Free School meals for KS1 students
A major information and publicity campaign ran over the summer to encourage parents to sign up for the free lunches and schools have received additional funding to improve catering facilities.
At the time of its announcement last autumn it was estimated that £1 billion would be needed to fund the introduction of the meals.
Coverage in the local media suggest that some schools in the North East have had to use their own finances to supplement the Government funding in preparation for the changes. A pilot of universal free school meals in Durham between 2009-2011 demonstrated a significant impact on academic achievement.
New Ofsted guidance
Over the summer holidays Ofsted released its new slim line guidance. The major changes include:
• An end to grading teachers’ individual lessons during inspections; now schools will receive general feedback following lesson observations and look at lessons across the school.
• There will be a greater emphasis in inspections on a school’s curriculum to ensure that “it is appropriately broad and balanced to help prepare young people for life in modern Britain”.
• Early years and sixth form provision will now receive separate graded judgements
• Schools previously judged to be good will no longer receive an interim assessment letter in the third year after their last section 5 inspection to inform them that they will not be inspected in the forthcoming year.
• New guidance for inspectors on the duties and responsibilities of school governors
SEN reforms
This September brings major changes to the way children with special educational needs (SEN) are supported with the implementation of the Children and Families Bill and the new SEN Code of Practice.
The changes aim to give pupils and their families more control over the support available to them and have significant implications for schools.
Speaking about the reforms, Children’s Minister Edward Timpson said:
“From September, every council must publish a local offer – clear information explaining the support they give to children with SEN or disability in their area. It has to include information from schools about the teaching and services they offer, and out of area support for the most complex or rare needs where they cannot be met locally. “
“We’ve ended the categories of “school action” and “school action plus” that were too often driven by the need to label rather than the need to provide the right support at the right time; and we’ve adjusted the categories of special educational needs to prevent poor behaviour being wrongly categorised as SEN to stop lower level needs being used by schools to justify poor attainment to parents.”
Computing is the new ICT
One of the major changes is in the new national curriculum to be implemented from this September is the shift from ICT to computing. Over the summer, the media reported concerns over the preparedness of schools and skills of teachers in relation to the new computing curriculum.
Industry leaders in the North East, have welcomed the change hoping that the introduction of coding this term and a focus on digital industries in the curriculum could help bridge this skills gap in the digital sector.
North East Dynamo, the IT industry led network, reports that 32,000 currently people work in IT in the region with an estimated 2,000 vacancies needing to be filled.
North East Dynamo can help set up Code Clubs and link up schools with IT experts in the region who are keen to volunteer their time.
The start of term has brought the challenge of ensuring all 68,500 Key stage 1 pupils in the North East receive a free hot lunch.
End of levels
The introduction of the new curriculum also signals the end of levels. To support schools the National College has produced a document exploring systems developed by a variety of teaching schools across the country including Shotton Hall Teaching School Alliance in Durham.
Performance related pay
From now on schools are able to pay staff by performance. Guidance from the Department states that evidence from a range of sources should be considered and that schools need to clearly demonstrate to teachers how their appraisal outcomes will lead to pay decisions.
