John Dickens
Former Schools Week editor
- Some personal news …
- Edition 412 done and dusted We lead on the £20bn SEND time bomb from this week’s budget bedlam Inside the country’s biggest academy rebroker The trust asking pupils for engagement solutions No more leadership heroes What Ofsted grade reform means for flagship scheme entry
- What a mess Bournemouth council faces £183m SEND deficit, and £10m in interest costs to finance the debt .... paid from its general fund (made up of council tax, business rates etc) It wants to use high needs cash to pay the debt instead, which would hit schools schoolsweek.co.uk/council-faci...
- If anyone wants to do a review of the feature for us then do get in touch with me! (All reviews are done with a critical eye - no free PR)
- England should have set 300-plus there. Really disappointing batting Oz huge favourites now, bowlers going to have to be perfect again for England to win
- Ah man 🫣 🏏
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- Well that was a good decision. What a start to the series
- Decamped to the living room for second session. Feels very optimistic but there we go Also, not sure what’s worse: England’s wafty top order or these atrocious weight transfer graphic things
- !!! Big story in the country's biggest schools PFI deal, which ended last month The PFI firm is going into liquidation, with millions of pounds worth of school repairs still outstanding schoolsweek.co.uk/pfi-firm-in-...
- Edition 411 done and dusted: Investigation: Councils don’t know how many home educated kids are under child protection enquiries Scoop: PFI firm in multi-million pound schools repair row goes bust Longread on new inspections Plus: attendance awareness courses, GAG pooling, MAT mergers
- We delved into this earlier this year SENCos will be central to any government plan to make mainstream schools more inclusive. But are their roles even sustainable now? Great investigation from @lydiach.bsky.social schoolsweek.co.uk/burnt-out-an...
- Those AI attendance reports have started well ...
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- Edition 410 done and dusted Scoop: Ofsted consultation analysis row takes a new turn 👀 Solutions: teacher interns? Investigation: thousands of teachers potentially due better pension die before outcome Rise in pupils educated at home causes exams centre blockage
- 🤖 Ministers will use AI to set minimum attendance targets for every school in England Targets will not be published, or be given to Ofsted - but failure to improve will result in a referral to RISE teams schoolsweek.co.uk/ai-to-set-mi...
- Great to see wider pick up of this big story on a state school opening a fee-pay paying school abroad www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article... Schools Week broke the story over a year ago: schoolsweek.co.uk/warning-over...
- The latest government plan to help schools balance their budgets: Provide support to help them get better returns on their collective £6bn of funding in reserves schoolsweek.co.uk/savings-plat...
- The irony of this coming as government wonders why assistant head numbers have risen so much and suggests schools look at making savings in those teams ... schoolsweek.co.uk/can-schools-...
- Interesting development - a lack of evidence of what works in SEND was a key finding from our investigation into the quality of EHCPs schoolsweek.co.uk/investigatio...
- Edition 409 done and dusted: A curriculum and assessment review SPECIAL ... PLUS: Government plans £3m SEND research centre Do schools really have too many assistant heads? Ministers scope out plan to help schools boost investment returns
- So heartening to see newish local journalism outlets doing proper reporting like this - fantastic investigation
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- Starting to get important answers and reaction to the curriculum review Phillipson admits triple science pledge will need more specialist teachers: schoolsweek.co.uk/triple-scien... RE will be put on the national curriculum only if sector can ‘reach consensus’ schoolsweek.co.uk/ministers-wi...
- Some more big curriculum news Ministers ignore curriculum review's call for no progress 8 changes and set out proposals for big 'breadth' subject shake-up Full story below
- Breaking: The government is proposing sweeping reforms to progress 8, the main league table measure for secondary schools, in a bid to boost arts take-up – and will ditch the EBacc from this academic year schoolsweek.co.uk/dfe-ignores-francis…
- 🚨The curriculum review is out! First: Government commits to a new national curriculum in 2028. Will also replace year 6 writing test, new oracy framework, financial literacy in primary Our news story on the government's response to the key review findings: (1/4) schoolsweek.co.uk/new-curricul...
- But what else does the review call for? All the *system-wide* policy reccs are below Includes year 8 ‘diagnostic’ tests in English and maths (note: this is different to the DfE's year 8 reading test) and cutting 10 per cent from GCSE exam time (2/4) schoolsweek.co.uk/curriculum-r...
- We've tried to get some clarity on all this from the Department for Education - but they've mostly ignored our questions However I haven't noticed much difference in the education world. Lots of DfE people still speaking at events It also apparently doesn't affect bodies like Ofsted, Ofqual etc
- Some - cautious - good news on the govt’s civil service gagging rules Nick Thomas-Symonds has written to us rowing back on the worst aspects: “it is important for civil servants to speak in public about matters for which they have responsibility” www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/welc...
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- Reposted by John DickensThere's pros and cons to this, I think - good to take more time to listen, as no one wants half-baked reforms. But I imagine those who have been living through the system for years will be sick of delays & getting flashbacks to previous gov. It took 1,274 days for their green paper to be published
- Breaking: The schools white paper will be delayed until 'early in the new year', government has announced today, as ministers take more time to draw up controversial SEND reforms schoolsweek.co.uk/schools-whit...
- ❗ Big policy news - the schools white paper will not be published this Autumn as promised Instead ministers want more time to consult on their SEND reforms, and are now promising it will come 'early in the new year' Probably the right call, but still frustrating schoolsweek.co.uk/schools-whit...
- As the rhetoric and policies around migrants on indefinite leave to remain becomes more hostile, a London writes for Schools Week on how this is affecting her - and the potential impact on other such teachers Thanks to @msjasminemn.bsky.social for a superb piece schoolsweek.co.uk/ive-given-my...
- The skills white paper has landed - so what do school leaders need to know? Lots to digest including 'stepping stone' resit qualifications, how new V-levels will work, defunded BTECs, a 16 to 19 funding review and more schoolsweek.co.uk/skills-white-paper-everything-school-leaders-need-to-know/
- Edition 408 done and dusted … White paper scoop: ambition for all schools in a group planned Profile: curriculum tsar Becky Francis Mary Myatt on the Wasted Years Leadership lessons from the Southport tragedy A teacher on indefinite leave to remain writes …
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- So much for saving everyone money …
- This story will divide opinion - below is a ‘deepfake’ video based on a real teacher that the school made for us
- Edition 407 done and dusted: So much for saving money: Reform council eyes school budget raid Scoop: trust plans to roll out deepfake teacher avatars to cut workload Long read on SEND cluster funding Legal explainer on campaigning pupils
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- Also - can't help admire/despair at the DfE's attempts to spin this as a positive story in an embargoed press release sent to journos yesterday, before the actual bursary information was published
- Govey needs to renew his Schools Week subscription ... schoolsweek.co.uk/reform-on-ed...
