Charlotte Santry

Deliver on SEND or lose services, ministers warn councils SEND reform plans are needed by June - and government will withdraw services from failing authorities, local officers have been warned

Councils have been warned they face “heightened scrutiny” over special educational needs and disabilities reforms - and that those found to be failing could have services taken off them, in a hard-hitting letter from government ministers. www.tes.com/magazine/new...

DfE estimates of schools’ costs ‘disingenuous’ Leaders say the government’s claim that schools can afford teacher pay rises ignores their growing costs, including the prospect of energy price hikes due to the Middle East conflict

The cost pressures facing schools - which could now include energy price hikes due to conflict in the Middle East - make DfE claims about 'financial headroom' completely wrong, leaders warn.

www.tes.com/magazine/new...

Pleased to (briefly!) appear on today’s @goodmorningbritain.bsky.social to highlight the staffing and resource challenges behind these pressures.

Excl: According to DfE calculations, schools won't need any extra teachers from next month until 2029.

This is despite teachers taking on new responsibilities for SEND, a curriculum overhaul, & the govt's ever-shifting policy to hire 6.5k new teachers.

www.tes.com/magazine/new...

New ‘experts at hand’ won’t arrive fast enough, DfE warned Professional bodies back bigger roles in schools for educational psychologists, occupational and speech and language therapists - but say they already struggle to meet demand

SEND reforms: New educational psychologists won't qualify until 2029 - a year after the govt's new 'experts at hand' service is meant to be fully up and running.

In the interim, the service will need to rely on a "severely stretched" profession, the DfE's being warned:

www.tes.com/magazine/new...

2.7% teacher pay rise affordable over next two years, says DfE Teachers' union leader calls government projections 'ludicrous' and 'insulting'

Mainstream schools can afford a 2.7% teacher pay rise over the next two years, using a predicted £1bn of financial "headroom", says DfE.

www.tes.com/magazine/new...

The SEND reforms are out – now the real tests begin The government has finally announced its plans for special educational needs provision. Tes’ SEND and inclusion editor John Roberts assesses the challenges to come

While there is a sense of relief in the sector following the government publishing its SEND reform plans, Tes' inclusion editor @johngroberts.bsky.social sets out the challenges that still lie ahead – for the DfE, for schools and for families of pupils with SEND

If you take the time to sit down with the White Paper or the SEND consultation document, it may seem minor but the writing is appalling. Not just grammar mistakes, but sentences that just don't make sense.

I mean, look at the section below.

Clear communication really does matter.

Schools White Paper: all you need to know Tes has gathered all of the key information from the Labour government’s schools White Paper

Everything you need to know about the Schools White Paper at-a-glance:

www.tes.com/magazine/new...

How is Labour planning to reform SEND? The DfE sets out proposals for schools to produce statutory support plans for pupils with SEND and for new national inclusion standards. Here’s everything you need to know about its reform plans

The FULL details of the SEND overhaul:

www.tes.com/magazine/new...

DfE reveals £4bn SEND reform spending plan Schools will get access to £1.6bn inclusion funding and ‘Experts at Hand’ as part of the government’s long-awaited SEND reforms

Schools will get access to a new £1.6bn inclusion fund and a bank of specialists in their local area, the government announced tonight, as part of a £4bn spending plan for SEND reform

DfE White Paper to call for all schools to be in trusts Government announces target to halve disadvantage gap, along with plans for funding reform, a new progress measure and retention bonuses for heads

The government is expected to call for all schools to be part of a trust in its White Paper on Monday, Tes understands. @johngroberts.bsky.social has the full story on this – and other key proposals trailed by the DfE – here ⬇️

Excl: Many schools haven't received AI attendance targets the DfE said it had set "every school" last year. @ascl-uk.bsky.social calls the rollout a "botched exercise". @tesmagazine.bsky.social

Just four months after the DfE cut multiple subject bursaries, the impact is already starting to show.

Subjects fear that it has not just led to lower recruitment but created a wider sense that subjects now have to compete to prove their worth.

www.tes.com/magazine/new...

How specialist staff shortages threaten Labour’s 6,500 teachers target The government’s key manifesto pledge to deliver 6,500 more teachers could hinge on recruitment into special schools and AP: here’s why that’s a challenge

Labour’s promise to deliver 6,500 more teachers could rely on recruitment to AP and special schools – but that will be a challenge, experts tell @johngroberts.bsky.social

Revealed: What CEOs are paid at the biggest MATs Tes’ annual review of the salaries of chief executives at the largest multi-academy trusts reveals that a quarter of them had a bigger percentage pay rise than teachers

Exclusive: How much do the CEOs of the biggest MATs get paid? Tes analysis reveals 1 in 4 got a bigger percentage pay rise than teachers

Ofsted ‘needs to urgently review’ inspections over grade disparity Headteachers’ union experts raise concern about difference between primary and secondary ratings and watchdog’s approach to grading achievement

Analysis from 200 + inspection reports published by Ofsted under a new framework has revealed concerns about the proportion of schools being graded as needs attention on achievement and on disparities between primary and secondary schools in other areas. Full story here www.tes.com/magazine/new...

‘Outlier’ CEO pay flattens after DfE crackdown But leaders’ pay still varies hugely at trusts told to justify their pay decisions – from £25 per pupil to £331, Tes analysis reveals

Exclusive: Has CEO pay dropped at the high-paying academy trusts that were told to justify their salary decisions to the DfE? @jabedahmed.bsky.social investigates

DfE expects every secondary school to have an inclusion base The government’s 10-year estates plan includes the goal for all secondaries to have dedicated spaces that bridge the gap between mainstream and specialist provision

All secondaries will need inclusion bases under DfE 10-year estates plan.

Will those that don’t already have one be in a position to repurpose/add space?

Plan for primaries is less clear 🤷🏻‍♀️

Everyone knows Ofsted has got this wrong.

Even Ofsted seem to quietly accept they've got this wrong.

This piece by @cerysturner.bsky.social shows why getting this wrong is so damaging.

Third of areas cut core school funding to prop up SEND DfE urged to fix the ‘scandal’ of mainstream school funding being diverted to support councils’ ‘mountainous’ SEND debts

The govt's announced it'll cover 90% of councils' SEND debts: welcome news.

But, this year more than 1 in 3 LAs already plan to move funds away from the core schools block to cover SEND pressures - as @johngroberts.bsky.social reveals here:

www.tes.com/magazine/new...

Cash-strapped councils’ spending on private special schools soars Local authorities with the biggest SEND deficits see their spending on places in independent special schools rise by up to 58 per cent, Tes analysis shows

Excl: Councils with the largest SEND deficits are spending over £200m on private special schools this year.

With just weeks until the DfE publishes the schools white paper, independent specialist settings are set to be a hotly contested area of reform.

www.tes.com/magazine/new...

Revealed: How much the biggest MATs make from investments The largest multi-academy trusts are generating millions by investing surplus cash, but sector leader warns this must not replace core funding

"It’s great for us, and not necessarily equitable for the sector as a whole."

@jabedahmed.bsky.social reveals the investment returns of the 20 biggest MATs in 2024-25.

www.tes.com/magazine/news/general/how-much-money-do-mats-make-from-investments

Baroness (Estelle) Morris: “We cannot have a schools policy that has in it an acceptance that some schools will wither on the vine and fail.”

Baroness (Diana) Barran: "I just think it is about respecting parent choice.”

Background: www.tes.com/magazine/new...

Lack of home reading prompts school concerns over language skills A quarter of parents avoid reading to their children because they lack belief in their own ability, finds Parentkind poll, as schools contend with ‘weaker language foundations’

Should the national year of reading be equally focused on parents as it is on children?

📚Findings from @parentkind.bsky.social & shared with Tes, show that more than a quarter of parents have avoided reading with their children because of their own reading ability:

www.tes.com/magazine/new...

White disadvantaged girls see sharpest drop at GCSE Leaders call for the government to set out targeted action amid fears that girls are being overlooked in the drive to improve white working-class pupils’ outcomes

Exclusive: School leaders call for targeted action for white working-class girls, as analysis shows fewer pass English and Maths compared to pre-Covid.

www.tes.com/magazine/new...

This raises HUGE questions for the DfE and Ofsted.

1 in 3 teachers reports WhatsApp pastoral incidents Exclusive polling revealing the impact of social media in schools comes as the government is considering a ban for under-16s

Revealed: the social media apps driving the most pastoral issues for teachers.

Government may want to take this on board in its under-16s social media ban consultation 👇

www.tes.com/magazine/new...

Confirmation today of a @tesmagazine.bsky.social scoop from last term:

Are schools being judged unfairly without Progress 8? We’re now experiencing two years without the Progress 8 performance measure as a result of the cancellation of Sats during the pandemic. So, have the past warnings about a negative impact on schools come to pass? Kyle Tormey investigates

How is the absence of Progress 8 affecting schools? @ktorm-social1.bsky.social investigates whether the predictions that schools in poorer areas would suffer have turned out to be true