HEP Talks

The Education Brief: Saturday 24 February 2024 - Top stories include: The trend towards home education has doubled with significant growth in deprived areas. Dame Rachel de Souza seeks to audit UK schools' mobile phone policies. Around 20% of the UK's largest MATs gave their CEOs pay rises of £10,000 or more in 2022-23. Over 10,000 pupils have vanished from the English state education rada...

The British Army isn't necessarily associated with education, but in this episode of HEP Talks, Richard Watts, Director of Educational and Regional Marketing for the Recruiting Partnership Project at British Army and Capita, explains to Luke Kemper that, actually, the Army is an educational provider. On top of the Army Foundation College in Harrogate, the Army has also developed the BASE - Bri...

The Education Brief: Saturday 17 February 2024 - Top stories include: New DfE guidance advises academy trusts to collaborate with LAs to manage school places. Baroness Barran highlighted emerging progress in school attendance in a House of Lords speech. An EPI report suggests extending the school day to enhance disadvantaged pupils' access to extracurricular activities. A University of Cambrid...

The Education Brief: Saturday 10 February 2024 - Top stories include: Over 100 schools identified with RAAC are set for reconstruction. The government has announced guidance for primary schools to offer wraparound childcare. Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission will assess how the SEND system prepares young people for adulthood. DfE report suggests over half of special school pupils could thrive...

The Education Brief: Saturday 3 February 2024 - Top stories include: In September 2025, the government will combine the Initial Teacher Training and Early Career Framework. The EEF is launching a trial to explore if ChatGPT can reduce teacher workload. A new NFER report makes recommendations to address the "invisible glass ceiling" facing teachers of colour in the UK. Ofsted's digita...

The Education Brief: Saturday 27 January 2024 - Top stories include: Ofsted has adjusted its approach to accessing school websites. The number of local authority maintained primary schools in deficit has surged by 62 percent. Government experts urge funding for schools to trial and formulate a long-term strategy for AI. The AP sector is experiencing a significant surge in demand for pupil referral...

In this episode of HEP Talks, Luke Kemper talks with Phil Birchinall, Senior Director of Immersive Content at Discovery Education, about the concept of immersion and its connections with learning, and how augmented reality (AR) can induce a state of immersion in pupils. Discovery Education, an edtech company which provides digital learning resources to millions of teachers around the world, has de...

The Education Brief: Saturday 20 January 2024 - Top stories include: Ofsted and the DfE have announced significant reforms in response to the inquest into Ruth Perry’s death. A new Ofsted policy allows school inspections to be paused for up to five days over concerns about leader wellbeing. A new study has shed light on the complex factors driving school absences. Lucy Livings has been announced a...

The Education Brief: Saturday 13 January 2024 - Top stories include: Disadvantaged pupils are significantly less likely to attend top-performing comprehensive schools. £30,000 bursaries could attract more individuals to consider a career switch to teaching. A recent decision by the DfE will see many misconduct verdicts removed from its website. The DfE has announced it will reimburse schools up to...

In this episode of HEP Talks, Luke Kemper talks Charles Golding and Lawrence Hoo, cofounders of the CARGO movement. CARGO stands for 'Charting African Resilience Generating Opportunities' and the organisation has created some wonderful opportunities for expanding the presence of Black-heritage characters in the school curriculum. The resources they created, altogether titled CARGO Classroo...

The Education Brief: Saturday 23 December 2023 This special edition of The Education Brief includes an Education news review of Autumn term 2023 as well as HEP’s end-of-year reflections. Music by Slo Pony

In this episode of HEP Talks, Luke Kemper talks Charles Golding and Lawrence Hoo, cofounders of the CARGO movement. CARGO stands for 'Charting African Resilience Generating Opportunities' and the organisation has created some wonderful opportunities for expanding the presence of Black-heritage characters in the school curriculum. The resources they created, altogether titled CARGO Classroo...

The Education Brief: Saturday 16 December 2023 - Top stories include: The DfE has launched a consultation on the Advanced British Standard. Private equity-backed firms and a Middle East sovereign wealth fund are profiting from the UK's struggling SEND system. Ofsted's grading landscape for schools has evolved under the leadership of Amanda Spielman. There has been a significant increase in...

The Education Brief: Saturday 9 December 2023 - Top stories include: An Ofsted inspection was found to have significantly contributed to the tragic death of headteacher Ruth Perry. The UK government won't confirm a deadline for addressing the RAAC crisis in schools until the new year. Exam board OCR is set to launch the first GCSE to be assessed solely on screen in 2025. NASUWT accused the Edu...

The Education Brief: Saturday 2 December 2023 - Top stories include: The government is eyeing new laws for minimum service levels during teacher strikes. Experts warn of a potential 12% funding gap for UK schools next year. Reception pupils show overall improvement in Early Years Foundation Stage results. Reduction in bursary amounts led to a net loss of nearly 200 maths teacher entrants. This wee...

The Education Brief: Saturday 25 November 2023 - Top stories include: Amanda Spielman's final Ofsted report warns of a fractured social contract between schools and families. School exclusion rates have returned to pre-pandemic levels. Chancellor Jeremy Hunt set out the government’s spending plans, but they don’t include schools. Ofsted is set to implement changes to its post-inspection compla...

The Education Brief: Saturday 18 November 2023 - Top stories include: Ofsted says that schools tackling high absences will be viewed favourably during inspections. Former Education Secretary Damian Hinds replaces Nick Gibb as schools minister. Students will receive exam aids for one more year due to pandemic disruptions. Teacher wellbeing in England has hit a five-year low. This week’s deep dive: ...

In this episode of HEP Talks, Luke Kemper talks with Monica Bhogal, Director of the Schools Consent Project, and Luke Ramsden, Deputy Head of St Benedict's School in Ealing and Chair of Trustees the Schools Consent Project. The episode centres around the concept of consent, a topic that has been propelled into the limelight by recent events. the Schools Consent Project takes the legal definiti...

The Education Brief: Saturday 11 November 2023 - Top stories include: Financial support for Teach First’s autumn cohort has resulted in a doubling of recruitment. The DfE has allocated £35 million pounds to provide temporary buildings for schools amidst concerns over RAAC. Education unions have called on Chancellor Jeremy Hunt for £1.7 billion pounds in additional funding for schools. Increasing t...

The Education Brief: Saturday 4 November 2023 - Top stories include: School leaders may discontinue tutoring programmes when NTP subsidies expire next year. School support staff unions in England have accepted a pay rise deal worth £1,925 pounds. The EEF published three reports focusing on teacher workload, flexible working, and school leadership. Sir Ian Bauckham CBE will serve as the interim chi...

The Education Brief: Saturday 28 October 2023 - Top stories include: Former Ofsted Chief Sir Michael Wilshaw criticised the watchdog for moving away from using data in inspections. Ofsted has temporarily suspended evaluations of MATs until the end of the current financial year. The UK government’s £40 million-pound "hardship fund" will be split between academies and local authority-maint...

The Education Brief: Saturday 21 October 2023 - Top stories include: The AQA has announced that GCSEs may potentially be moving online from 2026. The DfE’s school funding error has prompted calls for Schools minister Nick Gibb’s resignation. New pay scales for teachers and school leaders for 2023-2024 were confirmed last week. This week’s deep dive:  The Education Policy Institute Annual Report 20...

The Education Brief: Saturday 14 October 2023 - Top stories include: Education unions demand £370 million in per-pupil funding after a mistake in calculations for the national funding formula. The Commons Education Select Committee is set to investigate the value of single-word Ofsted judgements. The results for last year’s key stage 1 tests have been published, showing slight improvement over the...

In this episode of HEP Talks, Luke Kemper talks with Keren Mitchell, co-founder of the not-for-profit, social action-inspiring organisation SuperKind. The conversation centres around what SuperKind can do for schools, and specifically how schools can use different parts of the website to facilitate the integration of social causes in curriculum. Keren discusses research that shows that introducing...

The Education Brief: Saturday 30 September 2023 - Top stories include: Ofsted’s national director of education Chris Russell will retire at the end of this year. Ofqual’s chief regulator Dr Jo Saxton will take a new role as chief executive of UCAS. The government and a youth charity will spend £5.8 million on four projects to examine whether contested trauma-informed practice helps keep children s...