ACT - The Association of Christian Teachers
for Christians working in education
Free schools face a budget raid to help fund a £1.3 billion education bailout, after the Treasury refused to release any extra money.
Ministers are using money for the Government's flagship free school programme - some of which would have been used to set up new grammars - to increase the amount of cash for all schools.
Justine Greening, the Education Secretary, said that the extra money was desperately needed to address the issue of school funding, which had been raised on the doorstep during the Tories’ election campaign.
She said the £1.3 billion would all be made from "efficiencies and savings" in the Department for Education's (DfE) budget - an admission that any bids to the Chancellor for extra cash had been unsuccessful.
The Department for Education will change the methodology for its new headline secondary accountability measure, Progress 8, following mounting pressure from schools.
Earlier this year,Tes revealed that a growing number of heads have raised fears about how much a school’s overall Progress 8 score can be distorted by poor performance from just a handful of pupils.
And a policy document released by the Department for Education (DfE) today reveals that it intend to make a change to the Progress 8 methodology from next year in light of these concerns.
Meanwhile, this year the DfE has said it will:
- Work with the sector on the best approach in the autumn;
- Ensure that those working with school data – including Ofsted, regional schools commissioners and local authorities – are aware of the potential impact on a school’s Progress 8 score of pupils with extremely negative progress scores;
- Ensure that the impact of pupils with extremely negative scores on Progress 8 will be taken into account where a school is below the floor standard or coasting.
Progress 8 was designed by the government to be fairer by taking into account the achievements of pupils of all abilities, not just those who achieve five or more A*-C grades at GCSE – and is used for high-stakes secondary school floor targets.
But the measure, based on average progress across a school, means that pupils who take no exams, or hardly any, can do significantly more damage to the school’s overall score than under previous measures.
Health and education are the major beneficiaries of £131m in additional money for Northern Ireland.
The move was announced by Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire, as part of a reallocation of funds known as a monitoring round.
Health is to receive most of the cash - £60m - with education getting £30m.
The remainder of the money will be divided between other departments, with civil servants in control of spending after the collapse of Stormont.
The cash had been in the pipeline for Northern Ireland, £42m of it flowing from the chancellor's spring budget in March, under the Barnett formula.
Most of the remaining money was left over as an underspend from the 2016-17 Stormont budget.
Labour has "no plans" to write off existing student debt and has never promised to do so, the party's education spokeswoman has insisted.
Shadow education secretary Angela Rayner accused the Tories of "wilfully misrepresenting" its plans amid claims such a move could cost £100bn.
During the election, Jeremy Corbyn said he would act to reduce the debt burden of students having to pay £9,000 fees.
Several frontbenchers have distanced themselves of talk of a debt amnesty.
In March 2016, the total amount of debt owed by English students and EU students studying in England, who under the current system do not have to pay anything upfront, was £76.3bn.
Universities Minister Jo Johnson is going to challenge universities over "excessive" pay for vice-chancellors.
Addressing the issue of students getting value for money, he will challenge an "upward spiral" in university leaders' pay.
Universities will be asked to publicly justify how they can pay their heads more than the prime minister.
The question of university value has been under scrutiny, with fees increasing to £9,250 in England.
In a speech to university leaders on Thursday, Mr Johnson will call for universities to set out much clearer contracts for students on what they can expect.
- Cross-party campaign against grammars.
- NUT and ATL merger.
- Will government rethink new national funding formula?
- Has too much been paid for Free School sites?
- Conservative Councils write to Prime Minister on school funding.
- Ofsted Chief Inspectors speech to ASCL.
- Ofsted Chief Inspectors speech to ASCL.
- Justine Greening speaks at Education conference.
- Ofsted 92% reliable?
- Department for Education forced to go to Parliament about overspend of over £3bn.
- Head Teachers cutting curriculum subjects.
- Academy Trust gives up all its schools.
- Education Secretary heckled.
- Will parents be able to withdraw their children from Relationships and Sex Education lessons?
- Will faith schools be able to stay true to their faith?