Posts Tagged ‘Ofsted’
Tuesday, April 16th, 2013
The focused Ofsted visit to local authority areas where there was insufficient progress has resulted in action in Coventry, one of the first authorities visited. As Ofsted placed another two schools in special measures in Coventry and at risk of academisation, the local authority has responded by proposing a new system of school to school support with primary schools being partnered with secondary schools. It is hoped these partnerships will assist in raising standards and avoiding further academies within the Coventry.
This is an expansion of the scheme already in place in Coventry which Ofsted noted had limited success. Whilst the school based self improving education system is part of the Government agenda to raise standards and give power to the front line professionals, such partnerships cannot provide a safe harbour from intervention. As such the conversion to academy status, whether through consent or otherwise, may well be appropriate for some schools as the required step change to raise standards.
Posted by Richard Freeth, who specialises in advice to schools and local authorities on the full range of issues including special educational needs, disability discrimination, admissions, exclusions, appeals, reorganisations, governance and academy conversions.
Richard Freeth
0121 237 3961
rfreeth@brownejacobson.com
Tags: academies, Ofsted, Richard Freeth, special measures
Posted in Education | No Comments »
Thursday, February 28th, 2013
A strategy to help governors hold head teachers to account and a proposal to pay some governors have divided opinion among educationalists.
New online “school data dashboards” will assist governors to challenge school leaders and stop governors pleading ignorance on their school’s weaknesses. It will be interesting to see how this is received, given that there are vast variations in how schools support governors. More emphasis should be put on training to help ensure governors understand their schools’ strengths and weaknesses and the importance of challenging the headteacher, both at the point of induction and at frequent intervals throughout a governor’s term.
The National Governors’ Association’s (NGA) has highlighted that a significant majority of existing governors are against all governors being paid. Yet a strong minority suggest a special case could be made for paying chairs. Paying for strong chairs in struggling schools maybe what Ofsted envisions. We await detail on how this will work in practice, but in principle it’s a good idea.
Posted by Hayley Roberts, who specialises in education law advice to schools and academies, including advice on teaching schools, collaboration models and partnership structures, school companies, and a wide range of pastoral issues.
Hayley Roberts
0121 237 3994
hroberts@brownejacobson.com
Tags: governors, Hayley Roberts, National Governors' Association, Ofsted, paid governors, school data dashboard, schools
Posted in Education | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 20th, 2013
A survey, commissioned by Contact a Family, of 400 parents with children with disabilities or special educational needs has found that 22% of such children are “illegally” excluded once a week and 15% every day. This research suggests that there is still confusion amongst some schools about the exclusion rules.
The current statutory guidance on exclusions states that the use of informal exclusions, such as sending a pupil home “to cool off”, is unlawful even when parents agree to the action. All exclusions, even for short periods, must be formally recorded.
Arguably, this rigid approach removes the headteacher’s discretion to address behavioural issues without the child receiving the stigma of a formal exclusion. However, with both the Department for Education and the Children’s Commissioner keen to crack down on such practice, schools are likely to face legal challenges and criticism from Ofsted if they do not follow proper exclusion procedures.
Posted by Victoria McIntosh, who specialises in advising schools and colleges on academy and trust school conversions and providing education law advice on admissions, pupil discipline, parent complaints, discrimination claims and other student-related matters.
Victoria McIntosh
07825 309322
victoria.mcintosh@brownejacobson.com
Tags: children's commissioner, Contact a Family, Department for Education, Ofsted, school exclusions, special educational needs, unlawfully excluding pupils, Victoria McIntosh
Posted in Education, Government, Local Authorities | No Comments »
Monday, February 11th, 2013
Following Ofsted’s Autumn report into the use of Pupil Premium, the watchdog has announced that many schools are failing to use the funding properly, in some cases the uses are not effective at meeting the intended aims of this reform.
The funding aims to narrow the attainment gap noted between pupils from rich and poor families. Following previous concerns about the use of the extra money received by schools for these pupils, schools have to track and detail the spending of any additional funding to show how it is being used to increase attainment amongst disadvantaged children.
Many schools are showing good practice and Pupil Premium is now seen to be having an impact on attainment. It must be used effectively to ensure that the programme has a future. When school budgets are being reduced, the extra money needs to be carefully used to ensure that the funding has a true impact on the aim to close the attainment gap and allow children to succeed no matter what their background.
Posted by Laura Richards, who specialises in : education law advice to maintained schools, independent schools and colleges, including admissions, SEN, safeguarding, governance, commercial advice on academy, free school and studio school projects.
Laura Richards
0115 908 4886
lrichards@brownejacobson.com
Tags: education, Laura Richards, Ofsted, pupil premium
Posted in Education, Further Education, Government, Public Sector | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 6th, 2013
A draft inspection framework has been published to cover Ofsted inspections of the education functions of local authorities. Under this framework, rather than judgement using the four Ofsted grades that schools can be awarded when inspected, local authorities will simply be deemed as either ‘succeeding’ or ‘failing’.
The news probably won’t come as a huge surprise to local authorities, given that last month Ofsted commenced a round of school inspections in poorly–performing areas which promised to focus on the local authority’s role.
Much is being made of Ofsted’s power to intervene in this way but actually legislation enabling Ofsted to inspect a local authority’s education functions at the Secretary of State’s request has been in place for some time. What the DfE now seems keen to do is put in place a robust framework for such inspections. Being able to refer to the local authority as officially ‘failing’ will no doubt assist the DfE’s case where it believes academy conversion is necessary for improvement.
Posted by Katie Michelon, who specialises in education law advice to schools, colleges and LAs, including commercial advice on education sector projects such as academies, trust schools and federations.
Katie Michelon
0115 976 6189
kmichelon@brownejacobson.com
Tags: forced academisation, Katie Michelon, Ofsted, School intervention
Posted in Education, Local Authorities, Public Sector | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 30th, 2013
Nursery schools will be empowered to increase their permitted staff to child ratio as part of a Government drive to help families with the cost of childcare. Should the proposals come into force, the ratio of staff caring for children two years or over will rise from one to four, to one to six. For children one year old and under, that ratio will increase from one to three, to one to four. The increase would be dependent on the presence of staff that posses higher qualifications, including Grade C in Maths and English GCSE, and the ratios are expected to rise further if a fully qualified teacher is present.
The change will impact on a number of primary schools who operate their own nurseries. However, with Ofsted keen to see a greater link between pre-school provision and good and outstanding primary schools, this announcement is likely to be of interest to the wider primary sector.
Posted by Julia Green, who specialises in education law advice to schools, academies and colleges including statutory conversions of all types and property issues ranging from easements to development agreements.
Julia Green
07818 053047
julia.green@brownejacobson.com
Tags: Julia Green, Ofsted
Posted in Education | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 29th, 2013
Maintained schools will come under further scrutiny as a “rapid response survey” of the teaching of the most able pupils is commissioned by Ofsted. Sir Michael Wilshaw ordered the report after league tables published on Thursday indicated that around 25% of secondary schools did not produce any pupils with A-level scores of at least AAB in the subjects required by the highest ranking universities.
The report is expected to draw comparisons between the achievement of pupils in the maintained sector and those in the independent and grammar school systems, with Michael Wilshaw arguing that it was ‘nonsense’ that four independent schools and one six form college in Cambridge send more pupils to Oxbridge than 2,000 state schools.
More than 50 secondary schools are expected to be visited as part of the investigation. However, all schools will need to ensure they can evidence that they are ‘pushing’ their most gifted and talented pupils towards academic success in the key curriculum subjects.
Posted by Victoria McIntosh, who specialises in advising schools and colleges on academy and trust school conversions and providing education law advice on admissions, pupil discipline, parent complaints, discrimination claims and other student-related matters.
Victoria McIntosh
07825 309322
victoria.mcintosh@brownejacobson.com
Tags: curriculum, maintained schools, Ofsted, rapid response survey, secondary education, Victoria McIntosh
Posted in Education | No Comments »
Thursday, January 17th, 2013
Today Ofsted will kick off a wave of inspections of schools in local authorities where standards are considered too low. This follows Ofsted reporting in November on the vast difference in standards across different authorities, findings which Chief Inspector Michael Wilshaw deemed unacceptable.
A large focus of these inspections will be the local authority’s role. Schools can expect to be asked how the local authority supports the school and how it challenges the school to raise standards.
The Local Government Association accepts it is right to question underperformance but argues that local authorities are increasingly powerless in a sector focussing on departure from local authority control. However, under legislation it remains the case that school intervention powers exist – for example an authority can issue a warning notice where performance is poor. Use of such powers will trigger a school becoming ‘eligible for intervention’, a status which paves the way for forced academy conversion.
Posted by Katie Michelon, who specialises in education law advice to schools, colleges and LAs, including commercial advice on education sector projects such as academies, trust schools and federations.
Katie Michelon
0115 976 6189
kmichelon@brownejacobson.com
Tags: forced academisation, Katie Michelon, Ofsted, School intervention
Posted in Education, Local Authorities, Public Sector | No Comments »
Thursday, January 17th, 2013
Roke Primary School is the latest school to face the government’s policy of converting poorly performing schools to academies. This move would place them in the hands of a large academy chain, despite much hostility from the local community.
DfE guidance provides that forced academisation should only occur where a school has ‘underperformed for some time’ and where ‘problems are not tackled’. It is suggested that Roke do not find themselves in that position, having received only one ‘unsatisfactory’ Ofsted report following which the issues raised were quickly rectified.
The DfE take a different line, stating that there were serious concerns surrounding the school and that a notice to improve was given last year and stating that changes ‘need to be made quickly’ when a school is found to be unsatisfactory.
Regardless of these respective positions, this case puts a spotlight on the DfE approach and is likely to add fuel to the fire of those who do not support forced academisation.
Posted by Dai Durbridge, who specialises in advising schools, academies and other education providers on all pastoral matters. Recognised leader in safeguarding law, with a specific interest in the vetting and barring scheme; also defends claims made against education, and social care providers.
Dai Durbridge
0115 976 6578
ddurbridge@brownejacobson.com
Tags: academies, Dai Durbridge, Department for Education, DfE, forced academisation, Michael Gove, Ofsted, Roke Primary School, school
Posted in Education, Local Authorities, Public Sector | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 9th, 2013
Headteacher Peter Tait of Sherborne Preparatory School has courted controversy by suggesting victims of school bullying need to “learn not to be weak” and suggests schools should focus on working with parents to “bully-proof” pupils by “building their self-confidence and giving them a measure of resilience to cope on their own”.
Tackling bullying is high on Ofsted’s agenda and a central part of its new framework. Whilst encouraging pupils to develop self-confidence and resilience can be an effective prevention strategy, schools should ensure pupils are not inadvertently encouraged to tolerate bullying and that both pupils and parents feel confident in reporting incidents of bullying or harassment to schools. Failure to do so leaves schools open to censure and potentially costly claims from victims.
Whilst most schools will have established anti-bullying policies and procedures in place, these need to be regularly audited to monitor their effectiveness and ensure they remain fit for purpose. Ofsted also expects all incidents of bullying to be investigated and fully recorded.
Posted by Victoria McIntosh, who specialises in advising schools and colleges on academy and trust school conversions and providing education law advice on admissions, pupil discipline, parent complaints, discrimination claims and other student-related matters.
Victoria McIntosh
07825 309322
victoria.mcintosh@brownejacobson.com
Tags: bullying, education, Ofsted, schools, Victoria McIntosh
Posted in Education | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, November 28th, 2012
Ofsted will launch a league table of local authorities based on inspection ratings of schools. Chief Inspector Michael Wilshaw commented that rather than being a ‘naming and shaming’ exercise, the aim is to ‘disseminate good practice’. He believes the current level of disparity between local authorities is unacceptable and cites the fact that parents’ prospects of getting their child into a good school varies hugely across the country.
Wilshaw’s view is that strong local authorities work closely with all of their schools and intervene when required and should not be turning their back on schools when they become academies.
The timing of these league tables seems odd given the move towards centralisation of education through the academies programme. Why hold local authorities more accountable when an increasing number of schools have moved away from local authority control? One answer is to put more pressure on local authorities to use their powers to intervene where schools (which are not yet academies) in their area are under-performing.
Posted by Katie Michelon, who specialises in education law advice to schools, colleges and LAs, including commercial advice on education sector projects such as academies, trust schools and federations.
Katie Michelon
0115 976 6189
kmichelon@brownejacobson.com
Tags: forced academisation, Katie Michelon, Ofsted, school league tables
Posted in Education, Local Authorities, Public Sector | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 20th, 2012
Recent research has found that talented pupils are scared of showing off their skills or talents though fear of being targeted by bullies. At the start of Anti-Bullying week in the UK this is clearly a topic which needs addressing.
Anti-bullying week this year is focussing on bullying and its effects on achievement. When pupils are worrying about excelling in sports or academia due to the fear of bullying, the issue needs tackling to prevent this becoming ingrained in school communities. This type of bullying has far ranging impacts on pupils social, extra-curricular and academic choices, both in and out of school.
Schools are already tackling bullying as a high priority, especially with increased focus placed on pupil behaviour and safety by Ofsted. However, schools need support. Parents in particular need to understand the stance schools take in respect of bullying to ensure they can engage and show their commitment to helping the school foster a positive school culture.
Posted by Laura Richards, who specialises in : education law advice to maintained schools, independent schools and colleges, including admissions, SEN, safeguarding, governance, commercial advice on academy, free school and studio school projects.
Laura Richards
0115 908 4886
lrichards@brownejacobson.com
Tags: bullying, education, Laura Richards, Ofsted
Posted in Education, Public Sector | No Comments »
Wednesday, November 14th, 2012
Dedham Primary School, Essex has recently been mocked for an activity involving reception class children being sent to risk assess their outdoor play area. The school is accused of “killing the joys of childhood” and other offences generally prefaced with “what is the world coming to…”
Whether we believe that children of four and five should be introduced to health and safety that way, is it really fair to blame the school? We live in a culture of constant complaint and schools rank high amongst the institutions that suffer. When accidents occur, teachers, schools and education authorities are condemned. When schools react with activities of this sort, they are criticised.
OFSTED praised the school for it’s commitment to health and safety, which might leave schools feeling aggrieved – ‘damned if they do, damned if they don’t’. This school is playing by our rules – if society doesn’t like it, society needs to change the rules.
Posted by Mark Fowles, who specialises in catastrophic claims particularly occupational stress, OLA, abuse, social services, and significant claims against public and local authorities.
Mark Fowles
01392 288 328
mark.fowles@brownejacobson.com
Tags: Browne Jacobson, education, health and safety, litigation, Mark Fowles, Ofsted, Public Sector, risk assessments
Posted in Education, Health & Safety, Litigation, Public Sector | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 31st, 2012
Local authorities, teaching unions, schools and pupils have launched a legal action against Ofsted and two examination boards. Their aim is to force a re-grade of June’s GCSE English papers.
The action has been issued on behalf of six professional bodies, 167 pupils, 150 schools and 42 councils. The group will seek judicial review of the alleged unlawful approach to marking of summer English papers stating that the decisions are“incompatible with the most elementary principles of fairness, rationality and good administration” and “prejudiced the life chances of thousands of children”.
The exam boards, and Ofqual, which held an inquiry into the problems but has stood by the grading, have stated that they will rigourously defend their decisions.
Whilst it is doubtful whether the case will be heard before 45,000 resit their English exams in November, the action increases the pressure on Ofqual and the exam boards to follow the lead of the Welsh government, which ordered the WJEC to regrade Welsh students’ papers.
Posted by Jamie Otter, who specialises in education law, including corporate governance, group structures, collaborative working and academy conversions.
Jamie Otter
0115 976 6237
jotter@brownejacobson.com
Tags: exams, Jamie Otter, local authorities, Ofsted
Posted in Education | No Comments »
Friday, October 12th, 2012
Following the pilot of the virtual schools (VS) approach by a number of local authorities, a report by Ofsted released yesterday has shown that VS have raised the profile of education for looked after children (LAC) but has yet to show that it is closing the attainment gap.
Virtual schools enable the co-ordination of education services for LAC. The school is made up of a number of professionals, but do not exist in real terms. Pupils remain the responsibility of the school where they are on the roll.
Slimmed down local authorities are likely to be concerned about the impact their ever reducing resources will have on this programme and whether improvements in VS can work to close the gap. This report shows yet more focus on joined up working which can only help with attainment of LAC and close the attainment gap with their peers.
Posted by Laura Richards, who specialises in : education law advice to maintained schools, independent schools and colleges, including admissions, SEN, safeguarding, governance, commercial advice on academy, free school and studio school projects.
Laura Richards
0115 908 4886
lrichards@brownejacobson.com
Tags: Laura Richards, Ofsted, virtual schools
Posted in Education, Local Authorities, Social Care | No Comments »
Monday, September 24th, 2012
The Pupil Premium is making little difference in raising the attainment of the poorest pupils, according to Ofsted.
The premium rose to £600 in 2012/13 for each pupil in care or on free school meals. However, only half of 117 schools surveyed said it had made a difference and a recent study shows that some 300,000 pupils eligible for claiming free school meals are not, for fear of being stigmatised.
Although schools are free to spend the extra funding as they see fit, from September 2012 onwards they will have to publish information about how they use it. Ofsted have urged schools to think carefully about how they use this money if the Pupil Premium is to have a future. In response, Russell Hobby of the NAHT stressed that schools are being put under increasing pressure to deliver results at the same time as their budgets are being cut.
Perhaps the important question is, is the Pupil Premium the best way to help disadvantaged pupils?
Posted by Hayley Roberts, who specialises in education law advice to schools and academies, including advice on teaching schools, collaboration models and partnership structures, school companies, and a wide range of pastoral issues.
Hayley Roberts
0121 237 3994
hroberts@brownejacobson.com
Tags: Free school meals, Hayley Roberts, Ofsted, poorest pupils, pupil premium
Posted in Education | No Comments »
Monday, September 17th, 2012
Ofsted’s new inspection guidelines are now in force and they include an increased emphasis on e-safety in schools. As a result, we expect Ofsted to focus on how a school protects and educates staff and pupils on the use of technology as part of their inspection.
E-safety is a fast changing area and schools need to keep up with developments to ensure pupils are given the necessary skills to help them understand and avoid risks online both on and off school premises.
This new framework is long overdue and will put some pressure on schools to ensure their policies are clear and meet Ofsted’s expectations. E-safety is a key element to safeguarding – not getting it right can have serious impacts on pupil’s safety. Keeping your policies and procedures up to date with new technology will be key to evidencing your approach and keeping pupils safe.
Posted by Laura Richards, who specialises in:education law advice to maintained schools, independent schools and colleges, including admissions, SEN, safeguarding, governance, commercial advice on academy, free school and studio school projects.
Laura Richards
0115 908 4886
lrichards@brownejacobson.com
Tags: adult safeguarding, e-safety, Laura Richards, Ofsted, school, Technology
Posted in Education, Further Education | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 5th, 2012
As schools open their doors again after the summer holidays to pupils, they will also be welcoming in another Ofsted inspection change. The new regime focuses on the quality of teaching.
From the new term all schools must be judged as ‘good’ by Ofsted to be good enough to educate children. This will be the minimum expected by the inspectors. The revised inspection arrangements will apply to all schools. The news has been met with mixed reactions; from fears of demoralisation to those who feel this will give schools the boost they need to ensure they continue to improve.
Along with revised arrangements, other Ofsted changes will apply from the new short notice of inspection to the use of ‘requires improvement.’ These measures are being introduced following the need for outstanding schools to also have outstanding teaching.
Time will tell whether this new Ofsted regime drives an increase in standards or indeed if it proves any more popular with schools than previous regimes.
Laura Richards
0115 908 4886
lrichards@brownejacobson.com
Tags: Laura Richards, Ofsted
Posted in Education, Regulatory | No Comments »
Friday, August 17th, 2012
This week, Downhills School’s judicial review failed when the High Court ruled that Michael Gove’s decision to convert the school an academy was rational.
Downhills were issued with an academy order after being put into ‘special measures’ following an Ofsted inspection.
There are limited circumstances in which a school is eligible for intervention. These include where a school has been put into special measures or requires significant improvement following an Ofsted inspection or where the school has failed to comply with a warning notice issued by the Local Authority (LA).
The LA decides whether to issue a warning notice but there is a risk that, where a school is not performing well, the Government may put pressure on the LA to do so, to allow intervention. Appeal against a warning notice and judicial review are options for a school and the court will decide each case individually.
Downhills’ case was decided on its facts and does not mean that all schools below floor targets are will be subject to intervention.
Posted by Laura Hughes, who specialises in planning and environmental law for public and corporate sector bodies; experienced in judicial reviews, planning , land use and right of way matters.
Laura Hughes
0115 976 6582
lhughes@brownejacobson.com
Tags: downhills pimary school, forced academisation, Lauren Milward, Ofsted, special measures
Posted in Education | No Comments »
Friday, August 10th, 2012
Last week, Sir Michael Wilshaw announced that Ofsted are appointing eight new regional directors to “take charge” of school improvement and assess the work of local authorities and academy chains.
As the capacity of the local authority reduces there have been concerns raised about the ability of the government, from their central position, to monitor schools performance effectively.
Ofsted has often been identified as the best placed organisation to take on this role practically, at a regional level and these new appointments will go some way to fill the vacuum left by the decreasing role of the local authority.
In the past, Ofsted have inspected schools but left them to implement changes required to improve, often with little support. As schools traditional support mechanisms lose capacity, this new focus of Ofsted on school improvement, after inspection, is likely to be a welcome change, particularly for schools struggling to perform to high standards that could do with extra support on a practical and regional level.
Posted by Dai Durbridge, who specialises in advising schools, academies and other education providers on all pastoral matters. Recognised leader in safeguarding law, with a specific interest in the vetting and barring scheme; also defends claims made against education, and social care providers.
Dai Durbridge
0115 976 6578
ddurbridge@brownejacobson.com
Tags: academies, Ofsted, performance monitoring, school inspections
Posted in Education, Further Education, Local Authorities, Regulatory | No Comments »
