DfE refuses to explain Gould’s 7,500 SEND experts claim
The government has refused to reveal how it calculated its need for 7,500 specialist SEND staff for its flagship £1.8 billion “experts at hand” service.
Movers & Shakers: Edition 537
Weekly guide to who's new and who's leaving.
Smacking children could increase risk of bullying others as teens, research warns
Children who are victims of hitting as punishment in early childhood are more likely to bully others, including siblings, as teenagers, research finds.
‘Significant’ amount of data stolen in Nottingham cyberattack
Hundreds of thousands of email addresses understood to be affected in hack claimed by notorious ShinyHunters group.
Smith: OfS ‘shouldn’t back off’ from free speech issues
Skills minister says regulator could have handled Sussex investigation better but ‘lessons have been identified’.
Bloomsbury Institute suspended from recruiting overseas students
Private provider temporarily blocked from international recruitment amid UKVI probe as seven universities face visa action plans.
Meningitis B vaccine offered to all freshers after Kent outbreak
Under-25s across the UK to be offered two-dose vaccination from July onwards.
Russell Group warned over ‘divisive’ support for entry thresholds
New leader of research-intensive grouping says ‘challenging conversations’ needed but critics urge united front against political attacks.
What changes in regulatory culture might follow from the University of Sussex’s High Court victory over OfS?
The recent High Court ruling on free speech has larger implications for how the sector in England is regulated.
Facing a downhill march for bootcamp funding
Funding for devolved areas to run skills bootcamps has been cut by more than half this financial year, data suggests.
Former DfE civil servant appointed DWP permanent secretary
Dame Sarah Healey has been named as the Department for Work and Pensions’ next permanent secretary.
Insider wins promotion to lead FE college group
A deputy principal will step up to replace chief executive Craig Hodgson when he retires from Newcastle and Stafford Colleges Group (NSCG).
Simon Bartley: a champion of skills and young people
Tributes from across the world have been paid to Simon Bartley, the former chief executive of UK Skills and president of WorldSkills International, who died last month aged 68.
£2.5m fund to study how AI tools are affecting learning
The government’s go-to education research body has opened a £2.5 million research fund to fill an “urgent evidence gap” on how tools like ChatGPT have impacted the way pupils learn.
Grammar schools are inclusive, says Ofsted
Ofsted has branded every grammar school inspected so far under its new framework as inclusive, prompting a backlash from social mobility campaigners.
Cleaners consider strike as Ark cancels wage agreement
One of England’s most influential academy trusts has stopped offering the real living wage to staff this year, blaming stretched budgets and falling rolls.
More than 500k pupils in schools with EHCPs
The number of pupils with an education health and care plan has reached another record high, with more than 500,000 children now receiving statutory support for special educational needs in school.
Almost half of the disadvantage gap ‘locks in’ by age 11 – research
Almost half of the GCSE attainment gap between poorer pupils and their better-off peers is “locked in” by the end of primary school, new research has warned.
Cambridge fined £875k for automated test blunder
The University of Cambridge has been fined £875,000 after automated marking failures caused tens of thousands of people to receive incorrect English language test results, including some needed for visa, immigration and university applications.
Sats marking scheme ‘trying to catch children out’, heads warn
School leaders’ union calls on the Standards and Testing Agency to abandon its ‘rigid’ approach to marking and reward children for demonstrating understanding.