to University undergraduates.

For governors and trustees, particularly in secondary schools, understanding the options available to school leavers is vital to ensuring that the school offers impartial and informed careers advice. Where appropriate, those governing may want to consider gaining assurances from executive leaders that young people are aware of all post-16 routes and opportunities, including the new T-levels.

Research highlights gaps in progress within schools

The Social Mobility Commission has published new research (external link)  into “the barriers to progress that low income pupils face at secondary school”, emphasising that “decisions and actions taken by schools can have a profound impact on outcomes.”

Do you want to nominate a governor or trustee to receive a national honour?

Anyone can be considered for a national honour as long as they are still actively involved in the work or service they have been nominated for. The honours system is inclusive and nominations are welcome from anyone and every community.

For further information visit the website (external link)  

The honours system recognises people who have:

• made achievements in public life
• committed themselves to serving and helping Britain

Nominees have usually made life better for other people or they are outstanding at what they do.

In partnership with the education ‘think-and-action-tank’ LKMco, Pearson have launched an in-depth consultation with teachers, school leaders, governors, parents and pupils to better understand concerns about assessment across the education system and to identify ways of addressing them.

What should assessment look like, and how should it underpin great teaching and learning? Have your say by taking part in LKMco and Pearson’s national consultation. Your response will inform the findings presented in a report, to be published this summer. Further information on the purpose and aims of the consultation can be found at the LMKco website (external link).

The consultation is open to all governors and trustees serving in primary and secondary schools in England and you do not need to be an assessment expert to take part.

Take part in the online survey (external link)