Frameworks, Finances, Freebies & Fire in the belly

Another week down, and it's that time again. Welcome to your favourite round-up of all things education and tech related ??

As you have been doing your incredible work and lighting fires in the bellies of children returning to schools across the country, we have continued to scour the internet and press releases to bring you exciting stories all in one place.

As always, we will cover DfE news, Ofsted news, general education news, and anything new from across the EdTech space.

Without further delay, let's get into it!

DfE News

School Inspection Handbook - Summary of Changes

The above summary of changes webpage was updated on the 13th of September with a summary of changes to the September 2023 version of the schools monitoring handbook.

The text below is taken directly from the webpage:

September 2023

This summary sets out updates we have made to clarify some of the terminology we use and to address the changes we set out recently about inspection processes. It does not include minor corrections made purely to improve readability.

We have included new definitions that clarify the following:

• what we mean by the terms ‘school’, ‘maintained school’ and ‘academy’
• what we mean by the terms ‘board of governors’, ‘governors’, ‘board of trustees’ and ‘trustees’
• what we mean by the terms ‘leaders’ and ‘trust leaders’

We have made amendments throughout the handbooks to apply the changes detailed above.

We have made changes to reflect the changes we have made in how we inspect safeguarding:

• we have updated the monitoring policy to include early monitoring inspections
• we have added new paragraphs on monitoring programmes for inadequate schools
• we have added a new section on monitoring programmes for schools judged inadequate solely due to ineffective safeguarding (early monitoring inspections)
• we have added new paragraphs on deeming of monitoring inspections that are inadequate with serious weakness due to ineffective safeguarding
• final feedback meeting for inadequate schools with serious weakness solely due to ineffective safeguarding

Other changes included in this update:

• a new ‘conduct during inspection’ section
• clarity about what we mean by ‘capacity to improve’
• clarity about the monitoring process for inadequate schools that are not subject to academisation or re-brokering
• clarity on academy orders and the monitoring process

August 2023 (for September 2023 version)

This summary sets out minor changes we have made following the initial publication of the handbook for September 2023. These changes include:

• a new section on schools raising concerns
• clarification that in trusts of over 40 schools the chair of the board of trustees may delegate some meetings (no more than half) to another trustee
• clarification regarding the DfE’s minimum expectation of at least 32.5 hours for the length of the school week

July 2023 (for September 2023 version)

This summary sets out updates we have made to clarify some of the terminology we use and to address the changes we set out recently about inspection processes. It does not include minor corrections made purely to improve readability.

We have included new definitions that clarify the following:

• what we mean by the terms ‘school’, ‘maintained school’ and ‘academy’
• what we mean by the terms ‘board of governors’, ‘governors’, ‘board of trustees’ and ‘trustees’
• what we mean by the terms ‘leaders’ and ‘trust leaders’

We have made amendments throughout the handbooks to apply the changes detailed above.

We have also made changes that provide clarification around the role of the trust during inspection and how we judge safeguarding.

Further updates to the handbook include:

• a new ‘conduct during inspection’ section
• confirmation of the likely date of the next inspection for schools
• that inspectors will protect anonymity of individuals when drawing on evidence
• confirmation that evidence from pupils, parents and staff will always be considered in a proportionate way, alongside other evidence
• updates to ‘behaviour’ and ‘attendance’ sections
• clarity about what we mean by ‘capacity to improve’
• clarity about what we mean by ‘culture of safeguarding’
• clarification on schools’ obligations in relation to ‘separation by sex’ and the steps inspectors should take in relation to this

The following updates refer specifically to sixth form:

• confirmation that for secondary schools the requirement to teach relationships and sex education includes pupils in the sixth form
• the definition of ‘off-rolling’ has been broadened to include sixth-form pupils and situations where pupils are not formally removed from the roll but are not permitted to attend school

For a full summary of all changes dating back to April 2021, click here.

Primary School Accountability

The primary school accountability technical guidance was updated earlier this week to reflect performance measures for the 2022 to 2023 academic year, how DfE will use the data and prior attainment groups.

You can see the full guidance here.

Ofsted News

Ofsted Webinars

Ofsted announced two webinars, one of which has concluded now but should appear on their youtube channel shortly.

See details below:

Best start in life part 2: the three prime areas of learning

Giving all children the best start in life - Blog

A child’s early education lasts a lifetime. That’s why giving all children ‘the best start in life’ is crucial and one of Ofsted’s strategic priorities. In this blog, Lee Owston, Deputy Director, Schools and Early Education updates you on some of the work Ofsted has been doing to support this focus, including:

• delivering our communication and language roadshows
• appointing two new early years curriculum leads
• publishing a new research review looking at the 3 prime areas of learning in the Early years foundation stage (EYFS)

General Education News

Nearly half of schools in England report in-year deficit in new cost-of-living survey.

This week, the National Foundation for Educational Research reported that nearly half of primary and special schools, and two-fifths of secondary schools in England had or were expecting an in-year deficit in 2022/23.

Moreover, schools only expect the situation to worsen next year, and results from the NfER report titled, 'Cost-of-living crisis: Impact on schools - School Provision', suggests that more than half of primary schools are asking parents for extra funds to accommodate cost-of-living pressures.

Read the full press release here.

ASCL comment on NFER report on schools with in-year deficits

Taken directly from the ASCL website, this is the response to the above report:

Julia Harnden, Funding Specialist at the Association of School and College Leaders, responds to a report from the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), which found that almost half of primary schools and special schools and two-fifths of secondary schools in England had or were expecting an in-year deficit in 2022/23. ?

“The fact that so many school budgets are in the red should be a warning sign to the government that the financial pressure on the sector is unsustainable. ? “It is true that the government has put more money into education in recent years but the problem is that this comes after a decade of real-terms cuts and is being outstripped by the soaring cost of things like energy bills and school meals. ? “Many schools face the prospect of having to make further savings. While they strive to minimise the effect on pupils, this inevitably has a negative impact on learning and the additional support they are able to provide to children with special educational needs. ? “Schools serving disadvantaged communities do not even have the option of asking parents to help with the cost of resources as their families simply cannot afford to do so. ? “The government boasts that schools are receiving ‘record funding’ but this is not how it feels on the ground faced with the reality of spiralling costs and with capital funding for repairing and refurbishing buildings having been halved in real-terms since 2010. ? “The simple truth is that if the level of investment in education does not match rising costs this necessitates cuts. The government has to invest more in education, including early years, special schools and post-16 provision, to ensure that the needs of every pupil can be met.”

Click here to read on ACSL site.

Research reveals that children’s reading enjoyment is at its lowest level in almost two decades.

The National Literacy Trust recently published new research which shows that over half (56%) of children and young people aged 8 – 18 don’t enjoy reading in their free time. This is an all-time low statistic since they began surveying children in 2005 and is down 15.2 percentage points from its height in 2016.

Levels of reading enjoyment were found to be weakest for children from disadvantaged backgrounds, with over 60% of children on Free School Meals saying they don’t enjoy reading in their free time. 2022 key stage 2 data shows that over a third of children on Free School Meals are leaving primary school without reaching the expected level of reading, and with poverty rates rising this number is in danger of increasing. A widening attainment gap means that even more children could fall behind their more affluent peers in their education and literacy skills, which can go on to have a lifetime impact.

Read the full report here.

EdTech News

As always, David Surfleet brings you the latest news from the EdTech space.

Microsoft Reflect Educator Toolkit

I landed on the post below and thought it looked cool enough to share. I'll do a deeper dive and share more info over the coming weeks but for now, take a look and let's compare notes:

EvolveCareers

The lack of support available when students transition from education to the workplace has always baffled me, so when I came across this. I just had to share it. Well done, EvolveCareers , and I would love to hear more.

See more using the links below:

https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/acoxall_common-purposes-latest-venture-evolvecareers-activity-7107295339979620353-dLOM?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

https://youtu.be/2d3v6vfHdDY?si=U2yot9HjBmqqW1EW

Satori Education

Satori Education have shared some free EdTech resources for you all, see the post below:

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Last but not least, if there is something else you would like to see topic-wise, just let me know in the comments or via DM.

Stay Happy Ed & Tech Timesers (I know this name is really uncool, terribly written and just all round not very good, but I'm keeping it to annoy Tom Parkinson ).