Author: Suzanne O’Connell The children’s commissioner for England has added her voice to concerns about the misuse of exclusion, particularly informal exclusion. Anne Longfield told the education select committee about schools that are encouraging children with behaviour difficulties to leave the school before they are formally excluded.

Author: Suzanne O’Connell The DfE has published The Wellbeing of Secondary School Pupils with Special Educational Needs: Research Report, written by Matt Barnes and Eric Harrison. It focuses on the wellbeing of children with SEN at secondary schools and uses a happiness rating scale and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire to arrive at its conclusions.

Author: Suzanne O’Connell It’s been a long time in the pipeline but on 14th September 2017 Justine Greening announced the DfE’s plans to change the funding system. Most people agree that change is needed. The problem is that there are inevitably winners and losers.

Author: Suzanne O’Connell The government’s response to the primary assessment consultation had a mixed reception. It is clear that the DfE has come out in favour of reception baseline assessment rather than using the baseline of assessment at KS1. The NAHT and other teacher unions are generally in support of this move.

Author: Suzanne O’Connell It came as something of a surprise to hear Amanda Spielman, Ofsted’s chief inspector, speaking out against a focus on exam results. In a twist of culpability, the head of Ofsted appeared to point the finger at schools for slavishly prioritising a narrow range of subjects at the expense of delivering a […]