News

There is an interesting article about Ofsted  by the Tribune* whatever your political leanings, it makes some useful arguments about why Ofsted should not continue in its present form. It calls for a replacement of Ofsted; '...we favour local systems of collaboration—it should be one which teachers are supported to be their best, one in which our professionalism is respected and valued'.

*Tribune is Britain's oldest democratic socialist publication, offering left wing perspectives on politics, economics, and culture.

State-funded schools received NTP funding over the course of the 2022 to 2023 academic year to deliver tuition to their pupils. This funding is paid in termly instalments via local authorities and academy trusts.The subsidised 'tutor scheme' found a number of school had some difficulty recruiting suitable tutors. That subsidy supposedly comes to an end at the end of the academic year

However the Guardian reports that, the 'Sutton Trust calls on government not to cut post-Covid funding as figures show 37% of children in poor homes had tutoring' . As the Sutton Trust research reveals; ' the government’s national tutoring programme (NTP), which targeted extra help for disadvantaged pupils through their schools, has almost eradicated the gap in access to tuition enjoyed by wealthier families'.

The TES  article makes interesting reading.

As families across the country are informed which school their child is going to, some new research casts doubt on the Ofsted grade accuracy of Secondary Schools ('Not particularly Useful')  in predicting future performance of their child.

BERA’s Expert Panel on Assessment argues that school league tables and SATs should be abolished in favour of a new, fairer and more sustainable accountability system. So BERA has produced a report titled 'An alternative to SATs that will transform England’s testing & school accountability system in primary education & beyond'.

BERA - British Educational Research Association

This appears to be headline news and would seem quite obvious to the profession! However, Wendy, our council member, warns about the over-formalisation of education at this stage of a child's education. 

In the article, James Bowen, director of policy for school leaders’ union NAHT, said: “As this report shows, the early years of a child’s education are crucial to setting children up for the best success, both in terms of their future academic attainment and their life chances.“While we should not be trying to ‘hothouse’ young children, it is clear that great teachers in reception classes make a real difference. “However, we also need to recognise that the years before a child enters reception are just as important, and the challenges some children face start well before they arrive at school.”

In a Guardian article headed 'The cult of maths has brainwashed our schools – and Rishi Sunak has fallen for it too' Simon Jenkins fiercely defended the need for schools to have a balanced curriculum. 'The arts, sport, acquisition of complex life skills: all must be sacrificed on the altar of the easily measurable'. As my blog states, the government seem to be treading a path away from a balanced curriculum promised so many years ago - through the dreaded and dreadful national curriculum which actually provided the means to test children through the backdoor !

A report says that 1.7 million children are behind with talking and understanding words. This report has been generated by a charity called 'Speech and Language UK'. The organisation's mission is achieved through creating tools for schools and nurseries, giving advice and guidance to families and putting pressure on politicians. 

The BBC article says this is probably due to the pandemic lockdown and states that 'The number of five and six year olds who need speech and language support at school has risen by 10% in England over the past year, BBC analysis shows'.

At NAPE we have a view when children should start school. You may wish to read our position paper, called 'School Starting Age' (20).

A request has been made to complete a questionnaire about School readiness, as explained below.

If you are a primary leader, EYFS lead, reception teacher or teaching assistant we need your help. Educators know how critical the early years are as the foundation for later achievement and yet research suggests more children are arriving at Reception not school ready. Children who have not met the developmental milestones expected by school are much more likely to struggle throughout education and beyond. The development gap we see at the start of Reception grows steadily over time and the bigger it gets, the harder it is to close. Kindred² have commissioned YouGov to conduct a major survey into school readiness. If you have experience/knowledge of this year's Reception cohort, please share your experience of school readiness in this 5 minute survey. Participants can choose to be entered into a prize draw for £200 to spend in their school/setting.   Thanks for your help.

Here is the link to the survey: https://yougov.com/schoolreadinesssurvey

The BBC reports inn an article that a Devon head teacher brings in mother to help cash-strapped school.

Schools Week understands ministers hope to enact some of what they see as the most important elements of the bill in the next Parliamentary session, which begins next May.

This could include some of the academy regulation and intervention powers proposed, along with the establishment of a register of children not in education and greater powers to tackle illegal schools.

This year, @Drea_m_achine tapped into school children's imaginations with Life's Big Questions. It encouraged them to delve deep inside their minds, evoking a sense of discovery and curiosity about others. 

5 questions to explore how your brain and your senses work together to help you understand the world

LINK

Apply for a Churchill Fellowship in a range of topical themes, including education in schools.

Churchill Fellows are funded to spend up to two months meeting the leading practitioners and innovators in their field, anywhere in the world, in person or online. Then we help them to use those insights to inspire change in their sector or community across the UK.

Fellowships are open to all adult UK citizens regardless of their qualifications, background or age. We prioritise those who would not receive funding from any other source, and we welcome those with lived experience of the issue they wish to address. Fellows form a national network of 3,800 changemakers working in every area of UK life.

Applications can be made via our website until 5pm on 22 November.   Find out More      Apply here

A quarter of childcare providers fear permanent closure within the year, a survey by Early Years Alliance reveals. The reason given is historic underfunding and a lack of adequate government support during the coronavirus crisis.

Read more detail about the survey through this link.

The recent BBC Childcare podcast is well worth listening to as it covers all aspects of why we need to provide better training and pay for early years practitioners. It makes economic sense! 

I have listed the breakdown, in subject areas, of this excellent podcast, below. Wendy Scott, our Early Years representative on the NAPE Council very much liked the programme on the BBC Sounds streaming podcasts website. However, Wendy was sorry that the 'Sure Start' programme ('which drew on social services and health services') did not get mentioned. 'I would argue that this would make a critical contribution to the government’s levelling up agenda'.

Podcast link here

SATs results: BBC - Standards slip in Year 6 tests.

This will of no surprise to Primary Schools up and down the country as they have been monitoring standards all across the year. 

Also the Guardian - SATs suggest Covid disruption affecting primary school attainment in England

The BBC News article (1/7/2022) headlines that Welsh schools could have their summer holiday cut by four weeks. A market research company's report, commissioned by the Welsh government, made three suggestions:

Oxfordshire NAPE's Festival of Voices 2022 is an event that over 40 primary schools have sung at the beautiful Abbey at Dorchester-on-Thames this month. Oxfordshire NAPE organised this music festival on 7 occasions, over six days in June. This meant that children could benefit from the experience of singing together as one massed choir accompanied by a small group of musicians. For instance, on Monday 20th June, seven schools sang together! The Oxfordshire branch should be congratulated in managing to bring schools together over 36 years, this is quite a feat! I am sure that parents, grandparents and children over those years are most grateful for the hard work that has been put in by the NAPE Committee for this to occur. If you watch the video about the FOV (2019) you will find out that a participating singer who then trained to be a teacher still brings her school to FOV! I thoroughly enjoyed it!

This is a past photograph.

Keeping Children Safe in Education changes (Sept.2022). The Times Educational Supplement has alerted schools to ten changes to KCSIE for September.

Has OFSTED got it wrong? Well after the trouble OFSTED are in for insisting that future teacher-training should ONLY include synthetic phonics for the teaching of reading, OFSTED is now being critised for ITT accreditation.

This article says it all.

The Queen's Platinum Jubillee celebration book for all children is arriving in primary schools in mid-May. 'Children in state-funded primary schools across the United Kingdom will, from mid-May, begin to receive a free commemorative book to mark Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee'. More details in the DfE link above.

Bigger classes? Yes, but pupils have got bigger too, say UK teachers. The article reflects delegates' views at the annual onference of the NASUWT teachers’ union that classes and the size of class furniture is not 'fit' for purpose.

Ukraine children starting school in the UK. Has your school started taking children from Ukraine? This article caught my attention about a mother's perspective of starting her children in an Oxfordshire primary school. How did the children get received? What support had to be put in place. Well, there are few ideas here.

In an article in the Guardian, Dr Mary Bousted, the joint general secretary of the NEU, said successive education secretaries had “failed to get a grip on the issues facing teachers”.

Issues relating to:

> High workload for teachers

> The pernicious effects of a punitive and deeply flawed inspection system

> The effect of real-terms cuts to pay over many years

> 

It is the ministers who do require improvement according to the Guardian. This is a hard-hitting, well researched and so supported article about long-term absence, covid and life-chances.

Read it here

Focus on phonics to teach reading is ‘failing children’, says landmark study - Today the Guardian has published an article on what they call a 'A landmark study'. The article goes on to  say that the research has described the way primary school pupils are taught to read in England as “uninformed and failing children”. The researchers,  is calling on the government to drop its narrow focus on phonics. 'The UCL researchers are among 250 signatories to a letter which has been sent to education secretary Nadhim Zahawi, calling on the government to allow for a wider range of approaches to teaching reading, which would allow teachers to use their own judgment about which is best for their pupils'.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/jan/19/focus-on-phonics-to-teach-reading-is-failing-children-says-landmark-study