This week brought two long-awaited announcements, as the Department for Education published both its Schools White Paper and the findings from its long-running SEND Review.
The White Paper, unveiled on Monday, included plans to ensure all state schools are in, or moving to, multi-academy trusts by 2030.
The government has also set the target for 90 per cent of pupils to achieve the expected standard in reading, writing and maths in key stage 2 Sats by 2030, and for the average grade in GCSE maths and English to increase from 4.5 to 5 as well.
It also included the expectation that schools will stay open for at least a 32.5-hour week and has created a “Parent Pledge” that any pupil who falls behind in English and maths will receive support from their school to catch up.
Headteachers’ leaders have dismissed this policy as a “gimmick” and data suggests that most teachers work in schools where this already happens.
In this podcast, the Tes team discuss all the main headlines, what we learned from our interview with education secretary Nadhim Zahawi and the sector reaction to the new policy papers.
We also look back on the Tes White Paper debrief panel discussion with experts from the sector and look forward to what it is likely to mean for schools in the future.
