| Welcome to ‘The Week Ahead’ – here you will find the latest updates on literacy and SEND policy from Parliament and beyond.
10th September 2018
Things to Know:
First education questions of the new Parliamentary year
Damian Hinds and his ministerial team face questions from MPs at 2:30 pm on Monday. The agenda includes recent discussions the Education Secretary has had with the Chancellor on funding and whether more qualitative data on pupil well-being should be included in school league tables. See the full list of what will be asked.
NAHT warn of crisis in SEND support
The union published results of their online member survey which found that 94% of respondents report finding it harder to resource the support required to meet the needs of pupils with SEND than they did two years ago. The report adds to our call to simplify SEND funding and make it more transparent to ensure every penny spent is on supporting learners who need it. Find out more about their new campaign: Empty Promises.
Only 40% of Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs) feel prepared to assess the progress of SEND pupils
The government’s annual survey of NQTs found that teaching SEND learners was an area in which initial teacher education (ITE) has not prepared them sufficiently. The survey also found that only 41% of new secondary school teachers felt ready to teach reading and comprehension and that workload was larger than expected. DYT call for SEND and a knowledge of literacy difficulties to be embedded in teacher ITE. Read the full survey.
Number of KS2 pupils reaching expected standard in reading up 4%
Provisional KS2 results in England were published last week. 64% of pupils reached the expected standard in all of reading, writing and maths. In reading, 75% of pupils reached the expected standard in 2018. DYT will analyse and comment on the full results when they are published in 2019.
New research seriously questions the use of setting by ability
Landmark research by academics from the UCL Institute of Education and Queen’s University Belfast has advised schools to limit their use of setting pupils by ability. DYT welcomes the research, 88% of those in the bottom set in reception are still there in year 11. We are labelling these children as failures from the start of their educational experience.
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