Today’s Education in the Media blog looks at new statistic releases on exclusions and teacher training.
Exclusions
Today, Thursday 25 July, we have published annual statistics on school exclusion rates. The statistics show that permanent exclusions has remained broadly stable in comparison with last year’s data, while there has been a slight rise in fixed-rate exclusions across primary and secondary schools, and a decrease in exclusions in special schools. This has been covered by the Independent, Schools Week, TES and the Eastern Daily Press.
The issue of exclusions is a priority for the department. Edward Timpson’s review into exclusions was published in May and we will be taking forward recommendations from this review. We are also working with Ofsted to tackle the illegal practice of off-rolling.
The government has committed £10 million to help teachers crack down on poor classroom behaviour, with Tom Bennett appointed as lead adviser to implement the pioneering programme.
A Department for Education spokesperson said:
There is no right number of exclusions, and although exclusion rates remain lower than ten years ago, we have been clear that exclusion from school should not mean exclusion from education. Headteachers do not take the decision to exclude lightly and we will continue to back them in using permanent exclusion as a last resort.
Following the Timpson Review, we are consulting on how to make schools more accountable for the students they exclude, working with Ofsted to clamp down on off-rolling, and calling on local areas to explain or change trends in exclusions for certain groups of children.
Initial Teacher Training
Today, the department also published statistics on Initial Teacher Training performance profiles. This publication shows statistics on trainee teachers and how many successfully gained qualified teacher status.
A Department for Education spokesperson said:
The fact that more than nine-in-ten postgraduate trainees qualified as teachers last year shows that the quality of trainees entering the teaching profession remains high. Last year also saw an additional 34,600 trainee teachers recruited - over 2,600 more than 2017/18 - despite an extremely competitive graduate labour market.
We do recognise there is more to do to continue to attract and retain talented individuals in our classrooms, which is why we launched the first-ever Teacher Recruitment & Retention Strategy earlier this year. School teachers and leaders are also set to receive an above inflation pay rise in the next academic year, equivalent to £1,000 on average classroom teacher pay, with the upper and lower boundaries of all pay ranges to rise by 2.75 per cent.
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