Education Secretary announces plans for curriculum reform
This week, the new Education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, held a webinar for school workers to discuss her plans for education. She confirmed that teachers will not receive pay awards before the summer holidays, which means the salary offer will likely not be announced until later in the summer break or at the beginning of the next school year. The government will also delay indicative school and high needs funding formula allocations for 2025-26 beyond the usual timescales.
On her plans for Ofsted, Phillipson said that it is important for inspectors to consider the wider range of services that are available within an area, in light of criticisms that the inspectorate has previously ignored the local context of schools – particularly those that are affected by poverty, mental health challenges, and a lack of children’s services. This week, Phillipson was also appointed to co-lead a new ministerial taskforce to help develop a child poverty strategy. The taskforce will consider how policy levers related to household income, as well as employment, housing, children’s health, childcare and education, can be used to tackle child poverty.
Additionally, the Education secretary confirmed that the government will carry out a curriculum and assessment review to help ministers deliver a renewed curriculum that is built on high and rising standards. The government has appointed Professor Becky Francis CBE, chief executive of the Education Endowment Foundation, as chair of the review.
Spanning from Key Stage 1 through to Key Stage 5, the review will look closely at the key challenges to attainment for young people, including the barriers faced by disadvantaged pupils and those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). By building on the hard work of teachers who have brought their subjects alive with knowledge-rich teaching, the government seeks to deliver ‘a new national curriculum which is rich and broad, inclusive and innovative.’ A call for evidence will be launched in September, which will gather views from experts, parents, teachers and leaders.
★ Our School Improvement team can support you with any up and coming changes, offering Curriculum Audits, Whole School Reviews, and much more. Contact our team for further information.
Disadvantaged pupils almost 2 years behind the peers in secondary
The latest report from the Education Policy Institute (EPI) reveals that the disadvantage gap has grown to its widest point since 2012 in primary and secondary schools. According to assessment data from 2023, five-year-olds from low-income households were 4.6 months behind their peers in 2023, wider than the pre-pandemic figure of 4.2 in 2019. At the end of primary school, the disadvantage gap stood at 10.3 months – one month wider than in 2019. This has reversed a sustained period of gap narrowing between 2011 and 2018. By the end of secondary school, disadvantaged pupils were 19.2 months behind their wealthier peers.
The gap has widened even further for persistently disadvantaged pupils, who are eligible for free school meals for at least 80% of their time in school. These children had fallen 11.6 months behind their peers at the end of primary school, and almost two years (22.9 months) by the end of secondary school.
The EPI urges the new government to launch a strategy setting out how it will address attainment gaps for vulnerable children. Additionally, the institute calls for a child poverty strategy ‘which recognises that the social determinants of educational inequalities […] cannot be addressed by schools in isolation.’ Researchers also recommend targeted funding for disadvantaged pupils and enhanced support for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
How ungraded inspections will work from September
Earlier this year, Chief Inspector Sir Martyn Oliver announced that ungraded inspections will no longer conduct deep dives, arguing that it is not right to cram all the detail of a full, graded inspection into a shorter ungraded one. Instead, he aims for these inspections to ‘feel more like monitoring visits.’
Ofsted has now published further detail on how ungraded inspections will work from September. Inspectors will call the headteacher the day before inspection to discuss the school’s context, what it does well, and where it has improved. This will help the lead inspector and headteacher to agree on several areas of focus for the inspection. Headteachers are told they do not have to have this conversation alone and, in fact, the inspectorate would ‘actively encourage’ members of the senior leadership team to contribute to this important conversation.
Ofsted clarifies that inspectors will not focus on one subject and there will not be any deep dives. Instead, they will look at a group of subjects together. For example, in primary schools, inspectors may look at early English and maths together, or a group of subjects from the wider curriculum. In secondary schools, there might be a focus on core subjects, and another focus on vocational subjects.
Ofsted explains that school leaders ‘sometimes feel out of the loop with deep dives because they’re not part of that process.’ These inspections will allow for more dialogue between headteachers and senior leaders, ensuring they are fully involved in the process, whilst reducing the burden on subject leaders.
The summer holidays are here! Thanks to our colleagues in schools and academies for another incredible school year, working together to improve the outcomes of children and young people. We’re excited for the future and all the opportunities it holds for collaboration, growth and development.
We hope you have a wonderful summer and enjoy a well-deserved rest. See you in September!
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