thinking about expanding the courses to a range of other subjects including French, maths and physics Schools will have paid £4.8bn to private finance initiative operators by 2020, generating an estimated £270m of profits for the companies from taxpayer money, analysis has revealed. ASCLE has published its Primary Accountability Review, which calls for reforms to the system for judging England’s primary schools to make it fairer on schools and better for children. The proposals include: The government should work with others to develop clear aims for primary education and consider how the performance of schools can be judged against those aims Ofsted should ensure that inspectors do not place too much focus on SATs results and take into account the wider curriculum beyond English and maths The government should look into how to improve the Key Stage 2 writing assessment, or scrap it completely Primary school performance tables should be based on results over three years rather than on a single year’s assessment Schools should no longer be required to label children as having ‘met’ or ‘not met’ the expected standard in SATs reports sent home to parents The government should rethink its policy on compulsory academisation in the absence of evidence that it helps to improve schools The Teacher Development Fund is now open for applications. The fund supports delivery of effective arts-based teaching and learning opportunities in primary schools, and to embed learning through the arts in the curriculum. It aims to do this through supporting teachers and school leaders to develop the necessary skills, knowledge, confidence and experience. The fund, which has a focus on supporting disadvantaged pupils, will offer approximately five grants of up to £150,000 for projects working over two academic years. The first deadline is 23 March for projects beginning in autumn 2018. See Tony Stephens
thinking about expanding the courses to a range of other subjects including French, maths and physics Schools will have paid £4.8bn to private finance initiative operators by 2020, generating an estimated £270m of profits for the companies from taxpayer money, analysis has revealed. ASCLE has published its Primary Accountability Review, which calls for reforms to the system for judging England’s primary schools to make it fairer on schools and better for children. The proposals include: The government should work with others to develop clear aims for primary education and consider how the performance of schools can be judged against those aims Ofsted should ensure that inspectors do not place too much focus on SATs results and take into account the wider curriculum beyond English and maths The government should look into how to improve the Key Stage 2 writing assessment, or scrap it completely Primary school performance tables should be based on results over three years rather than on a single year’s assessment Schools should no longer be required to label children as having ‘met’ or ‘not met’ the expected standard in SATs reports sent home to parents The government should rethink its policy on compulsory academisation in the absence of evidence that it helps to improve schools The Teacher Development Fund is now open for applications. The fund supports delivery of effective arts-based teaching and learning opportunities in primary schools, and to embed learning through the arts in the curriculum. It aims to do this through supporting teachers and school leaders to develop the necessary skills, knowledge, confidence and experience. The fund, which has a focus on supporting disadvantaged pupils, will offer approximately five grants of up to £150,000 for projects working over two academic years. The first deadline is 23 March for projects beginning in autumn 2018. See Tony Stephens
62-Academy-and-School-News-Update-Feb-7-Mar-7-2018.docx