A report called for leadership and governance to be strengthened in schools, with further devolution of control to head teachers.
Source: Leading the Way: Improving school governance and leadership, Confederation of British Industry
Links: Report | CBI press release
Date: 2013-Nov
A report published by the children's watchdog for England examined what secondary schools could do to keep their students safe from harm, both in and out of school.
Source: Michelle Lefevre, Rachel Burr, Janet Boddy, and Robert Rosenthal, Feeling Safe, Keeping safe: Good practice in safeguarding and child protection in secondary schools, Office of the Children's Commissioner
Links: Report | OCC press release
Date: 2013-Sep
A report by a committee of MPs said that too few school governing bodies in England were taking advantage of new regulations designed to make them more effective. The quality of governing bodies was inadequate in many schools, particularly primaries. There was a need for better measures for intervention when governing bodies were poor or failing.
Source: The Role of School Governing Bodies, Second Report (Session 2013-14), HC 365, House of Commons Education Select Committee, TSO
Links: Report | Committee press release | Oral and written evidence | Additional written evidence | ASCL press release | Bath University press release | NAHT press release | NASUWT press release | NGA press release | Voice blog post | BBC report | Telegraph report
Date: 2013-Jul
An article drew on interviews with eight headteachers of less advantaged English primary schools to explore how they understood and articulated the contexts in which their schools operated, and how this knowledge was translated into strategies for organizing curriculum, pedagogy, and other school processes. The headteachers observed context through the lens of the behaviour of parents and children in relation to school, contrasting it with an assumed middle-class normality. More critical perspectives on families' social and economic position or on the contribution of school practice to educational exclusion were largely absent. School responses were many and varied: but, given the constraints of budgets and other pressures, were unlikely to substantially transform the educational experiences and outcomes of disadvantaged students. There was a continuing need for more contextualized funding mechanisms and policies to improve schools in disadvantaged areas; and also, in the light of devolution to schools, a need to develop mechanisms of support for headteachers to help them to develop critical understandings of context.
Source: Ruth Lupton and Martin Thrupp, 'Headteachers readings of and responses to disadvantaged contexts: evidence from English primary schools', British Educational Research Journal, Volume 39 Number 4
Links: Abstract
Date: 2013-Jul
A new book examined processes for allocating places at secondary schools in England, including planning via local authorities, quasi-market mechanisms, and random allocation.
Source: Mike Feintuck and Roz Stevens, School Admissions and Accountability: Planning, choice or chance?, Policy Press
Links: Summary
Date: 2013-Jan
