News
Want top tips to perfect your interview technique or the latest education news from Kent and Medway? Our blog has expert advice to help you land your perfect job and everything you need to keep you up to date.
Send is the ‘bggest issue’ for schools – Ofsted
Send is the ‘biggest issue’ for schools – Ofsted
Special educational needs and disabilities (Send) is the “biggest issue” affecting schools in England, Ofsted’s chief inspector has said.
Sir Martyn Oliver told the education committee that the Send system’s high costs and poor outcomes represented a “lose-lose situation”.
Government figures for the 2023/24 academic year showed more than 1.6 million children had Send, an increase of 101,000 from 2023.
Send is the ‘biggest issue’ for schools – Ofsted
Special educational needs and disabilities (Send) is the “biggest issue” affecting schools in England, Ofsted’s chief inspector has said.
Sir Martyn Oliver told the education committee that the Send system’s high costs and poor outcomes represented a “lose-lose situation”.
Government figures for the 2023/24 academic year showed more than 1.6 million children had Send, an increase of 101,000 from 2023.
Pupil behaviour ‘getting worse’ at schools in England, say teachers
Nearly one in five teachers in England has been hit by a pupil this year, a survey commissioned by the BBC says.
One teacher told BBC News behaviour was a “never-ending battle”. Another said spitting, swearing and chair-throwing were among the things happening often.
A plan for better special needs assessment
John Wright highlights three improvements that parents and professionals should fight for with regard to the process for obtaining EHCPs for children
Majority of parents not deterred by fines for term-time family holidays survey
The Government should review the marketing and pricing of rip-off family holidays, according to Parentkind charity.
Starmer wants 75% of children ‘school-ready’ by 2028
Target of three in four reception pupils at a ‘good’ level of development is one of six key ‘milestones’
Kent school where pupils feel ‘safe and happy’ named The Sunday Times ‘best in the South East’
A Kent school has been named the best secondary school in the South East by The Sunday Times Parent Power Guide 2025.
The highest-achieving primary and secondary schools across the UK have been ranked by the paper, which said its survey is “widely acknowledged as the most authoritative”.
Ofsted “alarmed” by absences and “flexi-schooling.”
The ‘alarming’ level of children missing school has become a ‘stubborn and damaging issue’, according to the chief inspector of Ofsted, England’s schools regulator.
Sir Martyn Oliver said he was also worried about a rise in “flexi-schooling”, where parents educate their children at home for part of the week.
It is not clear how many children are taught in this manner.
The Department for Education (DfE) said the government was putting education “back at the forefront of national life”.
Ofsted’s annual report said attendance issues had “deepened” since the pandemic.
Land handover paves way for Rosherville Primary Academy in Northfleet to expand and move to Cable Wharf in Ebbsfleet Garden City
A large parcel of land has exchanged hands to allow a ‘much-loved’ primary school to expand and add hundreds of new places.
Rosherville Church of England Academy recently won approval for its bid to move to a new site at the Cable Wharf Development in Northfleet.
New building for Coxheath Primary School to support expansion to three-form entry
A village primary school is to be expanded to cater for the growing number of children in the area.
Coxheath, near Maidstone, has seen its number of pre-school aged youngsters increase significantly from 510 in 2020, to 730 last year.
Kent County Council (KCC) says without an expansion of the two-form entry Coxheath Primary School, they will not find a school place nearby.