Tag: Department for Education

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 25 October 2023.

Funding for over 460 new children’s social worker apprenticeship opportunities across the country.

Recognising the vital role social workers play in supporting some of the most vulnerable children and families, local authorities will today be allocated a share of £11.7 million to hire up to 461 extra social work apprentices, as part of government plans to build a social worker workforce fit for the future. The extra funding will bolster the workforce and better support the most vulnerable families and children across the country.

Over 1,000 new trainee social workers have also been recruited, and will be supported in their initial education this academic year through the fast track to social work and step-up programmes.

Supporting children’s social workers is an integral part of the ambitious, wide-ranging children’s social care implementation strategy. Backed by £200 million over the next two years, the strategy will transform the current care system to focus on more early support for families, reducing the need for crisis response at a later stage.

Building on the commitment to reduce the overreliance on agency social workers, the government has today also published its response to the consultation on agency child and family social worker workforce. The response sets out proposed national rules to improve the stability and quality of the social worker workforce, with the aim of increasing transparency around the use and cost of agency social workers.

Care leavers will also be celebrated this week as part of care leavers week, which begins today, with a series of events hosted by the government, including an event at 10 Downing Street for ministers to meet with and celebrate care leavers. Minister Johnston will also visit West Ham Football Club to see their Future Programme in action. The programme helps care experienced young people develop skills, access new experiences and connects them to their communities.

David Johnston, Minister for Children and Families, said:

A strong social care workforce is key to achieving our ambition to reform the children’s care sector.

Children’s social workers play a vital role in helping the country’s most vulnerable families, which is why we’re boosting training opportunities and strengthening rules on using agency staff.

This care leavers week we want to shine a light on the inspirational care workers who have overcome challenges.

Recognising the need for high-quality training, the government has appointed the first wave of early adopter local authorities for the early career framework training programme which will support children’s social workers as they join and develop in the profession.

The local authorities, including Birmingham and Tower Hamlets, are now working with the department to co-design the programme, alongside an expert writing group that is drafting the framework itself.

The government is also supporting local authorities to provide positive working environments, to attract and retain children’s social workers to these important roles. A national virtual hub is to be created containing resources to support local authorities to improve working conditions, workload, health and wellbeing and organisational culture and the national workload action group is looking into unnecessary drivers of bureaucracy to promote more time with children and families.

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 23 October 2023.

Education Secretary’s letters make crystal clear that schools must share relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) curriculum material with parents.

The Education Secretary is writing today, 24 October, to all schools in England to make clear that they can and should share relationships, sex and health (RSHE) curriculum materials with parents.

In addition, she has penned an open letter to parents – which encourages them to have confidence in their right to know what their children are seeing and being taught in the classroom.

The letter makes clear that companies providing teaching resources cannot use copyright law to forbid schools from sharing materials, and any attempt to do so through contract terms would be unenforceable and void.

If a provider were to attempt to forbid sharing with parents when asked, schools should continue regardless, because a blanket ban would contradict the clear public interest in parents being aware of what their children are being taught.

In the event that a school is faced with contractual clauses, the Education Secretary is backing schools defending parents’ rights with a practical sample letter that all schools can adapt and send to external providers making clear such clauses are void on the grounds that they are unenforceable.

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan said:

No ifs, no buts and no more excuses. This government is acting to guarantee parents’ fundamental right to know what their children are being taught in sex and relationships education.

Today I’m writing to schools and parents to debunk the copyright myth that parents cannot see what their children are being taught.

Parents must be empowered to ask and schools should have the confidence to share.

Parentkind’s Chief Executive Jason Elsom said:

Parentkind welcomes the Department for Education’s timely move to strengthen parental rights in the teaching of RSHE. The key to children receiving appropriate and beneficial relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) teaching is full transparency with parents.

When we polled parents on RSHE earlier this year, a clear picture emerged. Parents wanted to be consulted by schools in advance and agreed that the teaching of the subject was important.

Our research clearly demonstrates that when parents are consistently informed about RSHE in advance, they are significantly likelier to have confidence in the curriculum and be supportive of the content. This move should help to reassure parents about the content and provision of RSHE.

The Education Secretary first wrote to all schools in England in March in light of concerning reports of the teaching of inappropriate materials as part of the RSHE curriculum.

This letter was clear that the government was initiating a thorough review of the curriculum supported by an independent panel, but that in the meantime schools should not enter contractual conditions that prevent them sharing RSHE materials.

The new letter provides the most categorical position on the application of copyright law in this area to date – as part of the government’s overriding approach to empower both teachers and parents to defend their rights.

It makes clear that where parents cannot attend a presentation or they are unable to view materials via a “parent portal”, such as a school website, schools may provide copies of materials to parents to take home on request, providing parents agree to avoid copying the content or sharing it further.

The Education Secretary and departmental officials have been listening closely to parents and teachers as part of the thorough review into the RSHE curriculum and will publish the updated guidance for full public consultation later this year.

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 20 October 2023.

Minimum service levels (MSLs) to protect children and young people’s education are set to be introduced in schools and colleges, the government has announced today (Friday 20 October).

The proposals will put in place protections for children, young people and parents to ensure education can continue during any future strike action.

The announcement follows the disruption during industrial action last academic year, which resulted in over 10 days of action in schools, leading to 25 million school days that were lost cumulatively, impacting children and families across the country.

This was despite the efforts from many school leaders and teachers to keep classrooms open and government guidance stating that teaching for pupils studying for exams and vulnerable children should be prioritised.

The Education Secretary, Gillian Keegan, has today written to union leaders inviting them to discuss proposals on a voluntary basis in the first instance. In her letter she is clear that should a voluntary agreement not be reached the government is committed to using powers granted through the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act that was introduced earlier this year. Such a move would lead to a consultation and is expected to include a range of models for MSLs in education, for parents, teachers, and other stakeholders to provide views on.

Education Secretary, Gillian Keegan said:

Last year’s school strikes were some of the most disruptive on record for children, and their parents. We cannot afford a repeat of that disruption – particularly as schools and teachers continue to work so hard to help children recover from the pandemic.

I am asking the teaching unions to engage with us and agree to put children and young people’s education first – and above and beyond any dispute.

Proposals to introduce MSLs in schools and colleges follows the announcement made by the Secretary of State to consult on MSLs in universities, to limit the impact of industrial action on students.

The introduction of MSLs will bring education in line with other key public services such as healthcare and transport. MSLs will provide a better balance between the right of workers to strike, and the importance of education.

In July, school teaching unions suspended their strikes when the government announced the largest pay award in 30 years for teachers, alongside meeting its manifesto commitment of increasing starting salaries to a minimum of £30,000.

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 12 October 2023.

Primary school pupils show improvement in their reading ability as attainment in this year’s reading assessment increases since last year.

Education standards continue to improve as new statistics on the phonics screening check published today (12 October) show 79% of five- and six-year-olds met the expected standard, up from 75% last year.

Phonics is a body of knowledge that is necessary for pupils to learn to read and spell, at whatever age. Young children learning to read are taught how to recognise the sounds that each individual letter makes, as well as the skill of blending the individual sounds together to read.

Improvements in children’s reading ability in English primary schools builds on the international success earlier this year, when England came fourth for primary reading proficiency, out of 43 countries that tested children of the same age in the highly anticipated Progress in International Reading Literacy Study.

Schools Minister Nick Gibb said:

Teaching children to read using phonics has been a key part of this government’s focus on driving up school standards over the past 13 years, and our children are now the best readers in the west.

Today’s results reflect the hard work of our teachers and show strong progress as pupils continue to recover from the impact of the pandemic.

The phonics screening check was first introduced in 2012 when only 58% met the expected standard. Since 2012, there has been a 21% point increase in attainment in the check, highlighting the government’s commitment to raising standards across the board.

Literacy and numeracy are the cornerstones of a world-class education. Last week, the Prime Minister announced plans to build on this at post-16 through the new advanced British standard, which will bring together the best of A Levels and T Levels into a single new qualification and make maths and English mandatory.

Raising standards in primary schools is a key priority for this government to set children up with the best start in life. The government established the network of English hubs to support schools to ensure all children are given a strong start in reading. It also introduced a validated list of phonics programmes to ensure schools have access to high-quality programmes.

The £60 million English hubs programme was rolled out in 2018 and is designed to develop expertise in teaching reading in schools. The lead schools work with partner schools by modelling best practice and providing expert teachers to help them raise standards through phonics.

Our network of 40 maths hubs is supporting schools across the country to improve maths teaching based on mastery teaching approaches used by some of the highest performing parts of the world.

The key stage 1 attainment statistics were also published today, showing the number of pupils meeting the expected standards in reading, writing, maths and science increasing from 2022.

This year:

• 70% of pupils met the expected standards in maths, up from 68% in 2022
• 68% of pupils met the expected standard in reading up from 67% in 2022
• 60% of pupils met the expected standard in writing, up from 58% in 2022
• 79% of pupils met the expected standard in science, up from 77% in 2022.

Since 2010, the proportion of schools rated good or outstanding by Ofsted has increased from 68% in 2010 to 88% based on latest data.

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 12 October 2023.

The privy council has confirmed today that they have approved Sir Martyn Oliver as the next HMCI for Ofsted.

The education secretary today (12 October) announced the appointment of Sir Martyn Oliver as the next His Majesty’s chief inspector (HMCI) of education, children’s services and skills.

The privy council has confirmed his appointment through an order in council, after a thorough recruitment process conducted in line with the requirements set by the commissioner for public appointments.

Sir Martyn was recommended as the government’s preferred candidate by the education secretary earlier this year and was also endorsed by the education select committee following a pre-appointment hearing last month.

He is an accomplished school and trust leader with a track record of driving up standards in areas with high levels of disadvantage. Sir Martyn is currently the chief executive of Outwood Grange Academies Trust (OGAT), a large multi-academy trust which has grown under Sir Martyn’s leadership from 17 academies to 41 primary, junior, secondary and alternative provision academies in the north of England. He was honoured for his services to education in the recent queen’s birthday honours list in 2022.

Secretary of state for education Gillian Keegan said:

Sir Martyn Oliver is an accomplished school and trust leader with a tremendous record of driving up standards and I’m delighted to announce that he has been confirmed as Ofsted’s next chief inspector.

I want to thank Amanda Spielman for her work over the past seven years. She successfully led Ofsted through a series of significant reforms in education and children’s services, alongside championing a broad and balanced curriculum.

We look forward to building on this vital work with Sir Martyn Oliver to ensure Ofsted continues to evolve.

Sir Martyn Oliver, chief executive officer of Outwood Grange Academies Trust, said:

I was deeply honoured and hugely privileged to be recommended for this role by the secretary of state, and am delighted that the privy council has today approved my appointment.

I am looking forward to engaging with all parts of the sector that Ofsted regulates and inspects through a Big Listen, so that Ofsted is very much of the system and by the system for the benefit of children and parents.

I promise to be empathetic, compassionate and understanding of the challenges that those of us working in education, children’s services and skills face, especially in terms of the recovery post-covid, and will ensure that we always take a holistic view for the good of all children, especially the most vulnerable and those who are disadvantaged.

Sir Martyn will start his five-year term on January 1st 2024 after Amanda Spielman’s term ends on December 31st 2023 following seven years of service.

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 10 October 2023.

Teacher recruitment will see a huge boost this academic year with £196 million to attract more teachers across key subjects.

Teacher recruitment will see a huge boost this academic year with £196 million to attract more teachers across key subjects. This will fund scholarships, bursaries and salary grants to help thousands of candidates through their initial teacher training (ITT).

Scholarships for those training to teach mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing will now be brought up to £30,000 tax-free, in order to attract more talented teachers in these key subjects to support the delivery of the advanced British standard (ABS), announced by the prime minister last week.

The ABS is a new single qualification for 16- to 19-year-olds that will bring together the best of A Levels and T Levels, giving students the freedom to take a mix of technical and academic subjects, boosting their skillset and giving students more flexibility over their future career options. Students will also spend more time in the classroom, increasing taught hours to a minimum of 1,475 hours over two years.

In his speech, the prime minister committed an initial investment of £600 million over two years to lay the groundwork for delivering the advanced british standard, which would double the levelling up premium, helping retain talented teachers in priority subjects.

This means that, existing teachers, who are in the first five years of their careers teaching priority subjects in disadvantaged schools will receive £6,000 tax-free per year. This will include for the first time further education colleges and will recognise and reward the valuable jobs that teachers play in our society.

Overall, the next recruitment cycle will see a £15 million increase on the financial support available to trainee teachers compared to the last cycle, which will encourage the brightest and the best into teaching, helping support the delivery of the ABS and beyond.

As part of the increase existing bursaries for biology and design & technology will also be brought up to £25,000 and additional bursaries for subjects that are compulsory to the curriculum have been introduced, including one in music. This means those applying to train to teach music will receive a £10,000 bursary. This brings the total number of eligible subjects available for financial support to 12.

Education Secretary, Gillian Keegan said:

Last week the prime minister set out a new vision for our education system. The new advanced british standard will expand the range of what our 16 to 19 year olds learn and finally end the artificial divide between academic and technical education.

We know teachers will be key to its success – just as they have been to raising standards since 2010. That’s why we need the best and the brightest teaching throughout our schools. These bursaries give trainee teachers even more choice and support to help them start their journey into the classroom.

Since its launch the department has made considerable progress delivering its teacher recruitment and retention strategy to attract, retain and develop the highly skilled teachers needed to inspire the next generation.

Recent data has shown that schools in England now have more teachers than ever before nearly 470,000 teachers in the workforce, a 27,000 increase on 2010.

To help tackle teacher and school leader workload, the workload reduction taskforce has been established, which will help support the government’s ambition to reduce working hours for teachers and leaders by five hours per week.  In addition, we have created 12 flexible working ambassador multi-academy trusts and schools (FWAMS) this year to support schools with flexible working and have published our flexible working toolkit, which provides resources to help implement practices like job shares, part-time working and ad-hoc flexibility, such as the occasional personal day.

To further attract teachers to the profession, the international relocation payment (IRP) pilot will continue for a second year, supporting the highest-quality candidates to teach priority subjects and ensuring that England remains an attractive teaching destination worldwide.

More great teachers in classrooms helps build a world class education system for children and builds on the government’s work to drive up standards. This follows on from England’s recent success in the progress in international reading literacy study (PIRLS), which saw it placed 4th in the world for reading among primary school children.

This winter, the department will publish a strategy update that builds upon its commitment to give every child a world class education delivered by great teachers.

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 9 October 2023.

Hackathon to test how artificial intelligence could reduce workloads and drive up standards.

Teachers and school leaders from across England are set to participate in an artificial intelligence (AI) hackathon as part a two-day event to experiment with technology and identify how AI could supercharge education.

Artificial intelligence is already having an impact on society, helping to grow the economy and deliver better public services. In education, the technology has huge potential ranging from supporting teachers with administrative tasks to providing personalised feedback for students on their work.

In a bid to unlock these benefits, the Department for Education, in collaboration with Faculty AI, the National Institute of Teaching, and the AI in Schools Initiative, is set to host an AI hackathon in London on 30 and 31 of October which will bring together teachers and leaders from schools and trusts across England, including Harris Federation, Star Academies, Outwood Grange Academies Trust and Inspiration Trust.

Participants will be asked to experiment with AI to test its potential in several scenarios, for example whether it could write a lesson plan or accurately mark exam papers.

Secondary school pupils will also be invited to share their experiences and knowledge. The best of the solutions will be shared with the department’s workload reduction taskforce and a demo of the tools created will be made available for schools across the country to test and to use, supporting the government’s ambition to reduce working hours for teachers and leaders by five hours per week.

Education Secretary, Gillian Keegan, said:

During my career in the tech business, I have seen innovation in action.

Artificial intelligence has huge potential to transform the way we do things, from providing personalised support for pupils to helping tackle teacher workload.

But to reap the benefits in education, we need to improve our understanding of how AI works and safely. Participants of the hackathons will be supported by Faculty AI and the National Institute of Teaching to experiment and put forward solutions, paving the way for the future.

Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, Michelle Donelan said:

This hackathon will help explore how AI can be harnessed to revolutionise education.

We want to see teachers using AI to speed up administrative tasks and planning so that they are free to focus on the things which make the biggest difference to students.

We are also equipping the next generation with the AI skills they need for the future, with our AI conversion courses helping students gain technical knowledge in this transformative technology so they can compete and thrive in the workplace.

Tom Nixon, Director of Government at Faculty AI, said:

Artificial intelligence is the defining technology of our generation – and now is the time to safely bring its vast benefits to schools.

From creating timetables and lesson resources, to supporting students with personalised feedback, AI has the power to cut workloads and improve young people’s education.

The hackathon will be an important step in moving from rhetoric to reality, and we’re excited to help get these tools into classrooms.

Dr Calum Davey, Executive Director of Research at the National Institute of Teaching said:

We want to see a school system that nurtures the teachers and school leaders who are making a difference for children every day. Emerging AI technology may help with their work, but if it’s going to be useful and have an impact then schools need to led identification of problems and development of solutions.

We are proud to work with Faculty to connect the experts in AI technology with the experts in the classroom. Our researchers will be listening to those involved and sharing what we learn.

The UK is already a world leader in AI, spearheading the safe and responsible development of the technology. Ahead of the UK AI Safety Summit on 1 and 2 November, this work will mark an important step in ensuring the UK remains at the forefront of AI globally.

As part of its work in this space, the Department for Education launched a call for evidence in June to gather views from educational professionals on risks, ethical considerations, and possibilities of AI in education. The results of the call for evidence will be published in November 2023 and alongside the results from this month’s hackathons, will support the government’s work to identify AI’s potential and ensure it advances in a safe, reasonable, and fair way.

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 2 October 2023.

Consultation launched in response to concerns about the impact of strike action on university students and providers.

The government will launch a consultation on minimum service levels in universities, the Education Secretary Gillian Keegan announced today.

Students and universities will be encouraged to share their views on the impact of strike action.

The consultation will focus on stronger protections for final year students, key cohorts or those studying specialist subjects. If introduced, the minimum service level could ensure students get the education they pay for, protecting them from strike action, for example looking at how to guarantee continued services such as teaching contact hours and marking their work during walkouts.

Previous strike action has resulted in lost learning at critical times during students’ education.

The move builds on reforms announced earlier this year to improve the quality of university degrees for students by making sure universities are accountable for how students are progressing through their courses and what they will earn after graduation.

The Office for Students has been asked to limit the number of students universities can recruit onto courses that have high drop-out rates, don’t lead to good jobs and leave young people with poor pay and high debts.

Today’s announcement is another step in a series of long-term decisions to ensure a bright future for all children and young people, whether it be starting school, through to going to university or undertaking an apprenticeship.

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 2 October 2023.

Mobile phone use to be banned during the school day, including at break times, new guidance recommends.

Mobile phone use should be banned in schools across England to improve behaviour, the Education Secretary Gillian Keegan announced today.

New guidance from the Department for Education will back head teachers in banning mobile phone use throughout the school day, including at break times, to tackle disruptive behaviour and online bullying while boosting attention during lessons. It aims to support the wider work the government is doing to raise standards in schools by increasing students’ focus and reducing distractions.

This ban supports the hard work of teachers and education staff – and continues to build on government’s reforms backed up by the highest level of funding for schools in history, in real terms, of nearly £60 billion by 2024-25.

The move will bring England in line with other countries that have already implemented a ban, including France, Italy and Portugal. It follows warnings from the United Nations on the risks of smartphones in schools and government data that found around a third (29%) of secondary school pupils reported mobile phones being used when they were not supposed to in most, or all, lessons.

If schools fail to implement the new guidance, the government will consider legislating in the future to make the guidance statutory.

Tom Bennett, school behaviour advisor said:

This is a fantastic move forward for ensuring that students are able to work, learn and grow in a place free from the distracting influence of mobile phones. Schools that have already banned them report that students are safer, happier and able to focus far more than they were before- and it’s popular with them too.

And heads should now be reassured that their efforts to keep schools mobile-free will be backed by the DfE. This is a positive and progressive step forward.

The guidance will set out limited exemptions where necessary – for example, where children require their phones for medical reasons.

The ban builds on a £10 million investment in behaviour hubs which support up to 700 schools to improve behaviour alongside the appointment of a new behavioural taskforce led by DfE’s behaviour tsar Tom Bennett.

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 29 September 2023.

More children will have access to walk to school and cycle training programmes over the next 2 years, giving them better road skills.

Up to 2 million more children will have access to walk to school programmes and cycle training programmes over the next 2 years thanks to a multimillion-pound investment announced by Active Travel England (ATE) today (29 September 2023).

The £60 million package will help parents have more confidence to walk or cycle with their kids on the school run by funding initiatives that give more children better road skills and aim to help make it easier for parents to choose greener travel options.

The 2-year funding will include £50 million to expand Bikeability cycle training to a million more young people. This scheme has already delivered training to more than 4 million children since 2007.

A further £5 million will support walk to school programmes aimed at hundreds of thousands of pupils in schools across England via the charity Living Streets.

Chris Boardman, Active Travel Commissioner, said:

Giving kids transport independence and enabling them to walk, wheel or cycle on the school run is what they want, and what we want for them.

This £60 million funding package will help put the joy back into journeys and create a generation of young people who feel confident to make healthier and greener travel choices.

Decarbonisation Minister, Jesse Norman, said:

The government wants children up and down the country to benefit from the freedom as well as the huge mental and physical health benefits of cycling. That is why it is investing £60 million in this package of measures to support active travel for young people.

Schools Minister, Nick Gibb, said:

The journey to and from school is an essential part of the school day for every child, and it’s encouraging that Active Travel England is investing in active travel initiatives for children and young people that can improve their health and wellbeing.

Many schools are already encouraging these initiatives locally and this is being supported with our School Sport and Activity Action Plan, which was published earlier this year.

The plan supports initiatives to increase active and safe travel to school such as Walk to School Outreach, School Streets and Bikeability – and these include inclusive delivery for children with special educational needs and disabilities.

Also included in the package is £4 million to extend Cycling UK’s Big Bike Revival programme to March 2025. The scheme has already engaged over 80,000 people of all ages, helping them learn cycling basics and feel more confident while pedalling.

Meanwhile, an additional £500,000 will fund an extension to the Modeshift STARS and Active Travel Ambassador schemes. The STARS program provides recognition for schools, businesses and organisations that show excellence in supporting and delivering active travel plans in their community. Active Travel Ambassadors work with secondary school students to encourage their peers to travel actively.

Stephen Edwards, Chief Executive of Living Streets, said:

This funding will support even more families to choose active ways to travel to school, boosting the nation’s health, reducing congestion and improving air quality.

Our programmes have been incredibly successful, playing a huge role in helping more children walk to school. We look forward to more pupils and schools joining us and reaping the benefits that come from swapping the school run for a school walk.

Emily Cherry, Chief Executive of the Bikeability Trust, said:

What great news to wrap up Cycle to School Week. We and ATE share an ambition that every child has the confidence to cycle and can enjoy this skill for life. This funding will help us and our brilliant Bikeability instructors, training providers and grant recipients to work towards that ambition this and next year. Together, we can make sure that no child leaves school without the knowledge, confidence and opportunity to cycle.