News

Alongside our best practice section, Headteacher Update features regular news and news analysis articles to keep school leaders up-to-date with the latest policy and sector developments. Our news pieces attempt to tackle issues of direct relevance to primary school educators and offer something different to the mainstream media.

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New CPD £75 million fund unveiled

A £75 million Teaching and Leadership Innovation Fund, set up by the government to deliver “skills and knowledge-based training” to teachers, has issued its first round of grants.

Education Select Committee to investigate social justice and ‘productivity’

Social justice and “productivity” will be among the priorities for the new-look House of Commons Education Select Committee.

Workload campaign in Wales publishes dos and don’ts pocket guide

Teaching unions have welcomed a new campaign to advise teachers in Wales how to manage their workload.

Increasing numbers of children are not ready for school

From speech and language problems to social and emotional issues, increasing numbers of children are arriving at primary school not ready to learn. Pete Henshaw looks at the findings of new research into the causes of this growing problem

Playground plea: ‘As safe as necessary, not as safe as possible’

Schools are being urged to “take the benefits of risk” into account when planning and managing their school grounds.

Falling school nurse numbers raise fears over pupils with health conditions

?The “accelerating” loss of school nurses is putting children with conditions such as asthma, epilepsy and diabetes at risk in the classroom, it has been warned.

Sprinklers in schools: Unions call for answers

Government guidance on fire safety in school buildings is being ignored in the “rush to build new schools as cheaply as possible”, it has been claimed.

Concern that schools are not preparing for new rules on personal data

The General Data Protection Regulations are the ‘biggest change in 25 years’ to how organisations must manage personal data, but only a fifth of schools are aware of the May 2018 deadline. Pete Henshaw reports

Sharp rise in reports of children suffering emotional abuse

Reports of children being emotionally abused have seen an alarming spike during the past seven years according to the NSPCC’s annual child protection report.

Fears that Ofsted’s 15-day plan will add to school inspection burden

Planned changes to the short inspections of ‘good’ schools could see a wait of up to two weeks if HMI decide that a conversion to full inspection is required. Pete Henshaw takes a look

Unions threaten to ‘intensify’ school funding campaign

The returned Conservative minority government faces renewed pressure over its pledge on education funding, the proposed National Funding Formula and schools' rising cost pressures...

CPD research argues case for ‘incremental coaching’

The power of a professional development technique known as “incremental coaching” to improve the effectiveness of teaching has been spelt out in a new report.

Conservative's 'ordinary working class family' grammar school claim is ‘statistical jiggery-pokery’

The Conservative Party stands accused of employing “statistical jiggery-pokery” in its General Election manifesto in a bid to try and justify its plan to expand selective grammar school education.

SEN: EHCP waiting times are ‘still too long’

Many young people are still waiting “far too long” to get the right support for their SEN, the National Autistic Society (NAS) has said.

Fall in number of school nurses as student population increases

There has been a 16 per cent drop in the number of school nurses since 2010, despite a 450,000 increase in pupil numbers over the same period.

Parliamentary hopefuls targeted over funding

As the June 8 General Election looms, trade unions are targeting individual Parliamentary candidates asking them to pledge to tackle the growing school funding crisis.

School leaders vent their anger on funding

The recent annual conference of the National Association of Head Teachers was dominated by discussions over school funding. Dorothy Lepkowska reports

The 11-plus is ‘like rolling a loaded dice’, researchers say

Research into Kent’s 11-plus system has raised questions over the prime minister’s claim that expanding selective education will be meritocratic and offer opportunities to the poor

Concern at high price tag being paid for free schools

The government is paying “well over the odds” in its attempts to create 500 more free schools, with some sites being bought for as much as £30 million.

Unions fight to put funding on General Election agenda

Campaigners are hopeful that the widespread cuts to school funding across MPs’ constituencies will force political parties to face up to the issue in the run-up to the June 8 General Election. Pete Henshaw reports

Nine homes by the age of nine...

The preliminary findings of a three-year study offer an insight into what it is like for children growing up in poverty. From multiple house moves to free school meal stigma and the often-prohibitive costs of education, the report offers key lessons for schools. Pete Henshaw takes a look

The harrowing stories behind the thousands of pupils who are missing education

With almost 15,000 children missing education, new research has shed light on the wide range of complex and often connected issues behind the statistics. It also calls for more to be done to stop these children slipping through the net. Pete Henshaw reports