Eithne Leming Associates

https://www.tes.com/magazine/news/general/number-pupils-ehcps-rises-above-half-million `"Pupils with an EHCP account for an increasing proportion of pupils with SEND: the latest figures show it is now 29%, compared with 19.3% in 2016." The shame is the high cost of producing EHCPs which takes resource away from actual provision.

Number of pupils with EHCPs rises above half a million The latest official data shows a 24 per cent increase in the number of pupils with an education, health and care plan in the past two years

https://www.tes.com/magazine/news/primary/ks2-sats-marking-unfair-for-pupils "The marking framework unfairly penalises pupils at times & even when they demonstrate their understanding, their answers may be discounted on really picky grounds -the reading test now is not actually really determining pupils’ understanding.”

Sats marking scheme ‘trying to catch children out’, heads warn School leaders’ union calls on the Standards and Testing Agency to abandon its ‘rigid’ approach to marking and reward children for demonstrating understanding

https://www.tes.com/magazine/news/general/school-staff-workload-increases-under-new-ofsted-inspections Ofsted’s decision to use a “secure-fit methodology - meaning that every grade descriptor has to be met in order for a school to be awarded a particular grade & the focus on national averages in achievement judgements, feels onerous & pernicious, and it is penalising schools for their cohorts.”

School paperwork surges due to ‘horrendous’ Ofsted workload Around half of secondary schools have already produced extra documents to prepare for the new inspections

https://www.tes.com/magazine/analysis/general/send-mental-health-shift-policy-plans-concerning For many families and schools, the concern is not semantic but practical: if mental health is no longer clearly located within SEND, who becomes responsible when a child’s distress affects education but does not meet increasingly stretched NHS thresholds?

SEND: the mental health shift in policy plans is worrying Moving mental health from SEND frameworks to something more ‘clinically defined and externally determined’ could have real consequences, warns Thomas Keaney

https://www.tes.com/magazine/analysis/general/why-working-send-made-me-reluctant-diagnose-my-son-autism The cultivation of a competitive, zero-sum notion of education has had some curious side effects within the world of SEND. Rather than recognising that the means of measurement (eg, exam grades) are nonsense, students with SEND are given various forms of artificial advantage, creating a certain market value for SEND labels.

Why working in SEND made me reluctant to diagnose my son A decade of working in alternative provision led this teacher to question the usefulness of labels and the benefits of having his autistic son diagnosed

https://www.tes.com/magazine/news/general/improve-girls-wellbeing-cut-school-absence NFER finds that the link between better life satisfaction and improved attendance is most pronounced among girls and persistently absent pupils. While higher levels of self-reported belonging are “associated” with lower absence, there is no “clear link” once overall life satisfaction is accounted for.

Boost girls’ wellbeing to cut absence, ministers told Improving life satisfaction is ‘likely to yield the greatest benefits’ for school attendance, NFER researchers find

https://www.tes.com/magazine/news/general/teacher-numbers-fall In primaries, full-time equivalent teacher numbers fell by 2,900 - 1.3%. They increased by 1,100 - 3.9%, in special schools & pupil referral units, year on year & by 300 (6.3%) for teachers employed directly by local authorities rather than working at a single school.

Teacher numbers fall by nearly 2,000 But government claims progress towards its manifesto pledge to recruit 6,500 new teachers

https://bit.ly/4uBIfbP “In most cases” the “direct involvement of specialists” from Experts at Hand should be “time-limited”, with the aim of building skills and confidence that allow school and other settings to support children independently.

Experts at Hand guidance calls for ‘innovative’ staff deployment DfE advice seeks to allay fears that severe shortages of staff such as educational psychologists will put the brakes on its Experts at Hand service, on same day as it reveals members of key SEND panel

https://bit.ly/3Q6tWgV "Even among trusts that are persistently struggling financially, those serving intakes with higher levels of disadvantage & SEND are under significantly more financial strain. We need a funding system that more accurately reflects context, levels of need, greater investment in early intervention & sustainable reform of SEND funding,”

Trusts with higher disadvantage and SEND face 75% bigger deficits Tes analysis sparks calls for reform of funding and accountability systems to better support academy trusts with high numbers of vulnerable pupils

https://www.tes.com/magazine/analysis/secondary/why-uneven-school-send-provision-not-sustainable-inclusion 1, SEND Pupils need to be distributed more evenly across local systems i.e. stronger place planning & monitoring. 2. accountability measures must better reflect inclusion. 3, funding must better follow need.

Why uneven school SEND provision is not sustainable Schools with a reputation for inclusion are becoming overstretched because they are supporting a disproportionate number of pupils with SEND, writes the lead researcher for a new NFER study