DYT Week Ahead: APPG Dyslexia

19/3/2018

Filtering what matters in the education sector.
#DYTWeekAhead

 

Monday

Education Questions 

The Parliamentary week gets underway with Damian Hinds and the rest of the education ministerial team facing an hour of questions in the House of Commons. There is likely to be heated exchanges on school funding figures and which pupils are eligible for Free School Meals, which Labour has been campaigning strongly on in the last few weeks.

There are also numerous questions on SEND, alternative provision and exclusions following the government’s announcement of an inquiry in this area on Friday.

Time: 2:30 pm 
Location: House of Commons Chamber 

Tuesday 

All-Party Parliamentary Group on Dyslexia and other Specific Learning Difficulties  

The APPG meets for the second time in this Parliament. The theme of the meeting is: Where are we on the journey towards comprehensive teacher awareness of their obligations to meet the requirements of the SEND Code of Practice?”

At the meeting we will be hearing from:

 – Liz Horobin, BDA Project Director
  DfE Dyslexia /SpLD Support Contract – achievements from a two-year project.
 
– Dr Yota Dimitriadi, University of Reading
  Newly Qualified Teachers’ readiness to teach SEND
Time: 2 – 4 pm 
Location: Committee Room 4A, House of Lords 

DYT presenting at the last APPG

Oral Question

Lord Robathan asks the government about the possibility of including of litter picking in the National Curriculum for Year 6 children, to tidy up the roads and encourage civic responsibility.

Time: 2:30 pm 
Location: House of Lords Chamber 

Motion of regret 

Labour has tabled a motion to criticise the government’s approach to the Free School Lunches and Milk, and School and Early Years Finance (Amendments Relating to Universal Credit) (England) Regulations 2018.

Time: TBC
Location: House of Lords Chamber 

Wednesday 

Education Committee Session 

The education secretary, Damian Hinds, will attend his first accountability hearing on Wednesday morning with the education committee.

The committee will question Hinds on school funding, out-of-school settings and DfE policies on improving social mobility.

Time: 10 am 
Location: Room 8, Palace of Westminster

Damian Hinds faces questions from the Commons and Education Committee this week.

 

DfE announces new action to improve outcomes for children with additional needs

The Secretary of State for Education, Damian Hinds announced a series of initiatives to improve understanding of the educational experiences and outcomes of all children with additional needs and those who live in challenging circumstances.

The government also revealed that “Children in need” are 3 times more likely to have special educational needs than other children which compounds poor educational outcomes.

DYT looks forward to engaging with the government on all of the new areas announced.

We argued the government must do more to tackle the fact that SEND learners are more than 7x more likely to be excluded.  You can read our full response here: DYT response to Exclusions consultation

DfE pledges to ‘transform’ alternative provision (TES) 

Government sets aside £26 million to support breakfast clubs (Schools Week) 

Two charities, Family Action and Magic Breakfast, have been chosen to deliver breakfast clubs in around 1,775 schools from this spring.

UK teacher wins global best teacher prize (BBC) 

Andria Zafirakou, who teaches art and textiles in a Brent secondary school, has won a prize worth $1m (£720,000).

 

 

EPI Report: School funding pressures in England – examines the latest trends in school balances – while also assessing whether schools will be able to meet cost pressures over the next two years, following the introduction of the National Funding Formula and extra funding committed by the government in July 2017.

The EPI found that in just over 4 years, the proportion of schools in financial deficit nearly trebled, expanding to over a quarter of schools – with a large proportion of maintained schools now also spending more than their income. You can read all of the report’s key findings here.

ICAN Report: On Tuesday 20 March 2018, I CAN and The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists will launch Bercow: Ten Years On, an uncompromising review of support for children with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) in England.

This report will lay bare the current picture of services for young people with SLCN and make informed recommendations of what must be done to improve the situation at a local and national level.

Take a second to sign up to our Thunderclap and join the hundreds of voices and campaigners on 20 March to get #Bercow10 trending.

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