Stay in the loop with recent news from the education sector

Week Commencing 26/06/23?

Fund careers advisers directly to ease burden on schools, DfE told?

Leaving schools to foot the bill is creating 'significant disparities' in provision, says committee?

Topic Takeaways:?

• Some schools are spending as little as ￡2 per pupil on careers services.?
• Students are missing out on access to certain activities, in particular access to independent careers advisers.?
• Some schools are unable to achieve the Quality in Careers Standard as they can’t afford to pay for careers services.?
• There are calls for Ofsted to look at schools’ achievement of the benchmarks for careers education.?
• Other measures include incorporating careers education into teacher training and development; and to extend the coverage of careers hubs to all schools by 2024.?

Schools Week news article?

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All of the GCSEs offered to 14 to 16 year olds in Wales have been reviewed and?updated with some new subjects?introduced

Topic Takeaways:?

• The main changes are to English, Welsh, maths and sciences.?
• The sciences will be combined.?
• English literature and language will be combined, as will Welsh literature and language.?
• The new qualifications include film, digital media, dance, and engineering.?
• Overall, there is less emphasis on exams and more assessments throughout the year. Maths is still exam-based.?
• There are some concerns over schools getting to grips with the changes will put more pressure on schools still coping with the fall-out of Covid and tight budgets.?

BBC news article?

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Labour accuses UK government of ‘stifling children’s creativity’?

Shadow arts minister highlights stark drop in number of students taking arts GCSEs, which has fallen by 40% since 2010?

Topic Takeaways:?

• The party said the arts were being squeezed out of schools because of tightened budgets and teacher shortages.?
• They also blamed the decreasing importance of arts and culture subjects through school accountability measures such as English baccalaureate entries.?
• There are now 12,000 fewer students taking music (a 27% reduction) – despite the UK music industry contributing ￡4bn to the UK economy in 2021 – and there has been a 15% decline in the number of music teachers since 2011.?
• The number of drama teachers in state-funded secondary schools in England has also fallen by 22% since 2011.?
• There has been a 12% decline in the number of art and design teachers over the same period and the number of art and design trainee teachers has nearly halved in the past two years.?

The Guardian news article?

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Parents are still paying "alarming amounts" for school uniforms, despite rules meant to lower the costs, a charity has warned?

Topic Takeaways:?

• The government said it was working to ensure “uniform costs are reasonable”.?
• The Schoolwear Association, which represents retailers, said not all items of uniform were replaced every year and shops offered families "good value".?
• Under changes to the Education Act last year, schools in England are meant to be helping cut costs for parents.?
• However, the Children’s Society found that pupils were still expected to have an average of three branded items of uniform, with almost a third of secondary students needing four to five branded items. ?
• 45% of parents reported that their school uniform policies had still not been updated.?
• The survey also found that a fifth of parents reported their child had been put in detention for breaking uniform rules due to being unable to afford the right clothing. One in eight had been placed in isolation, while some had even been excluded.?
• Are children missing out on their education due to not wearing the correct or required uniform??
• Are children missing out on extra-curricular activities, such as clubs or school trips because families can’t afford to pay for them??

BBC news article?

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Why pupil absence in England is rising?

Takeaway Topics:?

• Anxiety and mental health issues: According to?NHS?Digital, 18% of children aged seven to 16 had a probable mental disorder in 2022, up from?12.1% in 2017.?
• Poverty: Pupils eligible for free school meals – a key measure of disadvantage – have higher absence rates. In 2020-21 the absence rate for these pupils was more than double the rate for non-eligible pupils (7.8% compared with 3.7%).?
• Housing: The charity School-Home Support (SHS) says 19% of the pupils it works with now cite where they live as a significant barrier to school attendance, up from 11% last year.?
• Illness: Government statistics for autumn 2022 show that 24% of pupils were persistently absent between September and December, missing at least 10% of sessions. Illness was the main cause, with a rise in December linked to seasonal infections and the continued impact of Covid. More than 12% of pupils were classed as persistently missing because of illness.?
• More parents working from home: Some experts detect an attitude shift among parents and children as to the importance of attending school and the option to ‘learn from home’. Many parents are also now able to look after children if they’re slightly unwell, if they’re working from home, where they would have previously had to have sent them to school regardless.?
• SEND pupils: Some SEND pupils miss school to attend healthcare appointments. More often, their absence is due to their school being unable to provide a suitable learning environment.?
• Habit and routine: Some suggest that during lockdown, families and children lost the routine of going to school. Some lost the habit and thus the capacity to be organised and follow a set routine.?
• What are schools and trusts doing about attendance rates??
• Can best practice be effectively shared??
• To what extent is alternative provision (AP) the answer??

The Guardian news article?

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Ofqual and DfE studying ‘feasibility’ of ‘fully digital’ exams?

Study includes looking at whether national infrastructure up to scratch for on-screen exams?

Topic Takeaways:?

• Some exam boards are already piloting on-screen assessment, but research by AQA?last year?found teachers’ biggest barrier to digital exams was a lack of infrastructure.?
• Saxton, a former academy trust boss, said the study would look at the “potential for digital and modern technologies to do things like provide additional quality assurance around matters like marking”.?
• Some countries went entirely online with their national assessments and have experienced ‘significant issues’.?
• Ofqual also previously promised to investigate the use of adaptive testing – a computerised test that adapts to a student’s ability – and whether it could be a possible replacement for tiering in certain GCSEs.?

Schools Week news article?

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Two in three state secondary schools in England teach just one foreign language?

Survey finds German is most affected by shift towards single-language offer in key stage 3?

Topic Takeaways:?

• Just 16% of state schools teach all pupils more than one language.?
• Whereas more than half (53%) of independent and private schools teach every pupil at least two languages in years 7-9 (key stage 3).?
• Just one in 10 responding state schools said all pupils were taking a language for GCSE, compared with three in 10 independent schools.?
• Has the government’s new German promotion programme, launched this year as part of a?￡15m language hubs programme?to tackle a systemic decline in the numbers taking language GCSEs and A-levels, gone far enough??
• Does this disparity between state schools and independent schools significantly contribute to the gap between more and less advantaged pupils??
• Do the advances in technology (in particular, AI) negate the need for multilingualism going forward??

The Guardian news article?

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Cambridge University bids to boost waste recycling to 80%?

Topic Takeaways:?

• Staff and students will be using new bins – food waste bins and bins for dry mixed waste.?
• 3D scanners and 22 miles of conveyor belts will be used to increase recycling from 50% to 80%.?
• The bins themselves are made from 100% post-consumer recycled plastic collected from the local area and can be recycled a further 10 times.?
• Can other universities, colleges and schools follow suit and lead the way to ensure future generations see protecting the environment as a priority – and the norm??
• What more can schools do to weave environmental awareness into day-to-day education??

BBC news article?