Blog posts for author:Andrew Gladstone-Heighton

The long, agonising wait for a ‘tsunami of exam reform’ (p8) - In less than 2 months time, schools will have to start teaching the new GCSEs and A Levels over 20 subjects. Ofqual still has to approve two-thirds (only 52 out of 156 have been approved) of the specifications for teaching and delivery— a situation described as ’shocking’ by teaching unions. It's up to colleges to stop this strike, says Corbyn (p46) - Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn has called on colleges to come up with a ‘reasonable’ pay offer for their staff ahead of a national strike planned for the 24 February.

It’s quite timely that the National Union of Students has launched its ‘#FEunplugged’ campaign today, making sure that the learner’s voice is heard at the heart of the Area Review process. This builds on growing concerns in the sector that the Area Review process is being pushed through without due consideration for the institutions it will affect.

1 January 2016 The biggest change to the schools system in 50 years (p8) - Ministers are considering publishing a whitepaper that will formalise its plans to convert every remaining state school in the country into an academy.

Every year, the Skills Minister writes to the Chief Executive of the Skills Funding Agency (SFA), setting out the government's vision for skills funding priorities for the forthcoming funding year. It sets out in headline terms how 19+ funding will work from August 2016. One of the major changes to previous years is the appearance of a new budget line; the Adult Education Budget (or, because we love our Three Letter Acronyms, the AEB).

Every year, Ofsted releases an annual report looking at the key findings and emerging themes from “over 5,000 inspections of schools, colleges and providers of further education and skills.” We've pulled together the key highlights for Further Education from the report for you. Adult Learning

Every year, Ofsted releases an annual report looking at the key findings and emerging themes from “over 5,000 inspections of schools, colleges and providers of further education and skills.” We’ve pulled together the key highlights for secondary schools from the report for you.

Judging by the initial reaction to the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement it seemed the Education and Skills sector had received its Christmas presents early. After bracing ourselves for pretty brutal cuts to budgets across the board, the actual announcements were generally positively received. Thanks in part to higher than expected tax receipts and debt interest, the government managed to avoid some of the larger scale cuts that the sector had been anticipating. Indeed, the ongoing protection to the schools budget and an increase in financial support for education and childcare continue to be welcome for the sector, spreading a little festive cheer. The government has also set out its intention to introduce a new National Funding Formula for schools by 2017, with the intention of overcoming the regional discrepancies brought about by the current system.

The sector seems to be holding its breath in anticipation of George Osborne’s ‘Emergency’ Budget, due to take place on the 8 July. It will come as no surprise that this budget will set out additional cuts across Government departments, with Further Education and Skills in line for greater restrictions on spending.

Don’t cut allocations to meet savings target, pleads sector (p2) – according to Treasury announcements, both the Department for Education and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills are facing a £450m cut this financial year, with FE and Skills earmarked for specific savings. A BIS spokesperson stated that they’d be "asking the SFA for advice on how savings can best be achieved in line with ministers’ priorities around Apprenticeships and priority FE participation funding…and whilst safeguarding the resilience of the sector."

The Sector speaks in the FE & Skills Survey and funding is key issue (p4/5) - The news for this week is dominated by the findings of the FE Week FE & Skills survey, which finds the key concerns from people in the sector are funding, the volume of change and workload, English and maths and the ‘broad direction of travel for the sector.’ 90% of respondents were concerned about levels of funding, both for individuals and institutions, while 92% were concerned about the pace & volume of changes, and 96% were concerned at perceived levels of external bureaucracy.