The DfE has now released details on the latest wave of special (SEN) and alternative provision (AP) free school applications. It has announced that they are committed to delivering around 30 new SEN and AP schools across England. Essentially, the process will be similar to the local authority (LA) commissioned special school round which was launched last year, following a …
The DfE have announced today that a £2.4 million funding pot will be available for schools to pilot knowledge-rich programmes in Science, History and Geography at Key Stage 2 or Key Stage 3. This funding is a part of the £7.7 million Curriculum Fund which was announced in January this year, and has been introduced to deliver the more “challenging …
A number of education unions have jointly sent a letter to Damian Hinds asking him to ‘decide urgently’ on his response to the School Teachers’ Review Body report on teachers’ pay for September 2018. With the ‘end of term imminent’ they are asking for the publication of both his response and the report as soon as possible. The organisations had …
There were signs and there were rumours… There was the 2017 hybrid LA-DfE competition for special schools, which culminated in 14 of 19 Local Authorities appointing providers for their new schools (a partial success in the face of a flawed process). There were rumblings that independent schools would no longer be able to convert into the state sector via the …
The timing is a little ironic; a story praising an approach taken by the DfE and everyone’s on half term! Nevertheless, praise where and when it is due. There was an audible groan of frustration heard at PAG towers when the Multi Academy Trust Development & Improvement Fund (MDIF) approval letter hit the mats of our client MATs. It appeared …
40 years ago, the report from the Committee of Enquiry into the Education of Handicapped Children and Young People, chaired by Mary Warnock, radically changed the educational picture for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). The report introduced the term ‘special educational need’, to identify any child who needed extra or different support, and posited that, at the …
While headlines around grammars and the faith cap took all the headlines, comments from Damian Hinds in his speech to the National Association of Head Teachers on 4th May are continuing to echo around the sector. Hinds appeared to continue the government’s row back from full and forced academisation which started with Nicky Morgan’s now infamous ‘Z-Turn’, the effects of …
We are proud to announce that Premier Advisory Group has been judged to have maintained its delivery of the ISO Standard 9001:2015 in management consultancy. This is the world’s most respected quality management classification and is designed to hold companies to a level of standards that enhance customer satisfaction. It also provides verification that the services provided will consistently meet …
On 4th May 2018, Education Secretary Damian Hinds delivered a speech at the NAHT conference in Liverpool, addressing a range of issues including teacher recruitment and retention, school funding, and new out plans for accountability within schools. Hinds stated at the conference “children only get one shot at an education and we owe it to them that they can get …
One of the key recommendations of a report published by the House of Lord’s Select Committee on Citizenship and Civic Engagement in April of this year is that the government should implement statutory entitlement to citizenship education from the start of primary school until the end of secondary school. The report acknowledges the potential strain that this will put on …