April 2025
Well, our education landscape is indeed shifting under our feet. The DfE and Ofsted have been busy, so brace yourself for a smorgasbord of educational information. All at your fingertips from yours truly.
Intrigued? Then read on….
‘It’s silent’ Race, Racism and safeguarding children
I came across a super synopsis of this report by Nicole Williamson on LinkedIn:
“It’s Silent”:
The Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel has published a report on 53 children from Black, Asian, and Mixed Heritage backgrounds who died or were seriously harmed between January 2022 and March 2024. These children faced severe abuse, including sexual abuse, fatal assault, and neglect, with 27 fatalities.
The report highlights a significant silence on race and racism in child safeguarding, with many areas failing to acknowledge the impact of race, ethnicity, and culture.
Key findings include:
⛔ Limited attention to race and ethnicity: A lack of focus on these aspects in safeguarding practices and reviews, leading to insufficient analysis of racial bias in decision-making.
🚫 Silence on racism: Hesitancy to address racism, making the safeguarding needs of these children invisible.
❌ Missed opportunities: Failure to acknowledge racial bias results in missed learning opportunities from incidents involving these children.
Risk-assessment issues related to race were noted in 19 reviews, where recognised risks did not lead to action. Examples include disregarded disclosures of sexual abuse by girls from Asian and Mixed Asian Heritages.
Recommendations include:
🟢 Acknowledging and challenging racism: Ensuring structures support practitioners in recognising and challenging racism.
🟢 Empowering practitioners: Creating conditions for open conversations about race and identity, and providing opportunities for self-reflection.
🟢 Reviewing local strategies: Child Safeguarding Partnerships should review strategies to address race, racism, and racial bias in their work with these children.
You can read the whole report here. A short explainer video of the key points in the report is here.
Attendance and attainment
The DfE has released a report on Attendance and Attainment this week. It is clear that attendance remains a key driver for the DfE and Ofsted. Thank you to Prof Michael Green for this helpful synopsis:
Key findings:
🔸️The report highlights the positive correlation between school attendance and student attainment across KS2 and KS4.
🔸️Increased attendance correlates with higher attainment; pupils with 95-100% attendance at KS2 are 1.3 times more likely to meet standards.
🔸️Missing 10 days in Year 6 reduces the likelihood of achieving expected standards by approximately 25%.
🔸️At KS4, students with 95-100% attendance are 1.9 times more likely to achieve Grade 5 in English and Maths compared to those with 90-95% attendance.
🔸️Moving up a single attendance band can increase the chance of achieving expected outcomes by at least 30% (KS2) and 10% (KS4).
🔸️The greatest gains in outcomes occur when pupils in the 90-95% attendance band move to the 95-100% band.
Here is the report in full.
In a previous blog, I shared my attendance interview resource. Take a look here in the previous Chisnell Chatter, where I introduced the idea of the return from absence interview. I would love to know your thoughts on this.
Attendance and earnings
The DfE have been very busy with their lens focussed tightly on attendance with a second review document, The Impact of School Attendance on Lifetime Earnings.
The report asserts that there is a negative association between school absence and attainment, consistent with the literature. As overall absence increases, attainment outcomes at the end of KS4 decrease, when controlling for other factors known to influence achievement. As previous research points to a link between attainment and income we assume attainment indirectly acts as a mediation mechanism between absence and earnings.
As absence increases, earnings decrease, when controlling for other factors known to influence income. Additionally, we find increased absence was associated with a higher chance of being on benefits for a sustained period, and a lower chance of being in sustained employment at the age of 28.
Supporting retrieval
In a recent blog post, Kate Jones shares cues to support retrieval. In the article, she shares a range of examples of how to use retrieval cues in the classroom:
Here are some examples of using retrieval cues in classrooms:
Ask students to list question words and remind them of the “party invite activity” from yesterday.
Showing a blank water cycle diagram while students answer retrieval questions about it.
After learning about Beethoven and listening to excerpts of his pieces, play them at the start of a subsequent lesson.
When practicing word problems with students, include a copy of one that was a worked example on a previous day.
Including a memorable line from the story If You Give a Mouse a Cookie on a task about cause and effect.
Showing a picture from a school trip to a museum for a task about the ancient civilisations in the exhibit.
The whole article on cues to support retrieval practice can be found here.
Powerful pedagogy: effective practice
March is indeed the month of publications. The DfE has released a review on powerful pedagogy (full report here). The report emphasises the importance of high expectations, well-planned curriculum and the use of evidence-based pedagogical approaches to enable students to make strong progress.
The report uses a range of case studies from differing settings. It covers pedagogical approaches such as feedback, oracy, metacognition, questions, dialogue and knowledge acquisition. In particular the study intends Ofsted to be a keuy audience, so take note of the content as this may well guide thinking in the new Ofsted framework.
Ofsted’s Toolkits
Ofsted is consulting on its new framework proposals. This includes the use of toolkits to evaluate the quality of provision across a range of areas.
Ofsted is introducing new education inspection toolkits as part of our commitment to reform how inspections look and feel.
They are proposing:
– separate, bespoke toolkits that reflect each sector’s unique context, from early years through to further education
– a new inspection approach based on professional dialogue
– a collaborative process in which leaders help shape which areas to focus on, reflecting their improvement priorities.
Here is a link to a LinkedIn video explaining the use of toolkits: https://lnkd.in/dnZB4g6X.
SEND and governance
In the last edition of Chisnell Chatter, I shared a super article by Cassie Young on Send and governance. The DfE has released guidance for Special educational needs and disabilities: guidance for school governing boards. This is a must-read for all SENCos and governors responsible for SEND.
The document highlights the importance of governors and trustees assuring :
- the school promotes an inclusive culture
- there is effective communication and engagement between the school and parents of pupils with SEN and disabilities
- parents are involved closely in keeping the school’s general SEN and disability policy and practice under review
- the pupil voice is central to decisions about support for those with SEN and disabilities, at both individual and school level
- funding, including SEN funding, is allocated and spent effectively
- the school works effectively with the local authority in reviewing the SEN and disability provision available locally and developing the SEN and disabilities Local Offer
- staff have the expertise needed to support those with SEN and disabilities and that the school has access to external specialist skills where required.
- Also how the school:
- identifies a pupil with SEN or a disability and how it uses the ‘graduated approach’ to respond to that need
- monitors the progress and development of pupils with SEN and disabilities
- supports pupils in Preparing for Adulthood at each age and stage, and monitors outcomes and destinations – some tools and resources are available from the National Development Team for Inclusion (NDTi).
Get in touch
If you would like any bespoke support with coaching, leadership training, safeguarding reviews, research practice, please get in touch for a chat. Here is a synopsis of my consultancy offer and contact details.
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