HEP Talks

The Education Brief: Monday 15th May 2023 - Top stories include: The key stage 2 Sats reading paper worried many school leaders. Primary school pupils have still not caught up to pre-Covid levels of attainment in maths. Mounting workload is a barrier to teachers taking part in professional development and training. Ofsted wants GPs and pharmacies to help schools combat “overly risk-averse” parenta...

The Education Brief: Tuesday 9th May 2023 - Top stories include: NAHT union general secretary says school leaders are in a “fight for the heart and soul of education.” Appeals against GCSE and A-level exam grades have plummeted below pre-Covid levels in the wake of the pandemic grading fiasco. An increasing number of trainee teachers are being forced to take on part-time jobs. This week’s deep div...

Tuesday 2nd May 2023 - Top stories include: The NAHT school leaders’ union will re-ballot its members for strikes over pay, school funding, workload and wellbeing. The Standards and Testing Agency published a ‘lessons learned’ review on Thursday last week. The National Foundation for Educational Research’s latest teacher recruitment figures are dismal. The government is to axe its support programm...

A few months ago, Sam Crome, Deputy Head at St. Peter's Catholic School, delivered a talk for HEP's Big Idea on the 'power of teams'. The talk was powerful, inviting both leaders and members of teams think deeply about what is involved in becoming and maintaining a successful team. If you haven't yet seen the recording of it, I highly recommend you take a look before listening...

Monday 24th April 2023 - Top stories include: Ofsted is making changes to acknowledge the continuing debate over the death of Ruth Perry. ASCL announced its first ever ballot on strike action. Schools are grappling with high levels of student absence and the threat of AI cheating on exams. Suspensions in England jumped up by nearly 25 percent compared with pre-pandemic levels. This week’s deep div...

Monday 17th April 2023 - Top stories include: NASUWT will re-ballot teachers for strikes after members voted to reject the government’s pay offer. The EEF will be evaluating the impact of Sadiq Khan’s £130 million emergency FSM scheme. Many schools remain unsure about how to implement a key government pledge that all schools provide a 32.5-hour minimum school week. This week’s deep dive:  WalkThru...

A few months ago, Sam Crome, Deputy Head at St. Peter's Catholic School, delivered a talk for HEP's Big Idea on the 'power of teams'. The talk was powerful, inviting both leaders and members of teams think deeply about what is involved in becoming and maintaining a successful team. If you haven't yet seen the recording of it, I highly recommend you take a look before listening...

Happy Easter! HEP Talks has a lot of new content coming up, but today we're going to return to an episode that deserves more attention. If you haven't heard it yet, you're in for a treat. In this episode, Evelyn Davies, a HEP leadership consultant, interviews Mungi Ngomane, author and granddaughter of Desmond Tutu, about her book and the concept of Ubuntu, the African philosophy of int...

Monday 27th March 2023 - Top stories include: The Department of Education has launched a consultation on the Early Career Framework and initial teacher training. Education Secretary Gillian Keegan has said that the government is aiming to publish transgender guidance for schools. Greenhouse School Websites has developed an algorithm that they claim can accurately predict Ofsted visits. The Nationa...

Monday 20th March 2023 - Top stories include: Ofsted is looking for a new chief inspector to replace Amanda Spielman once she steps down. Last week, the National Education Union took strike action on both Wednesday and Thursday. New DfE data finds high levels of persistent absence among pupils. The government wants schools to increase the supply of wraparound care. This week’s deep dive: What’s Go...

Monday 13th March 2023 - Top stories include: The deadlock over pay talks between education unions and the government continues. The coronation of King Charles is pushing back testing dates. The DfE is concerned over the education children are receiving outside of school grounds. The number of increasingly serious incidents involving school-age pupils on social media is on the rise. This week’s de...

In preparation for the Governors' Conference coming up this Saturday at HEP HQ, we are bringing back a HEP Talks episode about governors and their role in Ofsted inspections. In this episode of HEP Talks, Neetha Atukorale from HEP's Governor Services talks to Karen Tate, governor at South Harringay School about the school's most recent Ofsted inspection. Topics covered include Ofsted preparation,...

Monday 6th March 2023 - Top stories include: The government published the SEND and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan last Thursday. UCL has been awarded a £14.9 million programme to create three-year Language Hubs. Mixed MATs are being forced to divert more funding toward their primary schools. This week’s deep dive: NIA Academy Celebration Event We’ll also tell you what’s happening at HEP th...

In July, 2022, I spoke to Margaret Mulholland, SEN and Inclusion Policy Specialist for the Association of School and College Leaders, or ASCL, about the SEND and AP Green Paper, which had been released by the DfE in March. We published part one of this interview recently - you can listen here . In part two of the interview, Margaret and I talked more about inclusivity and discussed how we can embe...

Monday 27th February 2023 - Top stories include: Gillian Keegan has invited unions to formal talks over pay if they call off their planned strike this week. Schools may be forced to plug a 39 million pound shortfall in funding due to free school meals extension. The largest Multi-Academy Trusts have given raises to their top earners. The DfE has recommended that teachers receive a pay rise of 3 pe...

In March 2022, the Department for Education released the SEND and AP Green Paper, a document which summarised the challenges faced by SEND and AP provision, and set out ambitious reforms to create a single, well-regulated, national SEND and AP system ( Read a summary of the paper here ). There was a consultation on the paper soon after, which closed in July 2022, and that’s when I spoke to Margare...

Monday 20th February 2023 - Top stories include: Teacher pay talks with the education secretary have once again ended with no new offer. Seven unions have asked the government to take action on deteriorating school buildings. A SchoolDash report analyses which words are most common in positive Ofsted inspections. SchoolsWeek tracked which policies from the schools white paper are still alive. This...

This episode of HEP Talks is a conversation between HEP Chief Executive James Page and Estelle Morris, Baroness of Yardley and Co-Chair of the Area-based Education Partnerships Association (AEPA). It comes ahead of the AEPA annual conference which takes place on Friday, 10 February at 10:30am at the Coram Centre in London. Topics included are the relationship between politics and education at the...

Monday 6th February 2023 - Top stories include: Over half of schools closed partially or fully due to the NEU strike of around 300,000 teachers. Female Ofsted inspectors are more likely to hand out harsher grades for primary schools. Oak National Academy saw a spike in traffic during the first day of teacher strikes. This week’s deep dive: Nursery World Show 2023 We’ll also tell you what’s happeni...

Monday 30th January, 2023 - Top stories include: The DfE released several interesting research publications. Schoolsweek found four downgraded ‘outstanding’ schools with provisional Progress 8 scores among the highest 100 in the country. Fewer schools are meeting the government’s proposed “parent pledge” than before the policy was announced. the NAHT and National Education Union have told their me...

Monday 23rd January, 2023 - Top stories include: Schools are being asked to prioritise attendance for certain groups of pupils and “consider” remote education during strikes. Education Secretary Gillian Keegan has raised the prospect of paying teachers in shortage subjects more. A survey found that one in ten pupils in England have felt unsafe at school. 78 percent of schools previously judged as...

Monday 16th January, 2023 - Top stories include: Ofsted has admitted that its complaints policy “is not working” and will be reviewed. Teachers’ Union NASUWT failed to meet the threshold for strike action. Absence rates hit 14.3 percent across all schools at the end of last term, mainly due to illness. The DfE has updated the non-statutory ‘Teaching online safety in schools’ guidance. This week’s...

In this episode, Luke speaks with Alex Atherton, former headteacher and current HEP Improvement Partner and leadership coach. In the first part of the interview, Luke speaks to Alex about the way he landed his headship at quite a young age, and to see if he thought that journey was replicable nowadays. They also cover key themes of privilege and how education has changed (especially in terms of te...

In this episode, HEP's Luke Kemper talked to artist Sally Newton at South Harringay School, where she has painted two large staircase murals. They spoke about how she became an artist, what it’s like to paint a curriculum on the walls, and how students react to art, among other things. If you’d like to see more of Sally’s work, you can check out her website at www.sallynewton-mural-artist.com . Th...

Monday 12th December, 2022 - Top stories include: The School’s Bill is dead, but many of its priorities live on. The National Tutoring Programme has failed in its goal of tutoring 65 percent disadvantaged pupils. 500 million pounds aimed at making school buildings more energy efficient have been “repurposed” for energy bill savings. Ofsted is nearly 2000 inspections behind schedule. This week’s de...