Management

Conflict between a teacher’s religious beliefs and professional duty

Posted on September 3rd, 2024

In the case of Sutcliffe v Secretary of State for Education, Joshua James Sutcliffe appealed the Secretary of State for Education’s decision to ban him from teaching due to allegations of professional misconduct. This included referring to a student by incorrect gender pronouns in the classroom, together with expressing controversial views on social media and […]

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Management

Dates and deadlines

Posted on August 8th, 2024

As usual there are a number of changes for schools, which come into effect by or on 1 September 2024. There are also some known recurring dates and deadlines for the spring and summer terms 2025. From 1 September 2024 Updated attendance guidance The DfE guidance document ’Working together to improve school attendance’ became statutory from 19 August 2024. New requirements include: […]

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Management

Dates and deadlines

Posted on January 2nd, 2024

By far the most usual date when changes and innovations are brought in by the DfE is 1 September of each academic year. But there are some dates and deadlines that occur in the spring and summer terms. Here is a reminder for this calendar New Year. Early years foundation stage New EYFS frameworks come into […]

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Management

Data sharing for child safeguarding

Posted on October 5th, 2023

On 14 September 2023, the Information Commissioner’s Office released new guidance to address concerns about breaching data protection legislation when sharing information to protect at-risk children and young people. The UK Information Commissioner, John Edwards, stated: “My message to people supporting and working with children and young people is clear: if you think a child […]

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Management

New or updated DfE guidance

Posted on September 25th, 2023

At the beginning of a new academic year, the following information about new or updated DfE guidance may be useful. This list is probably not exhaustive! We have also included reminders of policies that schools are required to review annually. New statutory guidance and updates Keeping children safe in education has been updated as of […]

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Management

DfE updates its statutory guidance on school suspensions and permanent exclusions

Posted on June 19th, 2023

New guidance has been issued by the DfE to support schools and academies dealing with suspension and permanent exclusion. The main changes include: Guidance on a headteacher’s ability to cancel an exclusion before a governing board meeting to consider reinstatement. Allowing governing board reinstatement meetings and independent review panels (IRPs) to be held remotely (virtually) […]

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Management

Academies regulatory and commissioning review

Posted on March 31st, 2023

One of the aspects of the last year’s abandoned Schools Bill 2022 which has survived has been the proposed review of the academies regulatory and commissioning system. This work was carried out over the summer of 2022 and the final outcome of that review has just been published (28 March 2023). Baroness Barran In her introduction to the […]

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Management

NFER data dashboard – teacher recruitment and retention

Posted on December 13th, 2022

Recent figures show that the government has missed its target for recruitment of secondary school teachers this year – 41% below target. Also, for the first time, the recruitment of trainee primary teachers is 7% below target. It is against this background of trainee teacher shortage that a data dashboard has been created by NFER […]

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Management

Ofsted inspection handbooks September 2022

Posted on July 25th, 2022

This summary gives the main changes to the Ofsted Schools Inspection Handbook, which are effective from 1 September 2022. It refers to the handbook for the inspection of schools. The layout of the handbook has been somewhat realigned so that it better follows and reflects the flow of an inspection from start to finish. On 11 July […]

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Management

DfE school governance update – July 2022

Posted on July 11th, 2022

This update sets out the DfE’s long-term vision for the English school system. This vision is an ambition that by 2030 every child will receive ‘the right support, in the right place, and at the right time’ in order to fulfil their potential, founded on achieving world class literacy and numeracy. Schools White Paper – […]

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