Education News

Increase in fines for parents, in England, for taking children out of school without permission, comes into force.  The fines are increasing from £60 to £80 (doubling to £160 if not paid within 21 days) and from £120 to £160, with no early payment discount for a second notice issued to the same parent in respect of the same child within any given 3 year period.

BBC reports, “Staff were filmed hitting, kicking and leaving special school pupils in their own urine. Despite the school proving abuse in so-called “calming rooms”, some staff are still employed there and have not been barred from working with children. Whitefield School said it acted in pupils’ best interests and was not obliged to make barring referrals. The Children’s Commissioner for England says the BBC’s findings are “horrifying” and rules on seclusion should be tightened. “There is no place for any of that behaviour and it needs to stop,” Dame Rachel de Souza says.”

The National Crime Agency (“NCA”) issued an alert to hundreds of thousands of education professionals following a considerable increase in global cases of financially motivated sexual extortion – a type of online blackmail widely known as ‘sextortion’.  The NCA gave advice about spotting the signs of this type of abuse, supporting young people and encouraging them to seek help. It also includes guidance to be disseminated to parents and carers on how to talk to their child about sextortion, and how to support them if they become a victim – aiming to take away the stigma surrounding the topic and, in turn, power away from those who wish to harm them.

The Department for Education published non-statutory guidance on how education settings should prepare for and respond to terrorism and other major incidents. The guidance includes information on staff roles in protective security and preparedness, and embedding a security culture.

BBC reports that, MI5 has warned, foreign states are targeting British universities to undermine national security. Vice-chancellors from 24 leading universities were briefed on the threat by the security services and the government on Thursday. “Leaders from institutions including the University of Oxford, University of Cambridge and Imperial College London were told research in sensitive areas could be targeted by states intent on stealing intellectual property to enhance their own economic and military capabilities.”

Primary school offers, for places starting in September 2024, are made to parents on Tuesday 16 April 2024.

Dr Hilary Cass has submitted her final report and recommendations to NHS England in her role as Chair of the Independent Review of gender identity services for children and young people. Some of the key findings are:

• “There is no simple explanation for the increase in the numbers of predominantly young people and young adults who have a trans or gender diverse identity, but there is broad agreement that it is a result of a complex interplay between biological, psychological and social factors. This balance of factors will be different in each individual.
• There are conflicting views about the clinical approach, with expectations of care at times being far from usual clinical practice. This has made some clinicians fearful of working with gender-questioning young people, despite their presentation being similar to many children and young people presenting to other NHS services.
• While a considerable amount of research has been published in this field, systematic evidence reviews demonstrated the poor quality of the published studies, meaning there is not a reliable evidence base upon which to make clinical decisions, or for children and their families to make informed choices.
• For most young people, a medical pathway will not be the best way to manage their gender-related distress. For those young people for whom a medical pathway is clinically indicated, it is not enough to provide this without also addressing wider mental health and/or psychosocially challenging problems.”

The National Education Union says sexism is on the rise in schools because of harmful content on children’s phones.  “The rise of sexist and violent ideas online is problematic and young people are very influenced by their peers and the content driven by algorithms. Greater regulation of tech companies and quicker action on removing harmful content is needed. Helping young people interrogate the motivation and appeal of online figures can help students to think critically about what they see and increase confidence in reporting harassment.”

Robert Halfon resigned as Minister of State at the Department for Education

Consultation closes on Guidance for Schools and Colleges: Gender Questioning Children.

BBC summarises their own research in respect of sexual misconduct at universities.  “A three-month BBC investigation has revealed that fewer than half of UK universities could provide up-to-date sexual misconduct data.  Freedom of Information requests to all 142 public universities showed that they categorise these reports in different ways. Some use sexual misconduct as an umbrella term, while others had more specific labels like rape, sexual assault and harassment. BBC Wales sent all 142 public UK universities FOI requests asking how many reports of sexual misconduct they have had from 2013 to 2023. A total of 42 did not respond, 33 refused and 67 were able to provide only partial data.”

Children starting Year 7 in England and Wales will be notified of their secondary school place.

Increase in fines for parents, in England, for taking children out of school without permission.  The fines are increasing from £60 to £80 (doubling to £160 if not paid within 21 days) and from £120 to £160, with no early payment discount for a second notice issued to the same parent in respect of the same child within any given 3 year period.

BBC reports, 73 children in Bristol have been excluded from schools since the start of the last academic year.  Councillor Kerry Bailes said: “[Children are] being failed by the schools, by the system, funding and the culture crisis. Is it any wonder we’re in a position where kids are killing kids in this city? They’ve been failed massively.”

The Department for Education published guidance, Mobile phones in Schools. It applies to all maintained schools, academies, free schools, non-maintained special schools and independent schools. The guidance requires all schools to introduce a mobile phone policy prohibiting the use of mobile phones throughout the school day (including breaks), with appropriate sanctions for breaches of the policy.

The High Court delivered its judgment in Natasha Abrahart v University of Bristol. This is an important case as it potentially addressed the issue of to what extent a university owes a duty of care to its students. The background is that Natasha Abrahart took her own life on the day she was due to take part in a group presentation at the University of Bristol. The parents’ case against the university was for unlawful discrimination and negligence. The case against the university succeeded, on the grounds the university had breached the Equality Act. The claim in negligence (duty of care) was dismissed. The university appealed to the High Court. That appeal was dismissed and so the parents succeeded.   The university had breached its statutory duties under the Equality Act 2010 by insisting that a student suffering from depression and social anxiety disorder participated in laboratory interviews and conferences as part of a mandatory module of her physics degree. The oral assessments were not a competence standard and the university should have removed or adjusted the requirements of the module. Unfortunately, the High Court did not address the important question of, the extent of any duty of care owed to students by universities, saying it was not necessary to do so.

Welsh government announces increase in university tuition fees for domestic students, raising the tuition fee cap from £9,000 to £9,250, which will bring tuition fee costs into line with the level charged by higher education providers in England. The increase will come into effect in September 2024 and is the first rise in the tuition fee cap, in Wales, since 2011.

Children’s Mental Health Week begins.

After suggestions that universities have been lowering their standards to attract overseas students, Universities UK have issued a statement, identifying a number of actions, which include the statement that Universities UK will update their Admissions Code of Practice, to ensure that stakeholders have confidence “that the systems is fair, transparent and robust.”

IBB Law publishes blog, having analysed and dissected permanent exclusion and suspension data in England, from the academic year 2016/17 through to 2021/22, which were published by the Department for Education (DfE) at the end of 2023. The data threw up a number of notable statistics and trends, highlighting many of the potential issues schools and parents are facing when it comes to dealing with children’s behaviour.   1,200,186 (2%) of all pupils in England were excluded and/or suspended between 2016 and 2022.