Reporter at Schools Week, covering behaviour, attendance, children's rights and some SEND. Former Local Democracy Reporter
Ruth Lucas
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Yesterday's workforce statistics were celebrated by the DfE, as it claimed to have hit 70% of its 6,500 new teachers pledge.
But digging further into the figures, we found it included those who started in September 2024, who would have been recruited months before Labour came into power...
Ruth Lucas
In January, Ofsted announced it would launch an ungraded inspection on a Bristol school after it postponed a visit of a Jewish MP due to a planned protest outside the school gates.
Here, we've uncovered the internal communications of the decision to inspect the school that made headlines ⬇️
Councils have been quietly transferring cash out of school budgets for years to plug SEND deficits
But with news that 90% of debts are to be written off, leaders are demanding government scrap the transfers
A statistic in the recent EPI report on the postcode lottery of absence fines stuck out to me recently: there were 15 councils that did not prosecute *any* cases of non-payment of fines.
Upon further digging, we found that nearly three quarters of these councils are in London and the South East...
Really interesting findings here as sampled schools don't tend to be using internal exclusions *instead* of suspensions.
This comes in the context of government pushing schools to keep more suspended pupils on site to reduce lost learning
A theme that came up in a lot of the sector's SEND consultation responses were concerns that the onus is being largely placed on schools, alongside other major policy changes being introduced in the next few years.
We've rounded up all the main points made by the sector here ⬇️
Ruth Lucas
'The evidence does not support a single explanation. It supports something harder to accept: that the institutions we built to support young people into adulthood are no longer fit for that purpose, and that the country has known this for some time'
schoolsweek.co.uk/education-is...
Ruth Lucas
Ruth Lucas
Ruth Lucas
Ruth Lucas
The government has a bad habit of sending press releases about policy announcements close to the end of the working day, embargoed for the following day. It means journalists don’t have the full facts on which to base stories, nor the time to ask important questions
Internal exclusions may not lead to fewer suspensions from school, early research has suggested
schoolsweek.co.uk/internal-exc...
Schools Week
Analysis finds 'tentative correlations' in use of internal and external suspensions
Exclusive: Two councils are gearing up for a court showdown over claims that one owes the other more than ÂŁ4 million in unpaid fees for a financially troubled special school
https://schoolsweek.co.uk/councils-head-to-court-over-4-5m-in-special-school-fees/
Freddie Whittaker
Schools Week
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson is set to be grilled by MPs in Parliament this afternoon.
Follow our live blog for updates...
https://schoolsweek.co.uk/education-questions-in-parliament-live-blog/
Schools Week
Exclusive: Labour has been accused of 'taking credit' for teacher recruitment that occurred before it entered government, after claiming it has already met 70 per cent of its landmark target
https://schoolsweek.co.uk/labour-taking-credit-for-teachers-recruited-before-it-won-power/
