For action
Action for schools and further education settings: Respond to your invitation to join the School and College Voice panel
The School and College Voice (SCV) panel is expanding to hear from more teachers and leaders from schools and colleges across England.
The SCV is a regular survey collecting robust insight on high priority topics. The insight provided by panel members is used to support the sector more effectively by informing policy making and delivery.
The department is in the process of inviting teachers and leaders to join the SCV survey panel. Invitations to participate have been issued by Verian, an independent research company, on our behalf.
If you have received an invitation, please remember to accept it before the closing date, so you can take up this opportunity to add your voice. We want to hear your views.
Closing dates for responses is Wednesday 15 May for schools and Monday 3 June for FE colleges.
Action for schools and local authorities: Respond to our consultation on faith designation reforms for free schools and special academies
This article will be of interest to senior leaders.
On Wednesday 1 May 2024 we launched a consultation on faith designation reforms for new and existing free schools and special academies, the consultation ends Thursday 20 June 2024.
Part 1 proposes to lift the 50% faith admissions cap that applies to free schools designated with a religious character, where they are oversubscribed.
Part 2 proposes that new special academies could apply for religious designation and allowing existing special academies with a faith ethos to be able to apply for religious designation.
More information about this consultation is available in the press release.
Action for schools and local authorities: Access new absence bandings report to improve attendance
Reducing absence is our top priority. Schools sharing daily attendance data can now access an absence bandings report in Monitor your school attendance tool.
This report presents pupil absence split into 5% bandings, filterable by pupil characteristic, to help identify pupils with, and approaching, persistent and severe absence rates. Reviewing this tool regularly to identify children moving up or down the absence bands can help target preventative action.
We have also published similar national and LA data allowing you to compare your absence profile.
The Minister for School Standards has written to LAs and school governors and trustees on the difference these data tools could make. Focus on children in the 5 to 15% absence bands is particularly important, alongside multiagency approaches for severely absent children, and children transitioning to year 7 and year 8 (key points where attendance falls).
Action for schools: Review updated guidance on publishing a summary of Music Development Plan
From academic year 2024 to 2025, schools will be expected to publish a summary of their Music Development Plan on their website. The summary should reflect how a school delivers music education to pupils and what changes they are planning in future years.
This is a non-statutory expectation which will be set out when guidance on what maintained schools and academies and free schools should publish online is updated later this week.
The summary is to help pupils and parents or carers understand what your school offers, and who a school works with to support this, including their local Music Hub and other music education organisations. The department has published a short template as part of the guidance to help schools produce the summary.
All schools should already have a Music Development Plan in place as set out in National Plan for Music Education, published in June 2022.
Action for schools: Review new guidance to help appoint school uniform suppliers
Statutory guidance on the cost of school uniforms came into force in September 2022.
As well as requiring schools to ensure that their uniforms are affordable, the guidance sets out that schools using single supplier contracts for uniform should run regular tendering competitions where more than one supplier can compete and value for money is secured.
New non- statutory guidance has been published on Procuring school uniform supplies to help schools run a competitive tender process suitable for their size and spend. It sets out the principles to follow and provides step by step support for each stage, including template documents.
Schools must have regard to this guidance when they are developing and implementing their uniform policy.
Action for schools: Feedback on the DfE’s Moments Matter, Attendance Counts campaign
In January 2024 we launched a national attendance campaign, targeting parents, which ran until March, and included social media, radio ads, and regional and national media partnerships. It was also supported by a range of health organisations and spokespeople, including Dr Sophie Mort and Dr Alex George.
Many thanks to all the schools who supported the campaign, by sharing messaging to parents on the importance of attendance, reposting social ads or printing out posters.
We are very interested to hear your views of the campaign and what else we can do to support your attendance communications. Please take this opportunity to provide feedback about the campaign, responses by Friday 24 May 2024 will be much appreciated.
The short survey should only take 3 to 5 minutes to complete and is not limited to one response per school, we welcome responses from all those interested.
Action for schools: Deliver a school week of at least 32.5 hours by September 2024
In the Schools White Paper (published in March 2022), the Government announced that in order to give every pupil the opportunity achieve their full academic potential, all mainstream, state-funded schools would be expected to deliver a minimum school week of 32.5 hours.
Schools are reminded that the deadline to implement the minimum school week is September 2024.
Guidance and case studies are available to support schools that are not yet meeting the minimum expectation.
News and developments
Information for all settings: The National Governance Association’s Annual Governance Survey is now open
On Monday 15 April 2024, the National Governance Association’s 14th Annual Governance Survey was launched and runs until Monday 27 May 2024.
This is an opportunity for those involved in schools and trusts governance to provide their views and opinions.
The report of last years survey is available to view and once published this years will also be available for all to access and read.
Information for all settings: Recruitment for Employer Representative of the Teachers’ Pension Scheme Pension Board
The Secretary of State for Education, Gillian Keegan, is seeking to appoint a dynamic and inspirational individual to join the Teachers’ Pension Scheme Pension Board as an employer representative.
The role is being advertised on the Teachers Pensions Website, the window for application is live until 12am on Friday 31 May 2024.
Information for early years settings, schools with early years provision and local authorities: Update on the Early Years entitlement expansion
Eligible working parents of children from 9 months to 23 months olds can now apply to access 15 hours of government-funded childcare from September.
For those running early education and childcare settings please advise parents that they can check their eligibility and apply for their codes via the Childcare Choices website.
Parents are also encouraged to start acting now to secure their place for September if they have a preferred provider. Parents can find out more information in our Education Hub article.
Information for schools and further education settings: Wellbeing support for students during exams
We know that exams have the potential to exacerbate feelings of stress for pupils and we want to make sure students are aware of the support they can access if they are worried about sitting exams.
This includes Ofqual’s guide on coping with exam pressure and YoungMinds resources on how to deal with exam stress.
Schools and colleges can also access a range of quality-assured mental health resources so that you can support your pupils, including advice about exam stress on the Mentally Healthy Schools website.
Information for schools and further education settings: Reminder of how to report cyber incidents during exams
If your centre falls victim to a cyber attack or incident, you should report this immediately to Action Fraud, NCSC, the ICO and the department’s Sector Cyber Team at Sector.incidentreporting@education.gov.uk.
If any aspect of exam or assessment delivery is compromised, you should also report this to the relevant awarding organisation(s) and inform any other organisations whose systems you have access to for example UCAS.
Information for schools: Resources to help mark the 80th Anniversary of D Day
Thursday 6 June 2024 marks the 80th anniversary of D Day. Here are some resources to help education settings mark it.
The British Council’s anniversary education pack, D Day and historical aerial photography resources (including for Exercise Tiger) from Historic England, Royal British Legion’s D Day Story, Finding Alfie, by Michael Morpurgo, the Imperial War Museum’s 10 things you need to know about D Day, English Heritage’s D Day content, and Oak National Academy’s lessons on the second world war and D Day.
The National Archives will be running a live event with broadcaster Dan Snow and schools can also arrange relevant visits with English Heritage.
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