Education Bulletin Brief Alerts - March 2019

The DfE has published guidance for school in the event of a no-deal exit from the European Union. It covers what to do about foreign nationals; new arrivals; school places; recognition of teaching qualifications and checking on previous records; travel to the EU; data protection issues; food supplies; and what to do about participation in Erasmus and European Solidarity Corps initiatives.

‘No other profession is as important to the fate of the next generation or is as uniquely rewarding as teaching’ - so says the government’s new Recruitment and Retention Strategy. It is intended to deal with the problem of inadequate recruitment and heavy losses of teachers without catch-up salary increases. Press coverage generally covered the proposals for new induction arrangements, but there are other important proposals in the document.

A significant section covers creating ‘the right climate for leaders to establish supportive school cultures.’ There is a frank recognition of the unintended consequences of accountability systems. There are proposals for giving support for preventing pupils’ misbehaviour and for changes to inspection. There is a promise of structural stability:

• No additional statutory tests or assessment for primary schools;
• No further changes to the national curriculum; and
• No more reform of GCSEs or A-levels.

The ‘transformation’ of support for early career teachers (not to come in until 2021) will provide, as reported, support for teachers for two years rather than one, and will be ‘fully-funded.’ 40% of any bursary will be payable for staying in the profession.

Another proposal is to ‘build a career offer that remains attractive to teachers as their careers and lives develop.’ The proposal has two parts. One is developing ‘special qualifications for non-leadership career pathways’ - though it is not clear exactly what those pathways may be.The document, however, proposes a review of the pay framework to accommodate them.

The other major thrust, which is clearly seen as more crucial, is ‘transforming approaches to flexible working in schools’ so as to bring back, or retain, people who are unable or unwilling to work full-time in teaching. This includes allowing teachers off-site during the school day but is essentially aimed at parents wishing to continue with or return to teaching. The proposal does not tackle the timetabling problem but offers a new website ‘Find Your Job Share.’

The final element is to make it easier for people to become teachers. Here the main proposal is to ‘review the teacher training market to support it to work more efficiently and effectively.’ This may mean greater central control. We shall see.

Notwithstanding language in places that would be more suitable to a Silicon Valley recruiter’s website, the document is essential reading for school leaders.

RAAC was used in floors and roofs in a number of buildings including schools between the 50s and 80s, but it seems that it is not very reliable. The Health and Safety Executive and others are calling for “proportionate management arrangements” for buildings containing RAAC - a recent component failure has highlighted the need for building owners and duty holders to identify buildings incorporating RAAC planks and take action where necessary. Were any injury to pupils, staff or other visitors to a school site to occur in the absence of such care, then the school would be liable.

Many schools have trees somewhere on their grounds. Trees die or branches rot and may fall and cause damage, injury or death. The Court of Appeal in its ruling in Witley Parish Council v Cavanagh (where a tree fell on to a road and a bus) recently reminded landowners of their duty in respect of trees on their property. There is a duty to:

• act as a reasonable and prudent landowner and to act where there is an apparent danger
• carry out inspections on a regular basis and where necessary to arrange for fuller inspections to be undertaken by an arboriculturalist.

A court will consider whether the risk of injury and/or damage was foreseeable; the likelihood of it occurring; the severity of the injury and/or damage that could result; and what reasonably could have been done to minimise the risk.

It is important to establish a definite system for examining trees on the school estate and to make sure that it is followed. This is not just a check on trees in general but an assessment of individual trees.

The Health and Safety Executive have issued a warning about mild steel welding. While the document is essentially designed for industrial settings, there may be school and college settings where it may apply. The scientific evidence is that the process may be carcinogenic.

The government has announced an independent review of its Prevent strategy, launched in 2003 as part of the government’s counterterrorism strategy with the aim of stopping individuals from "getting involved or supporting terrorism or extremist activity". Figures released by the Home Office last December show that of the 7,318 people referred to the Prevent programme in 2017-18, a third were through education providers. 4,144 of those referred to the programme were aged 20 or younger.

The DfE has issued guidance on indicators of possible fraud. It is extremely thorough and should be brought to the attention of relevant staff and relevant governance committees. It covers motives for fraud, personal and organisational; weaknesses in internal controls; transactional indicators; methods; and record-keeping. The press concentrated on ‘working late’ as a possible indicator; which might implicate half a school’s staff. But this is one of nearly twenty methods of committing, enabling and concealing fraud which the document identifies and is part of much more extensive description of suspicious behaviour.

The DfE has also published new guidance on best practice complaints procedures. It has helpful practical advice; and very useful advice on when a complaint should be passed ‘up the ladder.’

It is reported that an academy chain received a £1.1 million loan from the government to assist it in dealing with financial deficits principally from taking on two schools with PFI commitments. This is a helpful recognition of the problem for schools which face large PFI commitments incurred in financially more generous times and which are judged by the Secretary of State to need the support of a large trust to improve. Meanwhile, multi-academy trust accounts show an enormous variation in private fund-raising in support of their schools.

The Chief Inspector has been extremely careful in her comments about the consequences of school cuts in funding. However, her remarks on FE reductions in funding have been far more clear cut. “This is an area where I genuinely think to deliver what we expect of post-16, it’s hard to see how they can do without an increase in base funding rate,” she said, adding’ “I should expect to see continued efforts to slant FE provision towards the things that can be provided most cheaply” or that “attract the most learners in but don’t necessarily match people” with “the local labour market” or provide “real long-term life prospects”.

“I’d expect to see some clearer decline in the quality of teaching,” she added.

UK Statistics Authority chair has suggested that figures on the School Cuts website risk giving a “misleading” picture of the depth and scale of reductions in funding.

Three main issues have been identified with the site:

• The figures mix past and projected budget cuts, potentially leaving out any future increases for individual schools
• Underlying calculations mix numbers on baseline funding and per-pupil funding from 2015-16 with 2017-18 pupil numbers. “This approach creates a worse picture where pupil numbers are increasing for a particular school.”
• The website’s headline figure that 91 per cent of schools face funding cuts covers only England, but the website suggests it also applies to Wales.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Deputy Conservative Party Chairman, James Cleverly, has written an open letter to the general secretaries of the NEU teaching union calling for them to issue an “urgent clarification”.

The Statistics Authority has also criticised the Government’s funding statistics. A cynic might wonder why Maths teaching was so bad in the protagonists’ schools back in the ‘Good Old Days’ when education was so much better.

An NAS/UWT survey revealed that 45% teachers had had no notification of a pay rise from their school. 12% had been told that they would not be getting one.

The National Education Union has held an indicative ballot on strike action. 82% voted in support but the number voting was under the percentage of membership required for industrial action in public services.

Meanwhile the controversy over academy CEO’s pay rumbles on: with the National Governance Association suggesting that MATs should seek government approval for CEO pay; and the media finding at least one head earning a six-figure salary for running one school and schools which are ‘saving thousands’ by cutting Senior Leaders’ and CEO’s pay.

In the context of public concern on exclusions, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector has been critical of the collection of data on exclusions. 20% of ‘reasons for exclusions’ are recorded as ‘other.’ The Children’s Commissioner for England has announced that she will publish the statistics for home education for all schools in England.

The legislation making ‘up-skirting’ a criminal offence has now been passed by Parliament. The penalty has been set at 2 years’ imprisonment. Schools should make sure that their pupils understand that this is not a prank, particularly if the resulting pictures are then put on the internet to alarm or humiliate. A school student in Northern Ireland guilty of ‘up-skirting’ has been convicted of the previous offence of ‘outraging public decency’.

Ofsted’s determination to insist on inspecting with regard to independent school guidelines which say that schools should teach respect and tolerance for other people by “paying regard” to the protected characteristics set out in the Equality Act (which would include same-sex orientation and gender reassignment) have created a difficulty with religious schools. Similarly a primary school has also run into difficulties for using materials that offend religious beliefs. Ofsted has complained, in evidence to the parliamentary women and equalities committee, that its findings are not followed up with enforcement action by government. Other voices are weighing in to demand that the right to withdraw from RE lessons should be abolished. (The new relationships and sex education curriculum will be dealt with in a full article next month).

There must be a moment when the DfE wondered whether it should ever have taken the curriculum into its own hands. As religious groups fight the very presence of sex education in schools, a spokesperson for the PSHE Association has argued that “Pornography can affect young people’s perceptions of healthy sexual relationships and may mean that they feel pressurised to mimic the behaviour they have seen portrayed. Similarly, the depictions of the human body may distort young people’s perceptions of their own and others’ bodies. Given its prevalence, it is therefore important that such issues are addressed at an appropriate age in schools in line with student need.” Given the pressures put upon young people to have porn-perfect bodies and concerning evidence of its effects, this is clearly something that schools will have to consider.

One of the less-publicised defendants in the Hillsborough trial is the former Club Secretary of Sheffield Wednesday. It was alleged that he had not taken the post seriously because he would be too busy on match days entertaining corporate clients; and that there was no safety plan for the ground. While the trial is still on-going and the allegations are denied, it does remind schools to consider seriously the question of who is, in practice, responsible for safety on their sites; and whether that person has the time to do the job properly. It does not need saying that for all concerned the consequences of failure may be extremely serious.

Lindsay Paterson, professor of educational policy at Edinburgh University informed the Scottish education committee, that because pupils in Scottish P1 (from four-and-a-half to six-years-old) can be at significantly different stages of maturity “You couldn’t draw valid inferences if you just have the test results and no measurement of progress.” He added that councils did not have the statistical expertise to be able to use the assessment results in a valid way; and that, “Sadly, it has to be said, the vast majority of Scottish teachers don’t have it either.”

And ...Falkirk Council has proposed doing away with registration classes as a relatively pain-free way to save £693,000 over a year and remove the need for 16.7 full-time equivalent staff to cover them.

Ofcom’s annual report into children’s media use and attitudes revealed that 6 per cent of three- to-seven-year-olds have their own smartphone; while 5 per cent have a social media profile.

It has been ruled that children will not lose SATs marks for back to front commas...

Someone thoughtfully edited Google maps to identify a school site as ‘Hell on Earth.’

An American company, helpfully named BrainCo, claims that its $350 Focus 1 headsets can help teachers to identify pupils who need extra help, with data presented on a dashboard that shows the “average” brain activity of the whole class. The headsets show a blue light for pupils whose brain activity is lower than average: yellow for average; and red for those with above-average brain activity. It should also make classroom observation easier; though the question will remain “active on what?”.