Highlights of the week ending 20 May
Nadhim Zahawi was urged by Shadow Schools Minister, Stephen Morgan, to correct the Parliamentary record after the Secretary of State claimed high-performing trusts “deliver the best outcomes”. The Office for Statistics Regulation had criticised DfE for using data that was potentially misleading.
The Education Select Committee was busy publishing its report into prison education, in which it called for it to become an operational priority. It also took oral evidence in its continuing investigation into post 16 qualifications, hearing from employers and representative bodies about the preparedness of young people entering the workplace, and the detrimental impact of a “heavily academic curriculum”.
In another busy week for reports, the Education Endowment Foundation released findings on the impact of the pandemic on the learning of Reception pupils. The perceptions that socio-emotional wellbeing, language, and numeracy skills had been negatively impacted were bourn out by performance data. EDSK set out how government and policy makers should tackle the issue of NEETs, with three shifts in policy thinking.