Updates & Reports November 2016

The following updates have come to our attention so far in November 2016; click the headings to read the full article.

DfE guidance: School attendance

2 November 2016 – Updated to reflect the 2016 amendments to the Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006.  This guidance will help you maintain high levels of school attendance and plan school hours, term and holiday dates. It provides information about interventions to address pupils’ poor attendance and behaviour at school.

Ofsted correspondence: Sir Michael Wilshaw letters to four schools about an incident allegedly involving their pupils

3 November 2016 – Example of Ofsted’s expectations of school responsibilities for behaviour beyond the school gates.   Sir Michael Wilshaw, Ofsted’s Chief Inspector, writes to 4 schools about an incident allegedly involving their pupils in September 2016. Three are in Bexley Local Authority and one is in Greenwich.

Ofsted inspected the schools in September 2016. The reports are on the Ofsted website:

• Erith School
• St Catherine’s Catholic School
• St Columba’s Catholic Boys’ School
• Woolwich Polytechnic School

Ofqual correspondence: Letter to headteachers: GCSE grade changes

2 November 2016 – A letter to headteachers from Chief Regulator Sally Collier, requesting support to communicate changes on GCSE reforms.

Schools Week: Union website predicts budget cuts for every school in England

4 November 2016 – Schools Week is reporting that a new interactive website which purports to calculate the cuts faced by every school in England has been launched – with some parts of the country predicted to lose as much as 16 per cent of their funding.

The National Union of Teachers and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers have launched the School Cuts website – an online tool allowing users to search by school or postcode, and see predictions for the amount of money institutions will lose from their budgets by 2020. It also shows data for local authority areas.

Schools Week: Key national funding formula consultation may run over Christmas

14 November 2016 – Schools Week is reporting that pressure is mounting on the government to publish its second consultation on the national funding formula amid concerns the document could be launched just days before schools break up for Christmas.

The education secretary Justine Greening and her team faced questions on their funding plans from Labour and Conservative politicians today, but pledged to publish more detailed proposals and launch a second consultation “shortly”.