40 episodes

Your invite into education’s busiest newsroom. Join Tes reporters and news editors as we discuss the big school stories of the week and what they mean for teachers. We give you the inside track on our latest exclusives and prepare you for what’s ahead. Relevant, irreverent and occasionally slightly shambolic. Essential listening for anyone interested in schools.

Tes News Tes

    • Education
    • 3.8 • 79 Ratings

Your invite into education’s busiest newsroom. Join Tes reporters and news editors as we discuss the big school stories of the week and what they mean for teachers. We give you the inside track on our latest exclusives and prepare you for what’s ahead. Relevant, irreverent and occasionally slightly shambolic. Essential listening for anyone interested in schools.

    The school attendance problem

    The school attendance problem

    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. 

    • 14 min
    Ofsted under the microscope

    Ofsted under the microscope

    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

    • 10 min
    The DfE workforce strategy reboot edition

    The DfE workforce strategy reboot edition

    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

    • 10 min
    Not (just) concrete

    Not (just) concrete

    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

    • 16 min
    Unions call on members to reject 'insulting' pay offer

    Unions call on members to reject 'insulting' pay offer

    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.

    • 9 min
    Invigilator shortages and the future of digital assessment

    Invigilator shortages and the future of digital assessment

    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

    • 14 min

Customer Reviews

3.8 out of 5
79 Ratings

79 Ratings

jrkrkrkba ,

Good content

The sound quality makes this unlistenable at times. It would be wonderful if you could sort this out. There were dogs barking over a recent episode and one person has a device with notifications pinging regularly!

Mr Teeeeed ,

Could definitely do better

With constant break-ups, pings, cut-outs, volume changes, talking over one another etc this has the production values of a Year 9 RE cover lesson. I know we’re in difficult times, but from a tech point of view, this is the worst remote conversation podcast I’ve heard.
Also as a first time listener - who are these people? Journalists? Teachers? Parents? Surely a basic introduction, beyond names, isn’t too much to ask for.
A shame since the chat was fairly interesting.

Chris Timothy ,

Hmmm

Some interesting topics but the views are too often conservative and traditional. Typical in British education unfortunately.

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