News Updates
Take a look at what's been happening in the world of education and health and safety since our last issue...
DfE Issues New Behaviour in Schools Guidance
A new DfE publication provides advice to schools on behaviour in schools and the related legal duties of headteachers, and members of staff. It includes guidance on support for pupils to behave well and the powers of staff when responding to misbehaviour.
The Guidance document - "Behaviour in schools Advice for headteachers and school staff" was published earlier this month
The guidance is for:
- School leaders;
- School staff;
- Governing bodies;
- Trust boards and proprietors in all maintained schools, academies and free schools and independent schools in England, and
- Local authorities.
It covers areas such as:
- Creating and maintaining high standards of behaviour;
- Responding to behaviour;
- Preventing recurrence of misbehaviour; and
- Guidance on specific behaviour issues.
The guidance points out that when pupils do misbehave, schools should be able to respond promptly, predictably and with confidence to maintain a calm, safe learning environment, and then consider how such behaviour can be prevented from recurring. To support these aims, this guidance outlines different responses to behaviour that schools can use, including sanctions and pastoral approaches.
It is available HERE
Air Ambulance Called as One Dead and Three Injured in Incident at Devon Concrete Firm
Devon and Cornwall Police were called to West Country Concrete Products in the village of Shebbear, Beaworthy, at around 3.25pm on 23 August, 2023.
Three people were reported to have sustained injuries. One was airlifted to hospital with what were described as serious injuries. One person was pronounced dead at the scene.
A spokesperson for the Devon Air Ambulance service said; "Both of our air ambulances attended from our Exeter airbase and North Devon Eaglescott airbase. One patient was conveyed to Derriford Hospital in Plymouth. However, the second patient sadly passed away at the scene."
The police said that the matter has been referred to the health and safety inspectorate. "HSE is aware of the incident and is assisting Devon and Cornwall Police with their inquiries," a spokesperson said. "Our thoughts are with those affected by this incident and their families during this sad time."
An HSE spokesperson has confirmed that it was assisting the police and expressed sympathy for those affected by the incident.
West Country Concrete Products declined to comment.
“Britain's Strictest Headteacher” Slams Ofsted After Inspection
An Ofsted report published last week about Abbey School, a secondary in Faversham, Kent, where headmaster Barry Smith helped establish a discipline regime last year, stated: "In lessons, most pupils comply with leaders’ strict expectations of behaviour. However, the way leaders implement these expectations does not contribute positively to the culture of the school. For the majority of pupils, these approaches are applied in a manner that is overly restrictive. Many pupils find this oppressive."
In response, Mr Smith, an education consultant and former school leader, said too many secondary school pupils were "openly contemptuous and abusive" towards staff, commenting that some teachers suffered from something akin to "battered-wife syndrome" and they almost feel they deserve the daily abuse from some pupils.
Mr Smith’s approach is based on the acronym SLANT, which demands that pupils Sit up, Listen, Ask and answer questions, Never interrupt and Track the teacher – or look at them when they talk.
Mr Smith, in an interview with The Mail on Sunday, said; "The loss of adult authority has a terrible impact on schools. Casual contempt is very commonplace in some schools. Too often, head teachers accept it and Ofsted accepts it and rates schools “good”. Pupils and adults in schools deserve far better."
He expects pupils to call teachers ‘Sir’ or ‘Miss’, speak in sentences, be polite and “treat adults with the same level of courtesy that teachers deliberately demonstrate to pupils. These are basic social skills. If you go to private school, you often meet teenagers brimming with confidence. Pupils in state schools need to… compete. Having your head down, avoiding eye contact and monosyllabic responses are not going to cut it in the job or university interview.”
Abbey School gained its best GCSE results this summer. At A-level, the proportion of A* to C grades is up from 41 per cent in 2019 to 67 per cent.
Media Company Launches Menopause App to Staff
Immediate Media Co, a special interest and content platform company, has reportedly become the first media business to make the Balance+ menopause app available to its staff.
The app provides access to specialist medically approved content and live sessions to help optimise their mental health, nutrition, sleep, physical health, sexual health and skin and hair.
Recent research from Balance+ shows that, since downloading the app, 74% of users agree that they feel more comfortable talking about menopause at work, 87% have been able to self-diagnose their perimenopause or menopause and 72% have managed to gain access to treatment after using the app.
Jo Brandl, Chief People Officer at Immediate says: “We’re delighted to partner with Balance+ as part of our strategy to build awareness and support to help women at Immediate who are experiencing challenges around the menopause and peri menopause to continue to live and work healthily. Going through the menopause or perimenopause comes with a variety of symptoms, some well-known and some less so. We want to raise awareness of what going through menopause involves and support those experiencing it.”
Gaele Lalahy, COO of Balance+, said: “We are delighted to be partnering with Immediate, home of some the UK’s best loved media brands. Immediate recognise what it means to be a menopause confident employer and have committed to break long-standing taboos around menopause and protect their valued female talent.”
Cargo Handling Company Fined After Worker Crushed
Mr Mieczyslaw Tadeusz Siwak, a 34-year-old father-of-one, was fatally crushed between shipping containers whilst working in a container park in Portsmouth.
Mr Siwak was working for Portico Shipping Limited on the night shift in the container park on 25 August 2017. His job was to connect refrigerated container units to electrical supplies, which his colleague had lifted into position for him using a container stacker vehicle. Mr Siwak was fatally crushed between two containers while the containers were in motion.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that the company routinely failed to provide adequate supervision of operatives and drivers working on the night shift to ensure safe systems of work were followed. This included failure to use safe walkways to segregate pedestrians from vehicles and the safe operation of container stackers by driving with shipping containers in the raised position to allow visibility.
Portico Shipping pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974. At Portsmouth Magistrates’ Court the company was fined £200,000 and ordered to pay costs of £15,631.61.
HSE Inspector Rebecca Lumb said: “Safe systems of work should be in place on sites with moving vehicles to prevent pedestrians coming into contact with traffic or moving machinery. When moving containers by container stacker, the load should be transported as low as possible whilst maintaining full line of sight. Supervisors must be given the necessary instruction and training to implement the safe systems of work and manage hazards during operation processes. This tragic incident was entirely preventable had the correct safety management procedures and supervision been in place at the site.”
High Court Ruling Finds Contractor Liable for £8 Million Cost of Removing Unsafe Cladding
In a ruling on Thursday 14 July, 2022, the High Court in London has ruled that Mulalley & Co, an Essex-based contractor, must pay damages towards the cost of removing cladding fitted to four residential tower blocks in Gosport on the south coast of England. This was ruled to be unsafe after the Grenfell tower fire.
The contractor had reportedly used unsuitable materials and there were serious defects in the installation of fire barriers, which created a risk that they would not operate as intended to prevent the spread of fire.
Martlet Homes took action to remove the entire external wall insulation (EWI) cladding system and replaced it with a non-combustible system using stone wool insulation panels instead of expanded polystyrene.
Martlet, the housing association was awarded approximately £8m in damages by the court, seeking to cover the costs of investigation, removal and replacement of the EWI cladding system, along with a waking watch fire safety precaution until the EWI was removed.
The 2017 Grenfell fire, in which 72 people died, triggered a widespread building safety crisis. The inquiry into the blaze has exposed abuse of power and corruption in the construction and regulation of tower blocks in England. The total cost of fixing unsafe buildings across England is expected to exceed £10bn and at present is being largely met by taxpayers and developers via a levy.
Baroness Bull CBE Appointed Chair of the Expert Advisory Panel for the Cultural Education Plan
Baroness Bull has been appointed Chair of the Expert Advisory Panel for the Cultural Education Plan. She has served on the boards of the South Bank Centre and Arts Council England, was a governor of the BBC, a judge for the 2010 Booker Prize and a member of the governing body of the Arts and Humanities Research Council. This is a voluntary position and there will be no remuneration for the role.
The Cultural Education Plan sets out to ensure all children and young people have access to a diverse range of cultural education and activities.
The plan was announced in the Schools White Paper, Opportunity for All, in March 2022 and will be published next year. The full panel membership will be announced later this year, and will include school and cultural sector leaders, and other experts in cultural education. The plan aims to articulate and highlight the importance of high-quality cultural education in schools, promote the social value of cultural and creative education, outline and support career progression pathways, address skills gaps and tackle disparities in opportunity and outcome.
The Government will work closely with Arts Council England, the British Film Institute, Historic England and National Lottery Heritage Fund on the project.
Baroness Bull has had extensive expertise in the arts, both as a performer in the Royal Ballet, within creative leadership at the Royal Opera House and in governance roles on the boards of the South Bank Centre and Arts Council England. Over the last decade she has also worked in higher education, developing partnerships between the university sector and arts and cultural organisations. She co-chairs the APPG on Creative Diversity.
The Cultural Education Plan Expert Panel members will be appointed in Autumn 2022.
Chair of the Expert Advisory Panel Baroness Bull said: “Every child should have the opportunity to explore their individual and creative potential through high-quality cultural education. I’m delighted to be appointed to the role and look forward to working with the panel to develop a rich and diverse Cultural Education Plan that will deliver for children right across the country.”
Conservative MP Robert Halfon Calls for "Huge, Large-scale Intervention" About Schools Energy Bills
Conservative MP Robert Halfon called for an immediate intervention once the new PM is in office, stressing schools “must stay open” this winter despite soaring energy bills.
Mr Halfon says “There will have to be an intervention in terms of our public services, schools, the NHS, policing, essential public services. All that means is that these public central bodies will be spending money on their energy bills rather than spending money on frontline services. I want schools to be able to spend money on teaching, support staff and getting young people on the ladder of opportunity. It’s absolutely essential, and this is why it is going to be a huge large-scale intervention that is needed but it’s got to be sustainable so that it doesn’t increase our national debt by too much. Otherwise, it will cause other problems down the road.”
Ofgem have recently announced an increase in the price cap, taking the average energy bill to over £3,549 a year. They have also warned that the price “could get significantly worse through 2023.”
The chief executive of Ofgem, Jonathan Brearley said: “We know the massive impact this price cap increase will have on households across Britain and the difficult decisions consumers will now have to make.”
Tony Blair Institute Report says GCSEs and A-levels Should be Scrapped
GCSEs and A-levels should be scrapped and replaced by a new system of assessment better suited to preparing school-leavers for the workplace, according to a report by the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI). It has called for radical change in the UK education system if students are to thrive in a world increasingly shaped by automation and artificial intelligence.
In a report called Ending the Big Squeeze on Skills: How to Futureproof Education in England - the TBI recommends replacing the current system with a new qualification, based on continuous assessment between the ages of 16 and 18. This new qualification could "draw on and refine the principles that underpin the International Baccalaureate", with a series of low-stakes assessments for pupils at the end of secondary schooling. The report also states the current system relies too heavily on passive forms of learning, focused on direct instruction and memorising.
However, a report released at the same time by the Institute for Government (IfG) warned that while the qualifications were "certainly imperfect", proposals to overhaul the system "typically exaggerate the benefits while failing to acknowledge the costs".
The general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), Geoff Barton said the report adds to growing calls for "fresh thinking" on qualifications, the curriculum and inspection "to remove the clutter of over-burdened timetables, reduce the ridiculously high-stakes nature of the current system, and, most importantly, make sure that it works better for all children and young people".
The IfG's Sam Freedman countered with "drastic reform of the exam system is the last thing we need” and suggested "a new model of incremental improvement in assessment" - such as moving assessments online or using Artificial Intelligence (AI) for marking.
A spokesman at the Department for Education said: "Every young person deserves the opportunity to benefit from a rich and fulfilling curriculum which equips them with the skills to succeed - whatever their chosen path. GCSEs and A-levels are highly-respected around the world and we have also introduced T-levels as the new gold standard technical qualification for young people post-16."
Private Schools See Bigger Fall in Top A-level Grades Than State Sector
The proportion of A and A* grades for private school pupils fell by 12.4 percentage points, while the drop at comprehensive schools was 8.7% in the 2022 exam results.
The proportion of top grades achieved at independent schools dropped to 28.7%, compared with 39.7% last year when private schools achieved three times the proportion recorded for state schools after grades were determined by teachers rather than exams. Top grades also dropped at academies and secondary selective schools, but less dramatically.
A* grades awarded at academies dropped from 17.2% in 2021 to 13.8% this year, while top grades at selective state schools fell from 25.8% to 22.6%.
Despite this, top grades were still higher than in 2019 - the last time students sat exams. Chair of the Independent Schools Council (ISC), Barnaby Lenon said “Independent schools have such a high proportion clustered in that A/A* bracket and it’s quite right that there should be a correction this year. I’ve spoken to a limited number of schools this morning and they have all been incredibly pleased. In some cases, their results have actually improved”.
Last year, the number of A* grades awarded to students at private schools rose by three times more than their state school counterparts. Independent schools saw a 12 percentage-point increase on A* grades last year, but state comprehensives and middle schools saw a much smaller increase of 3.9 percentage points. This left the gap between independent and state comprehensives at 24.2 percentage points in 2021.
Concerns had previously been raised earlier in the year that there would be a wider attainment gap in the results for 2021.
Exams were cancelled in 2021 for the second consecutive year, but this year, exams returned with scaffolding put in place to help students who had their learning disrupted by the pandemic. These included advance information on topics and exam aids such as formulae and equation sheets.
Ofqual had previously warned that top grades would be lower this year than last year, but would be higher than in 2019.
New Study Shows Education is the Second-best Industry to Work in For a Good Pension
A new study reveals the industries that offer the best pension contributions by your employer, with the civil service, taking the top spot. The study conducted by investing comparison site Investing Reviews analysed data from the Office for National Statistics to establish which industry has the highest percentage of its workforce receiving employer pension contributions of 20% or more.
Working in public administration and defence (including compulsory social security), offers the best employer contributions to your pension, while wholesale and retail trade is the worst sector to work in for employer contributions to your pension
The research revealed that employers in public administration and defence (including compulsory social security) are the most generous when it comes to pension contributions with 67.9% of employers contributing 20% or more to their employees’ pension pot.
Employers in the electricity, gas, steam, and air conditioning supply sector that contribute 20% or more to their employees’ pension pot comes to 19.4% – the third highest percentage of any sector.
A spokesperson from Investing Reviews said; “With the cost-of-living crisis playing on the minds of many, working in a sector that offers good pension contributions can bring ease of mind when thinking about future finances. This study serves as an insightful guide as to the sectors where employer contributions are higher than others.”
Investing Reviews, is an independent comparison review site, created to help people make informed decisions about investing.