Blowing Hot and Cold: The New Ofsted Framework and the Challenge of Leading on Behaviour
Analysis of inspection reports since 2023 indicates Ofsted’s growing ambivalence toward behaviour. While attendance dominates the joint judgement area, low behavior coverage masks serious risks for schools issued specific "next steps."
Read now >>
Global connectivity: Introducing Mandarin Chinese in your school
In England, schools are engaging with the Department for Education’s Consultation on Progress 8 and Attainment 8, as well as dealing with significant financial constraints. What do our children need? This blog post makes a case for Mandarin Chinese (Mandarin), giving a run through of the support available and catching up with a teacher from a language college, who taught Mandarin there for 23 years.
Read now >>
Spotlight on FEA Innovation: building whole-school cultures of body respect
The Body Happy Schools programme shows how a whole-school focus on body respect positively impacts on inclusion, pupil wellbeing, and school culture.
Read now >>
Developing and supporting PLACE
The Tees Valley Education Trust explain how they have been putting place-based collaboration into action, connecting schools, families, and communities to address disadvantage.
Read now >>
Attendance and the new Ofsted Framework: Some emergent insights
The new Ofsted framework promised to focus on inclusion. Achieving, belonging and thriving sit at the heart of the new inspection processes. As the most critical facet of inclusion, attendance should be reflected in the reality of school’s experiences of inspection, not just the rhetoric.
Read now >>
Essential For Some, Beneficial For All
Research shows it is essential for students with Speech Language and Communication Needs (SLCN) to be explicitly taught tier 2 and tier 3 vocabulary, yet this is a strategy that all students benefit from: if we want our students to confidently speak like scientists, linguists, mathematicians, artists, musicians, historians, we must provide them with the vocabulary to do so.
Read now >>
Bishopshalt School and St Louis Grammar School – ‘Transforming’ in all 12 strands of SSAT’s Framework for Exceptional Education
Congratulations to the teams at Bishopshalt School in London and St Louis Grammar School in Ballymena, who have become the latest two Leading Edge schools to successfully achieve ‘transforming’ status in all 12 strands of the SSAT Framework for Exceptional Education. St Louis are the first school in Northern Ireland to achieve accreditation in all 12 strands.
Read now >>
The Volatility of the New Ofsted Framework for Primary Schools
This blog is the third instalment where we are looking at data from our tracking of Ofsted inspection reports, to show how the new framework is playing out for schools. Here we focus on primary schools and outline how the new framework and inspection processes appear to more challenging for this sector.
Read now >>
SSAT statement on the white paper – Every child achieving and thriving
SSAT broadly welcome the ambitions set out in the white paper - Every child achieving and thriving.
Read now >>
