Introduction This week the Dept published its eagerly awaited update on school funding reform. With a title like ‘Next steps towards a fairer system,’ it’s clear that the Dept is having to move pretty carefully towards what is now a longer-term of goal of introducing a simplified and better targeted funding system from 2013-14. This... Read on

Introduction At least a dozen of the 63 recommendations in the Final Report published this week by the independent Panel that has been looking into last August’s riots, are of direct interest to schools. Schools are not the only parties addressed in the Report; parents, communities, employers, Government, advertising bodies, the police, let alone the... Read on

Introduction The recent Interim Report from the Review Panel examining the role, status and professional development of lecturers in the FE sector has done a lot in its words “to clear the ground” in an area that has been knotty so far to say the least. It has come up with a number of pretty... Read on

How do things stand now? Essentially that proposals to move to a full post-results admissions (PQA) system, which had provoked strong opinions, will not now be introduced but a number of other refinements to the HE admissions system will be introduced, in many cases from the 2014 year of entry   Context A review of... Read on

Introduction George Osborne’s third Budget speech lasted just over an hour this week but much of it was fairly predictable. There were three reasons for this. First, overall fiscal policy had been clearly set out in the Emergency Budget and Spending Review of 2010 and as ever, the Chancellor continues to make a virtue out... Read on

Introduction Sir Michael Wilshaw’s ‘literacy’ speech last week follows hard on the heels of the National Numeracy Report on maths a couple of weeks ago and is further evidence of the importance being attached to these two subjects at present. Sir Michael’s speech drew attention to three major concerns. First that too many pupils fall... Read on

Introduction The knowledge economy is having a dramatic impact on the nature of learning and the role of teachers according to a new Report from the OECD. It’s having a big impact on learners who are becoming socially networked but individually intuitive: ‘a generation ago, teachers could expect that what they taught would last for... Read on

Introduction Just what sort of FE and skills system do we need? It’s a question that politicians, providers and producers have been grappling with for some time leaving the system in an almost constant state of flux as a result. Last week a new contribution was added to the debate in the form of a... Read on

Introduction How best to manage numbers, both of students and funding, appears to be one of the main themes in HE at present given this latest summary of some recent developments Student finance arrangements for 2013/14 One of the big complaints in the sector has been the lack of clarity about future fee and funding... Read on

Introduction A week to go to the Budget and as ever the Chancellor has not been short of advice. Key areas of interest for those in the world of education and skills are likely to be any measures that stimulate growth and any that help ease unemployment particularly that of young people   Context The... Read on