Application

The government has announced planned increases in the Pupil Premium grant for 2024 and 25. These increases are way below inflation. The figures are in the table below.

Further details can be found on the DfE website here. Governors who wish to know about the pupil premium, how schools support disadvantaged pupils and their role within this may wish to attend our next governor briefing, see below.

A recent government study has found that schools effectively closing attainment gaps among students from diverse ethnic backgrounds achieved this through curriculum diversification and a celebration of cultural diversity. Commissioned in response to the Sewell report on race and ethnic disparities, this study focused on successful strategies employed by nine MATs and one local authority school. including prominent organisations like United Learning, The Harris Federation, and Academies Enterprise Trust, were interviewed by researchers from Isos Partnership. Leaders consistently emphasised the need to focus interventions on individual educational needs, such as literacy and reading.

In the past three years, all trusts had examined and adjusted their curriculum to guarantee greater representation. The trusts cultivated a "feeling of belonging among students" by implementing practices that intentionally considered characteristics such as ethnicity, religion, nationality, and broader experiences associated with socio-economic status. A chief executive from one trust contended that there was no compromise between maintaining a curriculum rich in knowledge, rigour, and challenge, and ensuring that it provided opportunities for every individual to identify themselves and others reflected in the curriculum.

You can read the preliminary research report here.

The relationship between head and chair is of paramount importance and often there is insufficient time for heads and chairs to work together to plan for strong governance. As a result, we are running a repeat of our one-day, face-to-face course to provide quality facilitated time for the head and chair to reflect on their relationship and plan together to make the board more effective. There will be time to reflect on the professional relationship between head and chair, clarify your roles and what is strategic and operational in your context. There will also be an opportunity to review your board's effectiveness and consider your roles in supporting its wider work so that you can leave the day having made a plan, together, for improving board effectiveness.

Feedback from the course previously included:

'The impact of this course was better than expected, it was good to have a safe space to work 1 to 1 with the headteacher'

'Excellent ideas and strategies to further improve our work '

'...lots of practical ideas to take back and implement...useful and valuable!'

Attendance continues to be a key issue for many of our schools. The DfE have recently announced an expansion of their school attendance hubs scheme. A national marketing campaign has also begun with the strapline 'moments matter, attendance counts'.

National data shows that 22.3 per cent of pupils missed more than one in 10 sessions in the 2022-23 academic year. Compared to the 22.5 per cent rate in 2021-22. This is little movement despite a huge focus from school leaders, including governors. Almost two in five disadvantaged pupils were persistently absent. Before the pandemic, the persistent absence rate sat at between 10 to 13 per cent.

Very recent polling for the Centre for Social Justice by YouGov has found that nearly three in ten parents (28 per cent) surveyed agree that the pandemic has shown it is not essential for children to attend school every day. This 'breakdown in the social contract' was referenced in Ofsted's annual report last year. You can read The Missing Link: Restoring the Bond Between Schools and Families report here.



The non-statutory gender questioning children guidance for schools was published recently to much media attention. This is draft guidance and part of a consultation process which runs until the 12th of March. Although governors may wish to familiarise themselves with the guidance, we are advising schools not to amend their policies as a result of the document at this stage. Of course, governors could respond the consultation, follow this link to do so.

In December, the headteachers' association, the NAHT, published the results of their annual all-member in England survey. It demonstrates the negative impact of workload, inspection and accountability on personal wellbeing.

Almost half (49%) of school leaders in England said they identified that they required professional mental health or well-being support, with over a third (38%) accessing some. Leaders said Ofsted pressures were the factor that had the greatest impact on their mental health over the last year.

Governing boards have the ultimate responsibility for looking after the wellbeing of school leaders. We know through the many headteacher appraisals we support that most boards do an amazing job of supporting their headteachers. Please do get in touch with your named adviser from our team if you require any support. Just a reminder that all of our named advisers have been headteachers and approach the job with some understanding. Many headteachers use their Diocesan adviser for pastoral support, so do let us know if we can be of support.

The report also recognises that the current context acts as a powerful deterrent to those aspiring to headship. 57% of school leaders would not recommend leadership as a career choice and 61% said their work satisfaction had declined over the last twelve months. Approaching two-thirds (61%) of assistant and deputy heads said they do not aspire to headship, an increase of more than half since 2016 (40%).

We are aware of the recruitment crisis because we are involved in so many recruitment processes.

• Please do let your named adviser know if your headteacher has indicated that they will be leaving.
• You may also want to encourage your deputy or assistant headteachers to attend our Deputy Headteacher Pathway next year to help prepare them for future leadership roles.
• If you have a deputy in school who has expressed an interest in becoming a church school headteacher then you may want to support them by suggesting that they attend our Applying for Headship in a Church School course.

The NAHT Crisis Point report can be read here.

• Education legal firm Browne Jacobson has launched EdCon 24. A week of free-to-access online training for leaders, administrators and governors covering a wide range of relevant content, including SEND, parental complaints and HR matters. You can find further details here.
• For the first time, six of the UK’s leading mental health charities are uniting to support young people’s mental health and to help parents and teachers care for the young people in their lives. Roman Kemp hosting a broadcast streamed to secondary schools and social platforms on 25 January 2024. Find out more here.
• In December, the House of Lord's Education for 11–16 Year Olds Committee published its report 'Requires improvement: urgent change for 11–16 education'. The report is quite damning of the current system and calls for reform of the high-stakes exam system, a reduction in curriculum content to allow for greater focus on creative and technical subjects, as well as the abolition of the EBacc.