Tes News Tes

Join the Tes news team as we discuss the scale of the school attendance crisis and whether government efforts to tackle it will have an impact. 

Join the Tes News team as they discuss exclusive stories revealing a spike in Ofsted complaints and a widening gulf between the watchdog and school leaders

Join the Tes News team as they dive into the details behind our exclusive story on how the Department for Education is poised to launch a refresh of its recruitment and retention strategy amid a deepening teacher shortage crisis

Join the Tes News team as they discuss the story that has dominated headlines this week – and why leaders fear wider asbestos and unsafe cladding problems dogging school buildings around the country will now be neglected as funding is diverted to RAAC issues
Unions demand Keegan answers urgent RAAC questions DfE gives schools four-day deadline to return RAAC surveyThe 147 schools named by DfE as having RAACThe 9 RAAC schools denied rebuilding cash last yearDfE ‘wrongly accusing’ schools of failing to return RAAC survey

Hello and welcome back to the tes news podcast.
Each episode of this podcast explores the biggest education story of the week, how that story developed, and what it means for schools, through the eyes of our expert journalists. 
All of the stories discussed can be found on our website tes.com/magazine.
Stories such as David Wright’s analysis piece on why schools must act on new filtering and monitoring standards from the government. A few months ago on this podcast, Senior editor Dan Worth and I discussed the tragic story of Frankie Thomas - who sadly took her own life after witnessing suicidal material on a school ipad. David Wright looks at this story in the context of new DfE filtering and monitoring standards - and explores why following them is so important. 
Our news team have had a lot to cover this week. Some highlights include: tes reporter John Roberts’ breakdown of the 7 ways the DfE wants to strengthen MATs or reporter Matilda Martin’s article exploring why just 3 percent of headteachers and senior leaders believe year 6 sats results are the best measure of high standards in primary schools. 
But our big story this week is teacher pay - which has of course been a big story for a while now. But has developed a lot over the course of this week. On Monday we learnt that the DfE had made an offer to education unions after intensive talks which began on the 17th March.
The offer made to all 4 teaching unions, the NEU, Nasuwt, naht and ASCL, included a one off payment of £1000 for 2022-23 and a 4.5 per cent average pay increase for next year. But unions were quick to disregard the offer - with the NEU calling on its members to reject the insulting pay offer, and NASUWT and the NAHT joined in that call for their members to reject the offer, with NAHT calling the offer inadequate.
Reporters Matilda Martin and Callum mason sat down earlier today to discuss what this could mean - including Gillian Keegan's plea to school leaders and the possibility of future strike days.

Welcome back to the tes news podcast. This week Senior content writer Grainne Hallahan is joined by reporter Matilda Martine as they discuss the future of digital assessment and why there is a shortage of invigilators.
This week's headline stories are available below:
NEU attacks ‘new and unusual’ DfE stance on pay talks
The NEU teaching union went ahead with a two day teacher strike this week and said that 300,000 members were taking part. It also strongly criticised the DfE for meeting with the other main education unions this week but refusing to meet the NEU unless it called off the strike.
https://www.tes.com/magazine/news/general/teacher-strikes-pay-neu-distraction-politics
https://www.tes.com/magazine/news/general/teacher-pay-strike-neu-attacks-dfe-stance-talks-gillian%20keegan
 
Workload is unmanageable, say most school staff
More than two-thirds of school staff (68 per cent) think their workload is unmanageable, according to an annual survey conducted by Tes.
The findings were revealed this week in the Tes Schools Wellbeing Report survey of 5,858 UK-based school staff.
https://www.tes.com/magazine/news/general/teacher-workload-unmanageable-say-most-school-staff
Oak National Academy: Ofsted to advise subject groups
Ofsted subject lead inspectors will work as advisers on Oak National Academy’s expert groups, it has been announced today. But Oak has said the Ofsted advisers will not have a formal role in defining or recommending its curriculum.
https://www.tes.com/magazine/news/general/oak-national-academy-ofsted-advise-subject-groups
DfE seeks ‘outstanding’ leader to be next Ofsted chief
On the subject of Ofsted, the government has formally launched the search for the next chief inspector to replace Amanda Spielman. A job advert for the next HMCI has been published revealing a drop in salary from the £189k paid to Ms Spielman to £165,000 for her successor
https://www.tes.com/magazine/news/general/dfe-replace-amanda-spielman-ofsted-chief
Budget 2023: All primaries to provide ‘wraparound’ care
The chancellor Jeremy Hunt set out an “ambition” that the parents of all primary-age children will be provided with “wraparound” childcare in school by September 2026.
The Treasury told Tes that funding to local authorities and schools would taper off by 2026  when it expects most schools will be able to deliver the provision self-sufficiently, funded by charging parents.
https://www.tes.com/magazine/news/general/budget-2023-all-primaries-provide-wraparound-care