Blog

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 14 November 2011.

• Ministers dispel health and safety school trip myths

Teachers must no longer be discouraged from taking children on school trips because of misplaced health and safety concerns, Education Secretary Michael Gove and Employment Minister Chris Grayling have said.

A myth-busting statement, prepared by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), has been published for schools and local authorities – explaining what teachers should consider when organising trips. The statement dispels myths about legal action and encourages all schools to ditch unnecessary paperwork, ensuring that precautions are proportionate to the risks involved.

Newly revised health and safety guidance for schools has also been published by the Department for Education, summarising how the existing health and safety law affects schools, local authorities, governing bodies, and staff – particularly in relation to school trips. This advice has been slashed from 150 pages of unduly complex information to just eight pages.

At the moment, many schools wrongly believe that:

• written risk assessments – some totalling up to 100 pages – must be completed for every activity that takes place outside of school, such as visits to museums
• teachers must ask parents to complete written consent forms for every school trip or visit.

The new guidance clarifies these myths and urges a common sense approach, making it easier for schools to give pupils more opportunities to learn outside of the classroom.

Education Secretary Michael Gove said:

Children should be able to go on exciting school trips that broaden their horizons. That is why we are cutting unnecessary red tape in schools and putting teachers back in charge.

This new, slimmer advice means a more common sense approach to health and safety. It will make it easier for schools to make lessons more inspiring and fun.

Employment Minister Chris Grayling said:

Memories of our school trips stay with us. Learning outside the classroom brings the curriculum to life and is essential to our children’s development. We cannot let confusion over health and safety requirements deprive them of the opportunities we had.

I want to dispel the myths and remind schools, teachers and local authorities that a disproportionate fear of prosecution should not get in the way of common sense.

The revised guidance:

• summarises the legal duties of head teachers, governing bodies and local authorities on health and safety, and covers activities that take place on and off school premises
• makes clear that a written risk assessment does not need to be carried out every time a school takes pupils on a regular, routine local visit, for example to a swimming pool or museum.
• tackles myths and teachers’ fears about being prosecuted by making the law clearer
• clarifies that parental consent is not necessary for pupils to take part in the majority of off-site activities organised by a school, as most of these activities take place during school hours and are a normal part of a child’s education.

The fear of prosecution is often cited as an obstacle to arranging school trips, but action is rare. In the past five years, only two cases have been brought by the HSE for breaches of health and safety law in relation to school visits and this was where there was evidence of recklessness or a clear failure to follow sensible precautions.

To help schools further, the Department for Education has also developed a ‘one-off’ parental consent form, which covers activities outside the normal school day. These include residential visits in school holidays and at weekends, adventure activities, off-site sporting fixtures outside the school day, and all off-site activities for nursery schools which take place at any time. The consent form will cover all activities and will only need to be signed once, when a child enrols at the school.

Schools will then only need to inform parents in advance of each activity and give them the opportunity to withdraw their child from the activity if they wish, rather than conducting bureaucratic form-filling exercises for every school trip.

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 14 November 2011.

• Court houses and Department for Education offices could house new schools
• Total number of new school applications approved reaches 87

The first ever special and alternative provision free schools have been approved to open from September 2012. Approved plans include a new school for vulnerable young people to be run by Everton Football Club.

The 8 new Free Schools – including 3 special schools and 5 alternative provision schools – join 79 others that are due to open from next year onwards.

Like Academies, Free Schools have greater freedoms than local authority run schools, giving teachers the power to make decisions that are right for local children. Free Schools will help raise standards for all children, particularly those living in disadvantaged communities.

Six government or publicly owned sites have also been identified as being suitable to house Free Schools – including 2 Department for Education offices and 4 court houses. They are:

• Balham Youth Court, London
• Haringey Magistrates Court, London
• Mid-Sussex Magistrates Court, Haywards Heath
• Sutton Coldfield Magistrates Court, Sutton Coldfield
• Department for Education, Mowden Hall, Darlington
• Department for Education, Castle View House, Runcorn.

Groups can apply to open schools in these – and other – government buildings that are surplus or under-used, where appropriate. The government also wants more surplus or under-used public buildings to make space available to Free Schools.

The first special Free Schools are being set up by passionate and talented groups, who want to improve state education provision and choice for families with children with special education needs (SEN) and disabilities. Too often, parents struggle to find a special school that meets the needs of their child.

New alternative provision Free Schools will allow more children, who would not receive the right education in a mainstream school, to get a good education. Pupils that attend alternative provision schools are some the most vulnerable young people in society. They include pupils who have been excluded, are ill, have been severely bullied or are teenage parents. Current provision is very mixed, and the vast majority of pupils leave alternative provision without the qualifications they need for employment or further study.

Three special schools and five alternative provision schools have been approved today. They are:

• Rosewood school, Southampton (Age 2 – 19 special school)
• City of Peterborough Academy special school, Peterborough ( Age 4 – 18 special school)
• The Lighthouse School, Leeds (Age 11 – 19 special school)
• Derby Pride Academy, Derby (Age 11 – 16 alternative provision school)
• Harmonize Academy, Liverpool (Age 13 -19 alternative provision school)
• Stone Soup Learns, Nottingham (Age 11 – 19 alternative provision school)
• Everton in the Community Free School Trust, Liverpool (Age 14 – 19 alternative provision school)
• East Birmingham Network, Birmingham (Age 13 – 16 alternative provision school)

Education Secretary Michael Gove said:

No child – regardless of their circumstances – should be denied an excellent education that is close to home. An education where teachers are free to decide what is best and where standards are high.

Through Free Schools, we are breaking down barriers to make this a reality for some of the poorest and most vulnerable children in the country. The good schools lottery must end.

Recent statistics show that just 1.4 % of children in alternative provision in 2009/10 achieved 5 or more GCSEs at grade A*-C, or equivalent, including English and mathematics. This compares with 53.4 % in all schools in England.

Along with Free Schools, the Government’s behaviour adviser, Charlie Taylor, is also looking at other ways of improving alternative provision in England.

In addition, groups wishing to open Free Schools, University Technical Colleges (UTCs) and Studio Schools from September 2013 will be able to access the application form and guidance from the Department’s website from today. The New Schools Network is also on hand to provide support to Free Schools groups throughout the application process.

Successful Free School applications for those wishing to open from September 2013 will be announced in July 2012. Successful UTCs will be announced in May 2012.

David Moyes, Manager of Everton FC, said:

This would represent a fantastic opportunity for Everton Football Club and its charitable arm, Everton in the Community, to further extend its reach into a wide variety of communities across the Merseyside region. It would, unquestionably, provide a real chance for some less-privileged, less-fortunate children to embrace – and to benefit from – a high-quality education.

Barry Day, Chief Executive of the Greenwood Dale Foundation Trust, said:

We are delighted that this Special Free School application is proceeding to the pre-opening stage. The group greatly looks forward to offering a new special school, co-located with a mainstream school to support the Government’s agenda for further integrated special provision within other settings.

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 11 November 2011.

The Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Children’s Minister Sarah Teather set out the plans in a consultation on changes to free early education.

The consultation includes proposals to:

Make the free entitlement to 15 hours per week of early education more flexible, so it can be taken between 7am and 7pm, and spread across two days instead of the current three days.
Use the criteria which is used for free school meals to decide which disadvantaged two-year-olds should qualify for free early education,
Include two-year-olds who are looked after by the state in the eligibility criteria for free early education.
Slim down statutory guidance for local authorities from 100 pages to fewer than 20 pages.
Under the plans, up to 140,000 disadvantaged two-year-olds will be entitled to 15 hours a week of free early education. The announcement follows the Government’s commitment, made by the Deputy Prime Minister in October 2010, to extend 15 hours of free early education – currently available to all three- and four-year-olds – to disadvantaged two-year-olds from September 2013.

Nick Clegg said:

I want us to give every child the best possible start – so free education for toddlers from the most disadvantaged homes will now be a right and not a privilege. Crucially the extra care will be flexible and easy to access. Parents across the country are bending over backwards to balance work and home. The Coalition wants to help in whatever way we can.

Sarah Teather, Children’s Minister, said:

Our priority is to increase social mobility by helping children from the poorest backgrounds in their earliest years. High quality early education is the key to making a difference early on in a child’s life. It’s crucial for their healthy development and means they’re not falling behind before they have even started primary school.

We want more children to be able to access their full early education entitlement. Too often, the most disadvantaged children don’t get what they are entitled to. It’s important we target early education at those who stand to benefit the most.

We also want to make the entitlement more flexible, so that children don’t miss out on early education and parents can help balance their work and family life more easily.

All 152 local authorities in England have been delivering a targeted offer of between 10 and 15 hours of free early education to some of the most disadvantaged two-year-olds since September 2009. The extension of 15 hours to all disadvantaged two-year-olds will mean an increase in the number of places across the country, from 20,000 per year to around 140,000 per year.

The Department is funding 15 trials in 18 local authorities to test approaches to expand free early education for disadvantaged two-year-olds. The trials are looking at the challenges that local areas face to deliver the expansion as well as helping them to share learning and best practice across the country. The trials will run until 31 March 2012.

The Department is also consulting on how to improve the way in which local authorities tell parents how they are ensuring sufficient childcare places in the local area. An annual report to parents would replace the overly bureaucratic childcare sufficiency assessment that local authorities must currently do every three years.

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 9 November 2011.

Schools Minister Nick Gibb said:

Reforms to public sector pensions are essential – the status quo is not an option. The cost to the taxpayer of teacher pensions is already forecast to double from £5 billion in 2006 to £10 billion in 2016 and will carry on rising rapidly as life expectancy continues to improve.

We’ve always been clear that the Teachers’ Pension Scheme will remain one of the best available but we need to ensure the balance between taxpayer and the public sector employee is fair.

The government has been listening carefully to teachers and heads. We’ve put forward an improved offer which guarantees existing pension rights; gives teachers a defined, index-linked pension; and protects those closest to retirement from changes – in particular, heads and the longest serving senior staff.

We are continuing to hold serious discussions about the reforms with the teaching profession. It is right that the unions look very carefully at what is on the table before taking industrial action.

Strikes benefit no one – they damage pupils’ education; disrupt and inconvenience parents’ lives; and risk the professional reputation of teachers in the eyes of the public.

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 8 November 2011.

The Government publishes implementation plan for teacher training strategy to train the next generation of outstanding teachers.

Education Secretary Michael Gove today announced a £2m-a-year partnership between the Department for Education and the Institute of Physics (IOP) to attract the best graduates to become physics teachers. It re-affirms the Government’s commitment to recruit the very best graduates into teaching and train them even better, so that standards can rise in schools across the country.

Around 100 scholarships worth £20,000 each will be available every year for graduates with a 2:1 or first class degree who are intending to do a mainstream physics, or physics with maths, Initial Teacher Training (ITT) course.

The IOP will work with experts in teaching practice to award scholarships. They will hand-pick candidates demonstrating exceptional subject knowledge, enthusiasm for the study of physics, and outstanding potential to teach. The IOP’s relationship with the scholars will continue into their teaching careers. This will develop a group of outstanding physics teachers, all part of a community of physicists across schools, universities and industry.

IOP research shows that around 1,000 new specialist physics teachers in England are needed every year for the next 15 years to plug the gap so that the subject is taught by specialist teachers. Last year around 275 fewer trainees were recruited to physics initial teacher training courses than were needed.

The scholarship comes as part of the Government’s implementation plan for its ITT Strategy, Training our next generation of outstanding teachers. The implementation plan is published today.

Education Secretary Michael Gove said:

If we want to have an education system that ranks with the best in the world, we must attract outstanding people into the profession, and we must give them outstanding training.

The scholarship scheme launched with the Institute of Physics will help make sure we have excellent physics teachers in this country with deep subject knowledge. They will help raise the status of the teaching profession and also make a huge difference in the lives of children.

Professor Peter Main, Director of Education and Science at the Institute of Physics, said:

These scholarships will help the Institute realise its aims of welcoming a greater number of physics teachers into the broader community of physicists and of increasing the spread of subject expertise in education. They will help us to develop excellent teachers from excellent graduates. We are saying to people with a love of physics and a good academic record – ‘choose teaching: it is a job that will reward you and exploit your abilities to the full’.

Renowned physicist Professor Jim Al-Khalili said:

Being a research physicist and a well-known physics broadcaster and author is all well and good but the really valuable work needed to inspire future generations of physicists is done by physics teachers in the classroom.

Every day teachers are communicating the beauty of the subject and the satisfaction that an understanding of physics can give you. So becoming a teacher is both a great opportunity for people to share their passion for the subject and means playing a vital role in giving the whole population a good grounding in the subject. And, as with any communication role, it is a fascinating and enjoyable way to spend your time.

The IOP will begin recruitment for the scholarships from today.

Ministers aim to expand the model physics scholarships to other specialist subjects from 2013/14 onwards. It is hoped other organisations will come forward who are interested in attracting and selecting trainees for the award of outstanding teacher training scholarships.

New teacher training strategy

The Government’s Initial Teacher Training (ITT) Strategy Implementation Plan, published today, re-affirms the Government’s commitment to recruiting the very best into teaching and a greater role for schools in training.

The proposals cover:

• Encouraging more primary specialist teachers to be trained

From 2012/13, the Government will prioritise the allocation of places to courses with a specialism, rather than to generalist primary courses. This will encourage ITT providers to offer specialist courses. We will also offer schools the opportunity to train their own primary specialist teachers and then employ them as specialist teachers. For 2013/14 we expect to introduce additional financial incentives for trainees who undertake a maths, sciences or languages specialism as part of their primary ITT course, and who have a good A-level in maths, a science or a language.

• Offering graduates with first-class degrees in physics, chemistry, maths and modern foreign languages significantly better financial incentives to train as teachers

Trainees will receive a bursary of up to £20,000 in their training year – more than double the current maximum of £9,000.

• Requiring all trainees to have high standards of mathematics and English by requiring trainees to pass a tougher literacy and numeracy tests before they start training

Candidates who fail either of the skills tests will be limited to two re-sits for each test. Currently they only take the tests after starting their training course and they are allowed unlimited re-sits. New figures show that one in five trainees fail either of the basic tests first time round. The pass mark will also rise from September 2012. And a review of the tests will be carried out and new tests introduced in September 2013.

• Allowing and encouraging schools to lead their own high-quality initial teacher training

Around 100 outstanding schools have already been selected to be ‘Teaching Schools’. These schools will lead the way on increasing school involvement in the training and professional development of teachers and headteachers. Outstanding schools will also be able to become accredited providers and be given priority over teacher training places.

• Giving schools a stronger influence over the content of ITT training as well as the recruitment and selection of trainees

Teachers consistently identify two specific weaknesses in the initial training they have received: being able confidently to teach reading effectively, including using systematic synthetic phonics, and how to manage pupil behaviour.

• Continuing to ensure that ITT provision focuses on the quality of placements and selection

Ofsted is currently consulting on improving the inspections for ITT providers.