Academy and School News Update Nov 1-30 2013

Almost three-quarters of graduates starting teacher training this academic
year have a first-class or 2:1 degree (74%), new figures published today show.
This is the highest quality of graduates starting teacher training since records
began.

Two hundred early years apprentices will benefit from an increased bursary of
£3,000 - up from £1,500 - with a further £300 available for training and study as
part of the government’s drive to attract high-quality candidates to the
profession. The bursaries - announced in May this year - are available to those
taking part in an early years apprenticeship scheme which offers a high-quality
route to becoming an early years educator, the modern equivalent of the highly
respected nursery nurse diploma. The first 200 successful applicants to the
bursary scheme will secure the increased award of £3,000.

The DfE has added this extra detail to the new rules that mean only the first
GCSE entry will count in the performance tables
“These changes apply to GCSEs, level 1/level 2 certificates (sometimes referred to
as IGCSEs), BTECs and other qualifications, where those would ‘discount’ against
GCSEs in performance tables. The first entry across the subject, regardless of
qualification type, will be the one that counts. Not all level 1/level 2 certificates count
in performance tables and unregulated IGCSEs do not count. That position is
unchanged.
Where qualifications are currently discounted against each other, the earlier of the 2
sets of results will be counted in performance tables.
Exception discounting – English measures
Results for English measures in performance tables are calculated using ‘exception’
discounting. This will continue to be the case. For example:
a pupil takes English GCSE in November 2013 and English language and English
literature GCSEs in June 2014: the November 2013 English result would count in
performance tables
 a pupil takes English language GCSE in November 2013, retakes it in June 2014
and takes English literature GCSE in June 2014: the November 2013 English
language result would count alongside the June 2014 English literature result
 a pupil takes English language GCSE in November 2013 and English GCSE in June
2014: the English language result is the one that counts in performance tables,
although no result will be entered in the tables unless the pupil was also entered
for English literature
More information on ‘discounting’ can be found via RAISEonline.

Mathematics measures – mathematics ‘linked pair’
Pupils need to take, and achieve a grade, in both qualifications (methods and
applications). The highest grade then counts in performance measures. So a C in
methods and a U in applications means the C counts as the maths result for
performance tables purposes. We are not changing this position, provided the pupil
does not retake either of the qualifications.
If a pupil resat either of the 2 linked pair GCSEs, the first attempt at that
qualification would be taken into account (alongside the grade from the other
qualification) in determining the grade that counts in performance measures, with
the highest of the 2 being recorded as the maths grade.
The linked pair qualification will discount against a normal maths qualification, so if a
pupil took one of the linked pair qualifications in November 2013 and the general
maths GCSE in June 2014, the linked pair grade would be entered in the tables
(provided they also entered the other linked pair qualification). If the pupil did not
also achieve a grade in the other linked pair qualification no grade would be entered
in the performance tables.
‘X’ grades
As is currently the case, ‘X’ grades do not count towards performance tables. If a
student receives an ‘X’ grade and then retakes the exam and achieves a grade, the
latter grade is the one which will be included in the performance tables.
Entries in the same series
Where exams are scheduled for the same day, the best result will continue to count.
Schools will need to think carefully about whether this is in the best interests of their
pupils. The Department for Education will continue to collect data on entry patterns,
and will share that data at a school level with Ofsted.
In cases where exams are scheduled for different days, even if they are in the same
series, only the first entry will count in the tables.
In cases where qualifications have more than one exam paper, we will use the date
of the first paper as the one which determines its entry date.
These changes will apply initially (for performance tables published in January 2015,
relating to exams taken in the summer of 2014 or earlier) to the following subjects
only: English (English, English language, English literature), mathematics, science
(core and additional science, biology, chemistry, physics, computer science), history,
geography and modern foreign languages. For performance tables published in
January 2016 and subsequently the changes will apply to all subjects.”

There are currently 912 sponsored academies (alongside 2,532 converter
academies).
Where an academy is not performing well, ministers are clear that they will hold
the trust to account. In cases of sustained poor academic performance at an
academy, ministers may issue a pre-warning notice to the relevant trust,
demanding urgent action to bring about substantial improvements, or they will
receive a warning notice. If improvement does not follow after that, further
action - which could ultimately lead to a change of sponsor - can be taken. In
cases where there are concerns about the performance of a number of a trust’s
schools, the trust has been stopped from taking on new projects.
Since the start of the 2011 to 2012 academic year, pre-warning letters have been
written to 25 academy trusts about 34 academies. In 2 cases, these letters have
been followed up with warning notices. No academy had been issued with a prewarning letter or a warning notice before 2011.
Academies have largely responded extremely well to the challenge - on average
at the 8 academies issued with a pre-warning notice in 2011 to 2012, the
proportion of pupils achieving 5 or more GCSEs including English and maths at C
or better improved by an average of 16 percentage points in 2012. The 2013
results will be reported in January but are expected to show another increase.
The DfE expects all sponsors issued pre-warning letters to respond in similar
fashion. If not, and an academy continues to underperform, further action is
taken. In six cases the Department for Education’s intervention has initiated a
change of sponsor.
For a full list of the academies receiving warning notices, see the Appendix

The DfE has announced £10 million to help develop the Teaching Leaders
scheme. Teaching Leaders is an independent education charity which addresses
educational disadvantage by developing school leaders. Set up in partnership
with the National College for Teaching and Leadership, Teach First, ARK and
Future Leaders in 2008, Teaching Leaders now works with around 365 schools
and 776 teachers. Teaching Leaders previously only worked with schools where
more than 15% of children were on free school meals or under 40% achieved 5
or more A* to Cs at GCSE. The eligibility criterion is now changing in line with the
‘Ever 6 FSM’ criteria. From 2014, these will be:




Ever 6 FSM (children who have been eligible for free school meals at any point
over the last 6 years) of 50% or over
or Ever 6 FSM of 25% to 50% and fewer than 59.4% of these disadvantaged
pupils achieving 5 or more A* to C GCSEs (including English and maths)
or fewer than 40% of pupils achieving 5 or more A* to C GCSEs(including
English and maths)
A new cadre of powerful school regulators called chancellors are said to be
appointed by Michael Gove in an attempt to oversee the burgeoning number of
free schools and academies, with the power to seize control of failing schools.
According to internal Department for Education (DfE) documents, the plan will
see England split into eight geographical regions separate from local councils,
with the free schools and academies in each region supervised by a new body to
known as a Headteacher Board (HTB) and headed by a chancellor.
In recent months as many as a third of the DfE's civil servants have been
engaged in working on aspects of the free schools and academy programme
introduced by the coalition government since 2010, with staff complaining about
the growing drain on resources.
The new school boards would be made up of a chancellor appointed by the DfE
and six members, who would be the headteachers of successful local academies
and free schools, elected by the heads of all the schools in the region. The
chancellors and boards would be granted powers delegated by the secretary of
state, allowing them to investigate and change the sponsors and management of
failing academies or free schools; other local authority schools will remain outside
the new system.
The scheme is said to be launched next month, with the DfE publicly advertising
for applicants for the positions of chancellor at salaries to be determined. Officials
hope to have the system fully up and running by the time of the 2015 election.
According to the memos, as many as 200 jobs may need to be cut within the DfE
to fund the spending on the new regional posts, with the cost likely to rise
because of Gove's insistence that the new boards be accommodated within a
school in each region, rather than in cheaper, existing government offices.

As many as 10,000 school-aged children in England may be "invisible" and
missing out on full-time education, according to a survey by Ofsted that found
many local authorities unable to track vulnerable children for whom they were
responsible.

Parents of primary school pupils in Middlesbrough and a north London borough
will be paid up to £600 a year to help with their children's homework,
under a pilot scheme. The study launching next year, funded by the Education
Endowment Foundation, will involve around 1,500 families from disadvantaged
backgrounds. Parents will attend a "parenting academy" to tutor them in the
skills to support their children learning maths, reading and science. The parenting
academy sessions will take place six times each school term starting in 2014, and
will each last 90 minutes. A third of the parents will be paid up to £600 if they
attend the full course of sessions, to see whether financial incentives improve
attendance. Parents taking part will be chosen at random to be included in the
group receiving payment, and the children of all of the families involved will be
tested before and after the project. The study will be independently evaluated
by NatCen Social Research, which is expected to report its findings in 2016.

The use of vocational and non-traditional subjects may be the secret weapon
that explains why academy schools outperform their non-academy state
school counterparts at GCSE level, according to new analysis from NFER. It
found that in 2012, schools with academy status got higher average GCSE points
scores and a larger proportion of pupils gaining the government's GCSE
benchmark pass than local authority-maintained schools. The research – based
on pupil achievement recorded in the national pupil database – also found
academy pupils made more rapid progress between key stage two and key stage
four, when GCSEs are taken, than those at maintained schools. But when the
NFER statisticians compared schools by excluding GCSE-equivalent results and
focusing on GCSE examinations, they found no difference between academy and
non-academy school results, and in some circumstances found that longestablished academies performed worse than maintained schools once GCSEequivalent results were stripped out.

England's 164 grammar schools are four times more likely to admit private
school children than those on free school meals, a report by the Institute for
Fiscal Studies has revealed. The report, sponsored by the Sutton Trust, found
that in selective local authorities, 3% of grammar school entrants were eligible
for free school meals. At other state schools, the figure is 17.5%. At the other
end of the spectrum, grammar schools were admitting 12.7% of their children
from outside the state sector, largely from independent schools, the report said.
"Four per cent of pupils in grammar schools live in the poorest fifth of
neighbourhoods, around 21% come from the middle quintile and 34% live in the
richest fifth of neighbourhoods," it said.

Too many teachers have no respect for authority and are hampering schools’
attempts to improve standards, chief schools inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw has
said. He warned of headteachers being “undermined by a pervasive resentment
of all things managerial” by some of their teaching staff. “Even today, too many
teachers still think that school leaders do not have the right to tell them how to
teach or what to do,” he said. Sir Michael warned heads not to try and “curry
favour” with their staff, adding: “What’s worse is that far too many school
leaders seem to believe that they don’t have a right to manage, either. “They
worry constantly about staff reaction. ... They seem to think they cannot act
without their employees’ approval. “Yes, you should consult with staff. Yes, you
should explain. But never confuse consultation. We must take the staff with us
at all costs, the misguided head would say. “No, you mustn’t. Not if it means
leaving the children behind.”
“It’s pointless concocting grand plans if the school playground is in a mess,
uniforms are slovenly, staff are too casual, children pay more attention to their
mobile phones than to the teachers and the school reception has all the charm of
the check-in desk at Ryanair.”
Teachers, he argued, should also be bold enough to exert their authority and
remind pupils who is in charge. “There is absolutely nothing wrong in my view in
saying to youngsters ‘do as I ask, because I am the adult - I am older than you I know more than you and, by the way, I am in authority over you,” he said
“Good schools are staffed by people, including newly qualified teachers and those
in the early years of the profession, who feel confident that they can challenge
children to behave and achieve without endless negotiation and sterile argument.

A tougher inspection regime for nurseries and pre-school facilities is
being introduced by Ofsted Latest figures show more than 150,000 pre-schoolers
are at settings which are not considered good enough by inspectors.
Now only those give an outstanding or good rating will be exempt from
intervention and those failing to achieve these standards could face having their
registration cancelled - closing them down. The ratings are being changed to
bring them into line with schools - so there will no longer be satisfactory
nurseries. Instead, they will be told they require improvement. At present 18 per
cent of provision is considered less than good and one per cent inadequate covering facilities for 157, 778 children.

Ministers may block plans for a new generation of technical schools amid
concerns children do not want to learn a trade from the age of 14 The DfE is to
delay the creation of dozens of University Technical Colleges because of fears
over a lack of demand and poor ratings from Ofsted inspectors. Currently, 17 of
the schools have been set up to teach teenagers vocational qualifications in
addition to core academic subjects. Pupils can opt out of mainstream schools to
transfer to UTCs at the age of 14, being given specialist tuition in disciplines such
as engineering, manufacturing, construction, business and computer science.
But officials are concerned that the programme is growing too quickly with no
evidence that it works. It follows the publication of figures showing that some of
the schools are running at just a third of their capacity – at a potentially huge
loss to the taxpayer.
Last month, Lord Baker said the programme should expand, with schools
specialising in different careers such as nursing, social care and cooking.
But the Government has already appeared to give the proposal a lukewarm
response at the time by saying there was a "long way to go" before career
colleges would be Coalition policy.

Almost half of all recent university leavers are now working in non-graduate
jobs, as those with media studies degrees fare the worst, a new report shows.
The study by the Office for National Statistics found that 47 per cent of employed
workers who left university within the last five years are performing roles which
do not require higher education qualifications. The figure is up from 37 per cent
in 2001, with most of the rise occurring since the recession of 2008 / 2009.
Annual earnings for graduates do however increase at a faster pace as they
become older, before levelling out in their late 30s at a median level of £35,000 a
year, well above those without a degree.
 The new approach to supporting music education in schools - music
hubs – has not been successful enough in improving music education for
all children in schools, according to an Ofsted report published today.
Ofsted is now challenging them to do better. Music in schools: what hubs
must do finds that many hubs do valuable work in providing instrumental
teaching and supporting local orchestras, choirs, festivals and music
courses as well as building local partnerships. But this work reaches only a
minority of pupils. In fact, only a third of the hubs in this survey had
started to work differently by beginning, at least, to improve the dialogue
about music education for all pupils in schools.
Music hubs were set up across England in response to the National Plan for
Music Education. Funded through the Arts Council, the hubs have defined
roles including ensuring that every child sings regularly and learns a
musical instrument in normal school class lessons. The report concludes
that little has changed in terms of provision in the music hubs’ first year. In
more than two thirds of the schools visited there is little discernible
difference from the support previously given by local authorities.

This statement sets out how Ofsted will inspect academy schools from 1
September 2013. When an academy school is established, it has a new legal
status and is a new school.
Broadly, there are two types of academy school:
 converter academies - existing schools that have been approved to convert
to become an academy
 sponsor-led academies - new schools including free schools, studio schools
and university technical colleges.
The first section 5 inspection of new academies will usually take place within
two years of opening. In most instances, we will not select new academies for
a first section 5 inspection until after four terms have elapsed from their
opening.
Inspection arrangements for converter academies are also guided by the
inspection history of their predecessor school. Certain types of schools judged
as outstanding before conversion are exempt from routine inspection unless
there are concerns about their performance.
Ofsted may conduct a section 8 monitoring inspection of an academy where
information we hold or receive about the academy causes sufficient concern.
Under section 8(2) of the Education Act 2005, the Chief Inspector has the
discretionary power to inspect any school in England in circumstances where he
is not required to do so by section 5 of the Act. Under section 8(1) of the Act,
the Chief Inspector must inspect a school when required to do so by the
Secretary of State.
Following an initial section 5 inspection, academy schools will be subject to the
same inspection arrangements as maintained schools.

Ofsted Sec 5 Inspection Outcomes up to 30.10.13
Outstanding
Good
RI
Inadequate
20%
59%
19%
2%
Of all inspections conducted across secondary and primary in the 2012-13
academic year:
39% improved on their last inspection 41% remained the same 18% declined
on their last inspection

Ofsted has issued this report “Maintaining Curiosity- a survey into science
education in schools” It can found along with a summary on
http://tonystephens.org.uk , Documents, Subject related documents
It stresses that Science GCSEs are failing to give students the practical skills to
properly prepare them for further study or employment. Schools needed to up
their game when it came to practicals, and it found nearly half of primary schools
did not see the subject as a priority. The inspectorate said there were still too
few girls taking the subjects, particularly physics, and called for school leaders to
challenge assumptions around gender and science. It also highlighted the “stark
difference” in numbers between private and state school pupils taking A level
chemistry and physics. But it was the lack of practical skills that most concerned
Ofsted and it called on the government to ensure science qualifications should
include more practical assessments.

Concerns about the government’s ability to ensure a stable supply of teachers
have increased with the revelation today that it is allowing teacher trainers to
recruit a third more secondary teachers than it deems necessary next year
Experts have warned that the way places have been allocated suggests the
English education system faces an oversupply crisis. They blame the
government’s determination to force through School Direct, the new training
route that sees schools recruit and train teachers themselves. The DfE has
allocated 19,201 places for secondary trainees in 2014, compared with the
14,295 that it forecasts will be required.

Northumberland has been heavily criticised by Ofsted for 'significant and
worrying decline' in its schools

In the latest in an increasingly terse series of missives being swapped between
the teacher unions’ general secretaries and Mr Gove, the unions imply that the
minister’s recent letters have served to increase the likelihood of them following
through with their threat of a national strike before 13 February.

State boarding school buildings could "collapse" around their staff and
students because of a lack of funding for repairs and improvements, a leading
headteacher has said

The government has hired experts to come up with a way of preventing
grammars, and other secondaries with high ability intakes, from having an
unfair advantage in new school league tables. A ministerial adviser says
the DfE is attempting to tackle the “bonus” that he says academically selective
schools enjoy under the current “flawed” system. The DfE concern centres on the
method used to calculate how much schools “add value” to their pupils in terms
of academic achievement. This will assume much greater importance from 2016
when a new accountability system will see a valued added measure used to set
crucial floor targets that can lead to the closure of under-performing
schools. “We know at the moment that the value added methodology is not fair
in the technical statistical sense “It is somewhat generous to grammar schools
and other people with particularly high performing intakes.

Ministers have been forced to parachute in a new sponsor to take over the
running of the country’s first Muslim free school after it faced accusations of
discrimination towards staff and pupils and was failed by inspectors. Schools
minister Lord Nash has written to the board of trustees at the Al-Madinah Free
School in Derby informing them that the school will be taken under new
governance, led by the Greenwood Dale Trust, which oversees 22 academies.

Children from deprived families have already fallen substantially behind their
peers by the age of five, according to new figures The results of assessments
carried out by teachers at the end of reception year, when most children are five,
show that 52 per cent of all pupils have reached a ‘good’ level of development
after their first year in school. But a break-down of the results of the Early Years
Foundation State Profile (EYFSP) looking at how different groups of pupils fare,
reveals that just 29 per cent of boys and 44 per cent of girls (36 per cent overall)
eligible for free school meals reach this level, compared to 55 per cent of other
pupils.

Tens of thousands of teenagers are taking “dead-end courses” that offer little
chance of finding work or further study, a report released today has said.
According to research undertaken by the think tank IPPR, up to 50,000 16 to 18year-olds are studying on courses that mean they are more likely to end up a
Neet (Not in Education, Employment or Training) by the time they are 19. The
study indicated that around quarter of a million young people had left school
without decent qualifications and researchers believe, of these, 50,000 would be
better off on an apprenticeship or pre-apprenticeship training. The analysis by
the think tank shows that between 2006 and 20010, more than one in five young
people studying for a level 2 qualification between the ages of 16 and 18,
become a Neet by the time they are 19 or 20. Nearly one in four ends up Neet if
they are studying a level 1 qualification, making them three times more likely to
become Neet than young people studying A or AS levels at the same age.

A third of parents believe their own children could be bullying others online, a
survey on cyber-bullying has shown. The study also revealed that a quarter of
children would consider sending a “mean” comment to someone online, while
one in six said it was “overreacting” to get upset by something said to them on
the internet.

The quality of careers advice in schools is “nothing less than appalling”, the
president of the Association of Colleges (AoC) has claimed. At the AoC’s annual
conference in Birmingham, Michele Sutton called on Prime Minister David
Cameron to “get a move on” in tackling the “disgraceful” quality of information,
advice and guidance offered by schools.

Schools are not doing enough to clamp down on homophobic language and
bullying it is claimed Whereas heads and their staff are quick to stamp out
racism, not enough is being done to counter the damaging effects of homophobic
bullying including the pejorative use of the word “gay”

Concerns are mounting over whether primary school teachers will be ready to
teach the new computing curriculum in time for next September. From the
start of the next academic year, all pupils from Key Stage 1 to Key Stage 3 will
be taught an almost entirely new curriculum when the new subject – computing
– replaces ICT. But fears are growing among industry experts over whether
teachers, particularly in the primary sector, will be ready to deliver the computer
science element of the curriculum.

Children from affluent families are more than three times more likely to go
to a top university than their working class peers, a new study shows. The
research reveals children whose parents are professionals are 3.2 times more
likely to attend Russell Group universities.

Individual secondary schools in England will be able to take a version of the
Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and benchmark
themselves against the world’s highest ranked education systems, it was
announced today. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
(OECD) confirmed that versions of its assessments in reading, mathematics and
science for 15-year-olds would be available from 2014. The tests could cost more
than £5,000 a school. But when this was first suggested, heads’ leaders said that
some secondaries would see that as a worthwhile investment because of their
lack of faith in public exams.

Ofsted should be allowed to inspect academy chains to ensure their schools
are providing a high enough quality of education to their students, an influential
panel of MPs has said. The Commons Education Select Committee has called on
the government to hand the schools watchdog the powers to inspect academies
chains, just as they do with local authorities.

More than three quarters of students want tougher discipline in school, new
research has found. In the report, when asked if tougher discipline for students
who misbehaved would help all students achieve their goals, 41 per cent of
students strongly agreed and 36 per cent agreed.

Schools should take children from disadvantaged homes from the age of
two to counteract the “dire” start to their education caused by “weak” parenting
and “poor housing”, the chair of Ofsted has said. Poor children are often 19
months behind their peers by the time they start school at the age of five, and
schools should start taking children from two or three years of age in a bid to
overcome this, Baroness Sally Morgan said.

Heads' and teacher leaders have warned against recommendations that the law
should be changed to make it a criminal offence if a school fails to report
child sexual abuse. Keir Starmer QC, the former director of public
prosecutions, has called for it to be mandatory to report allegations of child
sexual abuse. But classroom unions have warned of the risks of changing the
law that would criminalise any teacher or school employee who failed to report
any abuse, particularly as support services in dealing with vulnerable children are
being “cut to the bone”. “The problem is teachers are not getting the training
and support they need to recognise child abuse, and the danger is they could fail
to recognise something and then be prosecuted,” she added.

The DfE has confirmed it is investigating a federation of free schools and
academies run by a FE college over allegations of financial mismanagement. The
Barnfield Federation is being probed by the Skills Funding Agency after a
whistleblower made claims about the financial management of the Luton-based
Barnfield College, which sits at the heart of the chain of schools.
Allegations have also been made over “grade massaging” at the federation, and
the investigation is looking into how the Trust “manages its learners”. The news
that Barnfield is being investigated follows a rash of investigations into state
independent schools, most notably the Muslim Al-Madinah Free School in Derby
and more recently the King Science Academy in Bradford.

Ofsted is currently conducting two surveys and may contact your school as part
of this. Details of the surveys are as follows:
One of the surveys involves Ofsted speaking to schools that have converted to
academy status about how they are using their freedoms and inviting those
schools to complete an online survey. Ofsted sees this as putting less pressure on
schools than that of having a visit from Ofsted for a day. The second survey is
about restarting the impact of section 5 work, and is usually sent to schools
about four months after their inspection. Ofsted will now also be asking the Chair
of Governor’s at a school to complete this survey.

Key Stage 4 2013 – Un-validated data and absence data release dates. Ofsted
has announced the provisional timetable for the release of 2013 Key Stage 4 unvalidated data and all maintained mainstream schools’ absence data. These dates
may be subject to change so please check the news section of the RAISEonline
homepage for the latest on this.
Key Stage 4 un-validated data and Key Stage 4 absence data:
o Interactive reports – 10 am on Friday 29 November 2013
o Summary reports – by late evening of Monday 2 December 2013
The data will not reflect the outcome of amendments requested by schools
during the annual performance tables checking exercise.

The Health and Safety Executive has revised its ‘Young People at Work Guidance’
and it now contains a section with a particular focus on work experience that
provides advice for all parties involved to help keep the process simple and
straightforward. Placement organisers will find a section for them which lays out
dos and don’ts to help remove duplication of tasks and reduce the need for
excessive paperwork. For the employer, there’s advice on the considerations they
should be making and further information to explain the specific factors that are
relevant to young people. There is also advice for parents/carers and for the
student themselves.
You can see the guidance on the HSE website

There has been some confusion over what counts in the Best 8 in the
performance tables after 2016, but this seems to be the definitive answer. The
eight will comprise
a double weighted English element (the English Language qualification will
count for this element, but will only be double weighted if the pupil has also
taken English Literature, (there is no need for the student to have gained
C+ in Literature);
 a double weighted maths element;
 three slots reserved for other EBacc subjects (sciences, computer science,
geography, history and languages).

Core and Additional will have gone to be replaced by the Double Award GCSE in
Science which will be worth two slots. Each of the single Sciences and also Computer
Science will count as one slot each; if a student has more than three eligible
qualifications, then the best grades would be counted
It follows then that if a student does well in the Sciences/Computer Science, then
they will not need success in the Humanities subjects and/or MFL as the Sciences
alone could provide 2 or 3 qualifications
It remains the case that the student will still need Science, Hist/Geog and MFL to
gain the full EBacc

three slots that can be taken up by further qualifications from the range of
EBacc subjects, or any other" high value arts, academic, or vocational
qualification". The department will produce a list of approved, high value
vocational qualifications every year. English Literature will count in this
group of subjects
At present then this means that 3 vocational courses could make up the three slots
as long as they are on the list issued by DfE. Also at present all GCSEs could count
for these 3 slots, but there is a rumour that the DfE may decide that it won’t accept
what it considers lesser GCSEs, eg, perhaps Film Studies, Drama etc
For the 2014 and 2015 Performance Tables, it is made clear that no more than two
vocational qualifications can count towards the key indicators, eg, 5A*-C, E/M,
APScapped, Value Added

A quarter of primary school leaders have fined parents for taking children out of
school for unauthorised holidays, according to a survey taken in the wake of
new legislation banning holiday absences during term time. The survey also
reveals that many parents maybe try to get around the new rules – and the fines
– by claiming sickness as the reason for absence.

Popular schools should consider axing the system of priority places for siblings
because it discriminates against many children in the local catchment area,
according to the admissions watchdog. Schools have been told to reassess entry
policies that favour the brothers and sisters of existing pupils amid fears it stops
places being allocated in an “open and fair way”. The Office of the Schools
Adjudicator said the system unfairly prioritised families that moved miles away
from a popular school but continued to access it because their first-born child
had been admitted.

A third of comprehensives are breaking the law by dropping religious
education lessons for teenagers, a new study has found. Hundreds of
thousands of pupils are missing out on RE because the subject is being “edged
out” of timetables by government GCSE reforms, it was claimed. It also emerged
that schools were cutting the number of specialist RE teachers, placing lessons in
the hands of untrained staff and steering pupils away from taking qualifications
in the subject.

Rising numbers of pupils are shunning A-levels in favour of vocational
qualifications in an attempt to secure university places, according to the higher
education admissions service. Figures show that the proportion of teenagers
taking practical courses has soared five-fold in a decade, despite concerns that
many are ignored by leading universities. The Universities and Colleges
Admissions Service (UCAS) said that students from the poorest families were
significantly more likely to take qualifications such as BTECs as those from
wealthy backgrounds. But it warned that these pupils were practically
guaranteeing rejection from top institutions which routinely favour academic Alevels over vocational qualifications.

Pupils are failing to develop key life skills after being pushed into taking a “vast
number” of exams during secondary education, it was claimed. Andrew Hall,
chief executive of the AQA board, suggested that all pupils should take no more
than eight GCSEs to provide more time for extra-curricular activities, community
volunteering and work experience. He also said that Exam Boards need to
improve the quality of their marking to win back teachers’ trust..

Six of the Nottingham City’s nine secondary schools are understood to have
been placed in “special measures”

More than 80 per cent of teaching assistants (TAs) have seen their workload
increase in the last year, with one in 10 clocking up more than six hours of
unpaid overtime every week, a new survey has revealed.
APPENDIX
Unique
reference
number
Academy
name
Date
academy
opened
Local
authority
Lead sponsor /
academy trust
Date
issued
Djanogly City
Academy
Sep-03
Nottingham
Djanogly
Learning Trust
134369
Alec Reed
Academy
Sep-03
Ealing
Alec Reed
134221
The City
Academy
Bristol
Sep-03
Bristol City of
One World
Learning Trust
Prewarning
notice
15 Nov
2012
Prewarning
notice 7
Oct
2013
Prewarning
notice
17 Oct
2013
The Marlowe
Academy
Sep-05
Kent
Roger de Haan
John Madejski
Academy
Sep-06
Reading
Sir John
Madejski
Sheffield
Springs
Academy
Sep-06
Sheffield
United Learning
Prewarning
notice
10 Dec
2012
Swindon
Academy
Sep-07
Swindon
United Learning
Prewarning
notice
15 Nov
2012
The Oxford
Academy
Sep-08
Oxfordshire
Diocese of
Oxford
Grace
Academy
Coventry
Sep-08
Coventry
Lord Robert
Edmiston
Prewarning
notice
15 Nov
2012
Prewarning
notice
Opened
2003
134253
Opened
2005
128340
130247
Opened
2006
131896
Opened
2007
135364
Opened
2008
135675
135335
Prewarning
notice 3
Jan
2012
Prewarning
notice
18 Apr
2012
17 Oct
2013
Opened
2009
135909
Manchester
Creative and
Media
Academy for
Boys
Sep-09
Manchester
The Manchester
College
Prewarning
notice 3
Jan
2012
135878
Red House
Academy
Sep-09
Sunderland
Leighton Group
135897
The Basildon
Upper
Academy
Sep-09
Essex
Stanton Lane
Trust
Prewarning
notice 3
Jan
2012
Prewarning
notice 3
Jan2012
135744
Sir Robert
Woodard
Academy
Sep-09
West Sussex
Woodard
Academies
Trust
135983
South
Wolverhampton
and Bilston
Academy
Sep-09
Wolverhampton
City of
Wolverhampton
Academy Trust
135969
South Leeds
Academy
Sep-09
Leeds
School
Partnership
Trust
135904
City Academy
Norwich
Sep-09
Norfolk
Transforming
Education in
Norfolk
135956
Grace
Academy
Darlaston
Sep-09
Walsall
Lord Robert
Edmiston
Bishop of
Rochester
Academy
Sep-10
Medway
Rochester
Diocesan Board
of Education
Opened
2010
136108
Warning
notice
11 June
2012
Prewarning
notice
20 Apr
2012
Prewarning
notice
15 Nov
2012
Prewarning
notice
18 Sep
2013
Prewarning
notice 7
Oct
2013
Prewarning
notice
17 Oct
2013
Prewarning
notice 3
Jan
2012
136206
St Aldhelm's
Academy
Sep-10
Poole
Diocese of
Salisbury
Prewarning
notice 3
Jan
2012
Warning
notice
11 June
2012
Prewarning
notice
16 Sep
2013
Prewarning
notice
07 Oct
2013
136199
Gloucester
Academy
Sep-10
Gloucestershire
Gloucester
Academy Trust
139237
Barnfield
Business and
Enterprise
Studio
Academy
Sep-10
Luton
Barnfield
College
136193
The Taunton
Academy
Sep-10
Somerset
Diocese of Bath
& Wells Board
of Finance
Prewarning
notice
17 Oct
2013
Ipswich
Academy
Mar-11
Suffolk
Kunskapsskolan
N/A
N/A
N/A
Lincolnshire
The West
Grantham
Academy Trust
137113
Everest
Community
Academy
Sep-11
Hampshire
Academies
Enterprise Trust
(AET)
136751
Sandown Bay
Academy
Sep-11
Isle of Wight
Academies
Enterprise Trust
(AET)
137134
East Point
Academy
Sep-11
Suffolk
Academies
Enterprise Trust
(AET)
136826
E-ACT Leeds
East Academy
Sep-11
Leeds
E-ACT
Prewarning
notice
15 Nov
2012
Prewarning
notice
15 Nov
2012
Prewarning
notice
21 Mar
2013
Prewarning
notice
21 Mar
2013
Prewarning
notice
16 Sep
2013
Prewarning
notice
18 Sep
2013
Opened
2011
136453
Opened 2012
137816
Eston Park
Academy
Jan-12
Redcar and
Cleveland
Academies
Enterprise Trust
(AET)
137882
Tree Tops
Academy
Apr-12
Kent
Academies
Enterprise Trust
(AET)
138195
Molehill Copse
Primary School
Jun-12
Kent
Academies
Enterprise Trust
(AET)
138453
Broadfield East
Junior School
Sep-12
West Sussex
The Kemnal
Academies
Trust (TKAT)
137709
Gillbrook
Academy
Sep-12
Redcar and
Cleveland
Academies
Enterprise Trust
(AET)
138437
Bridgemary
School
Sep-12
Hampshire
The Kemnal
Academies
Trust (TKAT)
Prewarning
notice
15 Oct
2013
Prewarning
notice 7
Oct
2013
Prewarning
notice
16 Sep
2013
Prewarning
notice 7
Oct
2013
Prewarning
notice
15 Oct
2013
Prewarning
notice
17 Oct
2013