John Dickens
@JohndickensSW
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Multi-award winning investigative journo. Editor of education paper @SchoolsWeek . Former Slough Obs, nationals freelancer. Tips: john.dickens @schoolsweek .co.uk
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Joined October 2010
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Pinned Tweet
Edition 355 done and dusted:
🎓
@russellhobby
on
@TeachFirst
’s new 2030 strategy
👿 Bad behaviour gets worse
🏎️ Mat leases £40k Teslas for top team
🫂
@JonnyUttley
on his inclusion plan
🤰
@Anna__McShane
on solving the motherhood penalty
🗣️ In profile:
@olidebotton
👊
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This really is a huge story - should be front page of every newspaper tomorrow:
Nearly all schools - already severely financially stretched - will lose thousands, many tens of thousands and some over £100k from their expected budgets next year *because DfE added them up wrong*
DfE prediction for minimum per-pupil funding for secondary schools has been revised down by £55. At primary level it’s down £45
Based on these figures, average secondary would be £57,970 worse-off than predicted in July, primary £12,420
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DfE had the highest WFH rate last month before the Rees Mogg return-to-office edict.
So they ordered everyone in and … there’s just not enough space. Some staff had to be sent back home, others working in corridors and canteens.
One office has 4x more staff than desks 🙈
Exclusive:
@educationgovuk
staff have had to work in corridors and canteens after the government’s return-to-the-office edict because the DfE has almost twice as many workers as desks
#Covid
#omicron
#workingfromhome
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Bit of work admin: I shall be away from
@SchoolsWeek
for a few weeks...
Say hello to Elsie Rose Dickens.
Besotted 😍😍😍
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*and they announced it at 5pm on a Friday - two days after Conservative Party conference ended - despite knowing about the error since last month
Scandalous
This really is a huge story - should be front page of every newspaper tomorrow:
Nearly all schools - already severely financially stretched - will lose thousands, many tens of thousands and some over £100k from their expected budgets next year *because DfE added them up wrong*
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OOPS!
Gillian Keegan ordered heads to ‘get off their backsides’ and reply to RAAC surveys, threatening to name and shame them
But
@ASCL_UK
says six leaders got letters despite filling in surveys, some months ago - calling the validity of the whole DfE RAAC list into doubt
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After being sent in to Rye College following lots of political pressure over Catgate, Ofsted found:
- no serious concerns
- school has ‘culture of kindness and mutual support’
- teachers largely ‘promote debate and manage pupils’ discussions well’
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I've covered some shitshow DfE announcements - but this has been the worst.
Utterly woeful.
They didn't even consult the Mayor of London before picking London Boroughs at random
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FYI:
The number of teachers has risen by 6 per cent since 2010
The number of pupils since 2010 has risen by ... 11 per cent
🎉 New data shows that there's a record number of teachers in England’s schools - 468,371!
This is an increase of 2,800 compared to last year, and over 27,000 more teachers than in 2010. 👏🙌
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Gavin Williamson today (left). Live teaching has been 'shown to be the best way in terms of delivering teaching'
Ofsted last week (right): 'Unhelpful myths' on remote education, not based on evidence, include 'best way to deliver remote education is always through live lessons
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LOL. DfE press release says 'protective measures [in schools] such as good hygiene and *ventilation* will remain in place next term' ... the guidance on ventilation amounts to 'open a window'
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Wow.
Department of Health said - on the record - the Guardian story about the regulator not approving mass tests in schools was ‘not true’.
The regulator has just sent a statement saying it is true 😬
The Department for Education has confirmed mass testing in schools – including the roll out to primary school staff next week – will continue as planned after denying reports the programme had not been formally approved by the regulator
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I’m definitely still signed off for the day - but just noticed this drop in...
The plan for testing and return of pupils in special schools: published at 5.50pm on New Year’s Eve.
Disgraceful
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Here’s the (DfE’s own) figures we obtained (staff = full-time equivalent workers)
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We didn’t take the decision lightly to brand Williamson inadequate on our front page. But we decided it was a fair reflection of the sector - our readers - views. Just received this letter from a head that demonstrates that:
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Govt has shunted back publication of a potentially uncomfortable study demanded by MPs into how schools have had to cut teachers and curriculum to meet funding constraints.
Can’t think of any reasons why they’d want to keep this hidden a while longer 👀
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Woah: over 250k lessons streamed by 4pm on first day of
@OakNational
💪
140k did an English lesson, 119k learnt some maths
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Ohhh, very interesting. Public Health England is expected to publish tomorrow more data around Covid transmission in schools- including whether keeping schools open is contributing to the rising infection rates in wider society. Follows a meeting today with union officials
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OMG, Williamson is blaming all this on Ofqual - he's totally thrown them under the bus. HE WAS THE PERSON WHO INSTRUCTED OFQUAL THE SYSTEM COULD NOT ALLOW AN INFLATION IN RESULTS, WHICH IT DID (Source: from press briefing going on now)
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Happy Friday, love the DfE*
Leaves schools with budgets tens of thousands of pounds less than they were promised
DfE said per pupil funding would rise by 2.7%. It will actually rise by just 1.9%
* they’ve known about this since last month
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The Telegraph ran a story blaming 'militant lefty' council chiefs for bringing back blanket Covid restrictions in schools
But our investigation shows nearly half of the councils advising blanket measures are actually Conservative
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I fear no one at the office will understand just how amazing my cricket Xmas jumper is.
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Breaking: New Ofsted chief inspector Sir Martyn Oliver will not start inspections again this year until training introduced after Ruth Perry’s death has been fully rolled out. He’s also launching an inquiry
Here’s my story 🔽
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Quite jaw dropping it could take until the end of Feb to get the final plan for what replaces exams - and that’s only ‘if a consensus can be reached’. What does anyone in education ever agree on anything?!
It’s just not good enough. This work should have been done last year
Ministers have been accused of a 'dereliction of duty' as schools face a near two-month wait for the government’s plan to replace GCSEs and A-levels with teacher assessments
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I profusely apologise that
@SchoolsWeek
seems to be the reason no Covid contingency plans were put in place 👀🤯🙈
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Another 💥💥💥 RAAC scoop, this time from
@FCDWhittaker
👇
Exclusive: The government snubbed bids for its flagship new rebuilding scheme from nine schools that have since been confirmed to have RAAC, Schools Week analysis shows
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Edition 338 done and dusted and a first for me:
An injunction threat means we can’t tell you all the story we had planned to this week
But we can tell you how we’ve been ‘gagged’ from revealing information that we believe has huge public interest
👇
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This is all much bigger than just RAAC. Before that time bomb exploded, the NAO said in June:
- 700k pupils learning in schools needing major repairs
- 38% of school buildings beyond their design life
- there’s a £2bn A YEAR capital funding shortfall
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Oh, while we’re here, the DfE’s teacher trainer reaccreditation process is going that swimmingly they’ve rejected a university which has just been told by Ofsted it is ‘outstanding’, with ‘remarkable leaders’ that give students a ‘scholarly understanding of teaching’ 😳
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PA Consulting has a £7.6m government contract to trial reforms to fix a SEND system currently so cash-strapped parents have to fight tooth and nail just to get support
We found the day rates their consultants are charging - but can’t tell you
Story 👇
Edition 338 done and dusted and a first for me:
An injunction threat means we can’t tell you all the story we had planned to this week
But we can tell you how we’ve been ‘gagged’ from revealing information that we believe has huge public interest
👇
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Breaking:
After slashing laptop allocations by 80 per cent seven weeks ago - causing widespread fury across the sector and negative headlines across the media - the DfE has now said schools CAN actually have their full allocation.
They don't help themselves sometimes ...
The government is returning school laptop allocations to 'original levels' less than two months after slashing them by around 80%
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Right - important clarification:
Remote learning to be provided for primary pupils not in school.
However, for the first week back in January (from Mon 4) - secondary schools only have to provide remote learning for exam pupils (so they can prioritise setting up testing)
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Finally got our own place 👌 cracking start to two weeks off ... see y’all for GCSE results day 😬
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DfE has offered up some advice for schools on catch-up, including this pearler: doing extra work *isn’t actually* adding to your workload because in the future kids will have caught up again so there will be no extra work to do 🤔
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Full statement from
@NAHTnews
which has initiated legal action against
@educationgovuk
’s back-to-school plans.
@ASCL_UK
also backing the action.
Both unions holding emergency executive meetings now 😬
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This is SO important. Schools that followed advice to moderate their CAGs on previous results have now been totally screwed over by the U-turn - deflating grades while others didn't - they must have a right to appeal (from an Ofqual adviser no less!)
'Using CAGs means schools that heeded Williamson's call to ensure grade distribution followed a similar pattern to other years are now in an unfair position and coming under attack from parents and students'
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Really interesting blog from the former top civil servant at the DfE about how too many decisions are made behind closed doors
And not a ringing endorsement of his former department …
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Top trolling by the DfE here:
It very publicly tells schools they can't close early for Xmas - threatening legal action against one trust, and refusing to even allow them two inset days at the end of term.
Now, with less than 2 weeks notice, they allow schools an inset day
Schools will be allowed to designate December 18 as an inset day to enable staff involved in track and trace to have a 'proper break' from Christmas Eve, the schools minister has said
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.
@vicgoddard
lost a staff member to Covid. His comment says it all:
‘Literally every day [I think], ‘could I have done more?’ That [Williamson] was willing to throw us under the bus is just not good enough. It doesn’t get much lower. I’ll never forgive him’
An education leader says he 'will never forgive' Sir Gavin Williamson after it emerged the former education secretary opposed face masks in schools because he didn’t want to 'surrender' to unions
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Both Nick Gibb and Lord Agnew criticised our journalism after we revealed how they were telling schools to cut costs... Our investigation has just been shortlisted for a national award. 🤷
📢 Announcement 📢
@FEWeek
chief reporter
@BillyCamden
and
@SchoolsWeek
editor
@JohndickensSW
shortlisted for prestigious
@pressgazette
awards. Well deserved and many congrats!
Results on 10 December.
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Confirmed by
@educationgovuk
: ‘we will not be asking pupils to sit GCSE and A levels... will consult on how to award pupils a grade that reflects the hard work they’ve done’
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Former education secretary Lord Baker wants the government to instruct Ofqual 'not to release the GCSEs results this Thursday as their algorithm is flawed. The A-Level results have produced hundreds of thousands of unfair and barely explicable downgrades'
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Must admit, this was my first thought too on the announcement today ... the first uptick in cases in London and all of a sudden the cavalry of mobile testing units are immediately rolled out.
We've been writing for months about the huge disruption in northern regions.
Here in the north
@MattHancock
our children have been being sent home to self isolate for MONTHS. And you decide that mass testing needs to be done in schools because suddenly it's affecting the South? Are our children worth less?
@AndyBurnhamGM
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Taylor says Ofqual's first choice was to hold exams, second was to delay exams, and third choice was to offer 'teacher certificate' - and says it was SOS that took decision without consultation with Ofqual that exams were to be cancelled and grades awarded
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*apart from those who already:
- can’t go to their own school because it might fall down
- are off because they’re really ill and can’t get a CAMHS appointment
- are in limbo waiting for specialist provision because there’s not enough to cope with soaring demand
Etc etc
Last year, school strikes resulted in 25 million school days being lost cumulatively.
Children should not have to suffer a repeat of this disruption.
I’m announcing that we will introduce minimum service levels in schools so that pupils get the education they need and deserve.
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A reminder...
Dec 15: Gavin Williamson takes legal action against Greenwich council over plan to close schools
Four days ago: Williamson 'absolutely confident' schools will reopen as planned
YESTERDAY: Boris Johnson has 'no doubt' schools are safe + parents should send kids in
Breaking: Schools to move to remote learning for most pupils from tomorrow and 'not all' exams will go ahead as normal this summer, Boris Johnson has said
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Ofqual chair Roger Taylor: 'The fundamental mistake was to believe this would ever be acceptable to the public'
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Utter chaos.
Breaking: All London primary schools will now stay closed after another chaotic U-turn by education secretary Gavin Williamson on back-to-school plans he announced just 48-hours ago
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Looking forward to
@nadhimzahawi
accepting his own request for bigger pay rises for teachers
Confirmed: Zahawi chancellor. Universities minister Donelan promoted to education secretary.
Story:
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DfE to schools on Thursday: you now have a legal duty to provide immediate remote education for kids self isolating
DfE to schools on Friday: oh, btw, those laptops we said we’d give you so your disadvantaged pupils can learn at home, you can now just have a fifth of them
😳
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Really, Ofsted? These are the exact things government (Agnew) have been telling schools they must do, with those that do praised and those that don’t labelled wasteful. Heads have been shouting about the educational impact of cost-cutting for years, just nobody’s been listening
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Ofsted told Ruth Perry’s inquest it had paused inspections for distressed heads
The coroner said at the time this was a ‘mythical creature’
Now we can reveal Ofsted had no actual record of this happening, only ‘anecdotal evidence’
Scoop from our new reporter
@lucas_cumiskey
Exclusive: Ofsted is not able to back up claims it made under oath that inspectors had paused inspections where headteachers were distressed, saying it does not hold a record of such instances
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Meanwhile,
@samanthajbooth
reveals *another* DfE procurement muck-up.
We make that three major outsourcing contracts at centre of legal challenges. A fourth saw the firm axed (Randstad) and contract has been retendered.
Ministers need to focus on procurement, not pelotons 👀
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Sigh, the pay rise was all but agreed before the pandemic hit: it's not a 'reward' for teachers' efforts during covid. It's the government realising teacher pay had to be competitive with other professions to plug the teacher shortfall after 7 years of missed recruitment targets
"Perhaps the teachers should forego the increase and give it to the heroes who really did their best in such challenging circumstances" writes
@allisonpearson
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Here we go: early doors ‘Telegraph understands’ story always a strong indicator ...
TELEGRAPH:
@BorisJohnson
plans mass testing of lorry drivers to reopen ports
#TomorrowsPapersToday
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Utter carnage. What is going on?
Quite extraordinary breaking news: Ofqual REMOVES mock exam appeals policy just hours after publishing it - saying it's now being reviewed
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Here we go:
List of 'areas with primary schools subject to the contingency framework from the start of term' (which I *believe* means will be remote learning for all but vulnerable/key worker kids)
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Right, just checked in with Greenwich:
While the order was published at 7.48pm, it was issued to the council at 4.54pm.
Williamson claims he didn't know about the variant. But order was issued AFTER Hancock warned the house of a surge in cases (inc in London) with a new variant
@halfon4harlowMP
@ChrisBurn_Post
So, Hancock warned of the dangers of a new variant at 3.38pm on Dec 14th:
And Williamson issued Greenwich order at 7.48pm
BIG questions here: Williamson had to have regard to advice from medical chiefs - what about new variant?!
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Our front page for edition 342:
We lead with a stark warning from Heidi Connor, the coroner who has overseen the inquest into the death of headteacher Ruth Perry
An incredibly tough day for many in the education sector, but hopefully one that can spark positive change
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They’ve gone through the whole shitshow of cancelling tests to ... make kids take tests. Genuine question: Can anyone explain to me why this is a good solution?
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👇
In a normal world, this should have been the last nail in Williamson’s coffin as education secretary. But no one in the politics world batted an eyelid.
However when the Covid situation worsens as expected in Jan and Feb, his actions will look even more appalling.
Trying to get my head round the fact that despite today’s dire situation in London, just 2 wks ago Gavin Williamson was threatening to sue schools for closing few days early ahead of the Christmas household mixing the govt insisted was going ahead.
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Edition 172: Those cost-cutter reports the DfE tried to keep secret? We’ve seen em. Schools told to:
- replace experienced teachers with support staff
- run three classes in the dining hall to save on supply costs
- limit school lunch portions, and pocket money raised for charity
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😳
‘In two cases, the trusts which contacted us have overseen a transfer of schools and have questioned whether the DfE’s systems may have not transferred previously completed RAAC surveys to the new trust and have therefore recorded the trust’s record as being incomplete’
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Quite an important update to sneak out at 5.30pm on a Friday 😔
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Loads of people saying this wasn’t the case - but schools WERE told by Ofqual to moderate CAGs 👇
@n_hassall
@JohndickensSW
@whazell
@theipaper
It’s implicit in the heads sign off that such an exercise has been carried out.
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💥💥💥
The government has issued guidance today that the Department for Education’s own lawyers said last week would leave schools facing legal challenges they would likely lose
Despite the warnings, the relevant guidance was unchanged when signed off by Number 10
Exclusive: Schools face a 'high risk' of successful legal challenges if they follow several elements of today’s controversial trans guidance, advice written by the government’s own lawyers reveals
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Chuffed with our role in getting the DfE to admit this.
After
@GavinWilliamson
claimed he didn’t know about the new variant before Greenwich order we got the timeline and headed up
@halfon4harlowMP
who was able to put DfE on the spot about it, resulting in this admission:
The Department for Education knew about the highly infectious new Covid-19 variant before ordering Greenwich council to rescind its request for schools to close early for Christmas, its most senior civil servant has admitted
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What the actual fuck? 🤯
Exclusive: A high-profile troubleshooter sent in by ministers to save failing colleges has resigned after becoming embroiled in a Tory race row.
He tells FE Week he is 'not a racist' and the situation was 'blown out of proportion' by the 'wokerati'
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The council Williamson sued over plans to close its schools is challenging his decision to leave them off the Covid hotspot list despite:
-Other London regions on the list having lower infection and positivity rates
-Its hospital declaring a major incident earlier this week
I’m extremely concerned that
@GavinWilliamson
has made the wrong decision today for schools, teachers, families & children in
@Royal_Greenwich
tonight. The decision doesn’t make sense & I will be doing everything in my power to make sure we get the right solution for
#greenwich
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Does seem like special schools have been forgotten somewhat in all this - it’s unsafe for mainstream schools to reopen fully in some areas but fine for special schools? Is that right? Seems special school heads don’t think so 👇
This is important. We need to bring back our most vulnerable pupils and those from key worker families but 'all back' in the areas of highest risk can't be right
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BREAKING: Nick Gibb is GONE as schools minister, tweeting tonight he's "sad not to be continuing in the role"
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The Peak District is really lovely (even though it is constantly raining)
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👇 Also saying ridiculous things like he’s ‘absolutely confident’ schools will reopen as planned. Why say that?
1. He has no idea what’s going to happen
2. If he just answered ‘we truthfully don’t know, but will do our all to get schools reopened’ people would understand that
The root of all the DfE crazy is the fact that Williamson won’t just say “we don’t know how this will go, so here’s the position for now, but we are staying alive to the facts and, as difficult as it is, things will need to change, so thank you for bearing with us”.
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Quite the decent undercard yesterday, but now for the big one. Come on you Tangerines 🍊🍊🍊
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Oh, hello:
@GavinWilliamson
will appear in front of the
@CommonsEd
on Wednesday to ‘look at the process leading up to the [lockdown] decision’ 🍿
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This is a really superb piece from
@Strickomaster
on how schools policy has not caught up with the new reality of headship
‘I have the same fire in my belly for headship as when I started, but it is no longer the same job. Exhaustion, fatigue, resentment and anger are rife’ /13
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The DfE has published an overview of the science on reopening to reassure schools:
It contains a random paragraph from a 2017 publication
One part says kids testing positive should self-isolate for 7 days, another says 14
Very reassuring
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After insisting for months that the pupil premium change would not result in schools losing out, DfE has now just admitted that schools will, in fact, lose £90m...
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This is the same DfE slapped down FIVE TIMES in 18 months by the government's stats watchdog over misleading use of data. Lol
Exclusive: The Department for Education is setting up its own 'rapid rebuttal unit' to tackle so-called 'fake news' in the media
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Right, out of office on until Jan 4*
(*who am I kidding.. more like December 27 when the DfE back-to-school U-turns start kicking off)
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The
@NEUnion
is pushing the government to publish the advice from the chief medical officer that
@GavinWilliamson
considered before launching legal action to stop Greenwich schools closing early for Xmas 👏
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I love this quote so much.
It is from The Queen's (then a princess aged just 14) wartime broadcast in 1940.
All kudos goes to
@miss_mcinerney
for finding it and reccomending we use on our front page.
‘And when peace comes, remember it will be for us, the children of today, to make the world of tomorrow a better and happier place’
Her Majesty The Queen - 1926-2022
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@SwailesRuth
I imagine they’ll pick up on Freddie’s tweet that broke the story - 1 million views so far, that’s some good numbers for them 🫣
BREAKING: The DfE has admitted an error in its school funding allocations for 2024-25 that would have inflated the core schools budget by…£370 MILLION
Keegan has ordered a review, and new funding formula data has been issued. What a clusterfuck
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We've yet to get details of a £1,000 bonus for school staff to work over Christmas on their mass testing plans - but I'm sure it's on the way ... 🤨
Department for Education staff have been offered £1,000 bonuses to work over Christmas on preparations for mass testing in schools, it has emerged
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Can see it already...
Gav: back-to-school delays for those in Tier 4 'hotspot' areas
Q: What's the criteria for a 'hotspot' area?
Gav: We'll announce that 'in due course'
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DfE advertising for a camera person to ‘primarily work’ with the education secretary to capture ‘high-profile engagements across the county’
In unrelated news, has been rumours for a while the Keegan fancies a leadership bid …
📹 An
@educationgovuk
advert for a senior digital videographer on an annual salary of nearly £50k went live earlier this week
The 'social media native' will film regular content of
@GillianKeegan
for her social media channels
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I love that the DfE's guidance is essentially all the solutions schools had already drawn up and enacted themselves - keep leading the way school leaders!
Coronavirus: DfE issues free school meals guidance, tells schools to work with caterers to provide food parcels or issue supermarket vouchers to eligible families
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Good to see our journalism being used to point out misleading statistics 👇
The
@Conservatives
are relentlessly driving up standards in our schools.
As of today, 89% of schools are now rated good or outstanding, up from just 68% under Labour.
Labour would reverse this progress - they can't be trusted with our children's education.
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WEIRD DfE updates today:
1. Primaries with capacity can welcome back pupils from any age group (despite GW saying LAST WEEK he was drawing up 'priority list' of kids to get back first)
2. Secondaries can bring in pupils from any year for meetings (where's that come from?)
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I think the politician-assessed grades are even more optimistic than the school ones ...
'He is an A* individual and an A* secretary of state, not on estimated grades but on the facts before us'
@Jacob_Rees_Mogg
says
@GavinWilliamson
did an 'absolutely first class job' during the A-level exam results fiasco
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Scoop: We've got a full list of the meeting held re results day - it shows Williamson and Gibb met with Ofqual over 25 times to talk about results (somewhat challenges claims ministers had no idea about problems with the results until after they were handed out)
Exclusive: Gavin Williamson met with Ofqual to ‘talk about results’ twice in the two days prior to A-level results day, documents obtained by Schools Week show - challenging claims he knew nothing about issues until after results were handed out
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So, it turns out ministers are now issuing 'minded to direct' legal letters to force schools to stay open. Nice way for them to show their appreciation to school staff for going above and beyond this year.
Scoop from
@JamesCarr_93
A school planning online learning for the final week of term to safeguard pupils’ mental health has been forced to u-turn after the government issued an official warning over potential legal action
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I’ll just leave this here. Our front page from April 2020
BREAKING: The Queen has approved a knighthood for former education secretary Gavin Williamson, the government confirms
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The irony of this, at a bloody research conference.
Schools minister defends grammar school expansion plans, claiming they will result in 'significantly more' help for disadvantaged children
#rED18
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The public spending watchdog said DfE was ‘surprisingly unconcerned’ about whether the national free school meal voucher firm was ‘profiting at taxpayers’ expense’.
Well, we can reveal profits rose last year by 29% to £14m.
Highest-paid director remuneration up 20% to £444k 👀
Exclusive: The multinational company that ran the Covid free school meals voucher scheme faces fresh scrutiny after posting 'eye-watering' profits this year
#FreeSchoolMeals
#edenred
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He also claimed he didn't see the algorithm before it was published!!! WTF?!
He also blamed Ofqual, saying he raised a number of issues with the regulator, and were 'constantly reassured' the system was 'robust and fair'.
@educationgovuk
@GavinWilliamson
@BorisJohnson
@SchoolsWeek
editor
@JohndickensSW
asks why GW didn't you spot it beforehand?
Williamson says they worked with
@ofqual
and quizzed them on robustness and fairness and were "constantly" reassured about that.
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Edition 236 done and dusted. We lead on accusations the ed sec is ‘rewriting history’ over claims he knew nothing about the new Covid variant before the Greenwich legal action. Elsewhere, the return of the school saga we all thought had ended, plus a food parcel fiasco long read
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Back-to-school edition 330 front page sneak peek, school building special:
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Actually thought this was a joke at first but, er, it's not.
The Department for Education is considering buying up to 360,000 abacuses for use in up to 6,000 schools across England to aid catch-up efforts in the wake of the pandemic
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