Review of the year: what happened in schools in 2022-23

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Review of the year: what happened in schools in 2022-23

We take you through ��Vlog’ biggest stories, most important analyses and most read teaching and learning articles of the past academic year

17th July 2023, 5:00am

Review of the Year: what happened in schools in 2022-23

��Vlog Editorial

Our aim at ��Vlog magazine is to inform the schools sector, amplify its voice and challenge it - and those whose actions affect it - in a positive, productive way. We have set out to be the go-to information source for schools on everything from policy to pedagogy.

Here are the big stories, insightful analyses and essential teaching articles we have published in the past 12 months.

September

Schools minister Nick Gibb began the year by telling ��Vlog analyst Grainne Hallahan that Ofsted should not judge a school’s quality of education to be “good” if its take-up of English Baccalaureate subjects is below the national average. Meanwhile, a ��Vlog analysis showed that small primaries were five times more likely to be graded “inadequate” by Ofsted.

And in a sign of things to come, ��Vlog revealed that around a quarter of teacher training providers could be culled from the market following the conclusion of a controversial government shake-up of the initial teacher training (ITT) sector. The story was of vital importance to a sector struggling with recruiting enough teachers, with only 80 providers accredited after round one of the process.

Michael Young caused a stir when he challenged the government’s interpretation of his work on powerful knowledge in our big interview feature, while our long-read analysis on low-level disruption sought opinion from across the sector on how to tackle what Tom Bennett, the Department for Education’s lead behaviour adviser, calls “kryptonite to any lesson”.

After high-profile and tragic cases of deaths of children with allergies, we published a detailed article on the risk that children with allergies face in school, how schools can ensure staff are adequately trained to help should the worst happen and why government action may be needed to help make it a clearer priority.

And in Scotland, we took an in-depth look at the impact of decades of work to boost the status of the Gaelic language in Scottish schools.

We also launched our three free newsletters, which thousands of teachers now rely on for the latest news, analysis and teaching and learning best practice - find out the details here.��

October

��Vlog revealed the “dire” and “severe” impact that soaring teacher shortages were having on schools, with vacancies for teachers or leaders up by 67 per cent in some subjects compared with pre-pandemic levels. We then uncovered that a plan to build teacher housing on school sites to help with recruitment had been quietly dropped by the government.

We also revealed how hundreds of schools risked losing thousands in tutoring cash owing to missing a DfE deadline to return a form. Union leaders said clawing back the cash from schools would be “tone deaf” in the face of the pressures they had been under in recent times.

Our analysis team took a close look at key stage 2 moderation practices and how we might change them to be more effective, while the parents of Frankie Thomas, who tragically died by suicide after accessing inappropriate material at school, spoke to Dan Worth about their campaigning work to make schools aware of the vital importance of ensuring filtering and monitoring software is working and used correctly.

An in-depth look at the use of reading ages in schools prompted a big debate on social media - later referenced by Ofsted in their guidance report on struggling readers - and teacher Clare Deal wrote about whether school size could be having a negative effect on pupils’ sense of belonging.

With growing momentum behind the idea of raising the school leaving age in Scotland, senior reporter Emma Seith explored what it might look like and what needs to happen to make it work.

And we looked at whether a new qualification that makes maths appealing by focusing on its practical applications might work in Scotland.

November

Controversial plans for Ofsted to use a “league table” of schools’ tutoring efforts as part of its inspection work “died” following the exit of Nadhim Zahawi as education secretary, sources revealed to ��Vlog. Meanwhile, analysis shared with ��Vlog revealed that a significant proportion of video lessons provided by the government’s online learning provider, Oak National Academy, were left unfinished by pupils last year.

And as the energy crisis began to peak, data seen by ��Vlog prompted warnings to schools to watch out for a “hidden” energy cost that had doubled and was not covered by the government’s support scheme.

In an interview with ��Vlog, one of the chief architects of the early days of the multi-academy trust (MAT) system, Sir Steve Lancashire, detailed the hostility he encountered as he brought more schools into his trust, the problems that came from rapid growth and the future of the MAT movement. We also looked at whether artificial intelligence-powered feedback generators in development were poised to cut teachers’ marking workloads.

And are the nation’s teachers using cognitive load theory properly? There’s more to it than meets the eye, argued teacher and researcher Michael Hobbiss in this piece.

An exclusive report on research into the pros and cons of the controversial move away from discrete subject departments to larger faculties in many Scottish schools caused a stir among teachers. Our Scottish team also looked into some bold decisions around school meals.

December

In a rare and exclusive interview, schools minister Nick Gibb chatted to ��Vlog editor Jon Severs about the educational philosophies and beliefs that have shaped his approach to the education sector over the past decade, and why this meant “blowing up the concrete” of the old model.

This came as the beleaguered Schools Bill was finally shelved and there was more bad news on teacher recruitment.

We also highlighted the school building repair issues that would come to dominate mainstream discussions about education later in the year.

Was the Teaching for Mastery programme worth the money the government invested in it? We looked for evidence that maths mastery actually works as a teaching model. Meanwhile, Peter Fonagy explained how a child’s earliest relationships go on to shape not just how they respond to others, but also how they learn.

We were ahead of the game highlighting the crisis in the MAT CEO pipeline with this in-depth piece from Zofia Niemtus.

And the acute problems with Scottish behaviour approaches were highlighted by school leaders in this article from our Scotland team, following a series of media reports on violent incidents.

January

A ��Vlog investigation found that as many as three-quarters of safeguarding referrals from schools were resulting in no further action being taken by local authorities; and we revealed plans discussed by the DfE to convert unused spaces in primary schools hit by falling pupil rolls into temporary sites for special schools, sparking warnings by school leaders that the move would fail to provide the permanent special school places that are “desperately needed”.

Headteachers began preparing for the first teacher strikes of the year, while an analysis of Ofsted school inspection reports provided a unique insight into the changing focus of the inspectorate since 2006.

The “reading record” is a staple of primary literacy but it can suck the joy out of reading at home, argued Year 6 teacher Claire Tracy in this article, in which she also described how rebranding these tools as reading “journals” worked wonders for pupil engagement at her school.

Meanwhile, reports of teachers being confronted by increasing numbers of students expressing misogynistic attitudes, inspired by influencers such as Andrew Tate, led assistant headteacher Mark Roberts to share his advice on how to address these views in schools.

And the huge danger posed by asbestos in schools was looked at in detail by John Morgan, who outlined the scale of the issue and why it ever came to pass - and what schools can do to help mitigate the risk and keep staff and pupils safe.

In Scotland, despite policymakers’ best intentions, frequent shortages of teachers and a lack of teaching jobs became common; and four educators came together to share their views on how schools can take a leading role in the long-term effort to combat societal racism.

Finally, we launched our ��Vlog Leadership Forum webinar series - we now have five excellent sessions for you to access.��

February

A “refusal” to allow school leaders the freedom to make exceptions to absence rules for “good reason” was cited as creating a longer-term attendance problem by damaging trust with families, a heads’ union warned, while Sam Twiselton exclusively revealed the inside story of the controversial ITT reforms.

��Vlog revealed that the Association of School and College Leaders would look at holding a formal strike ballot if there was no new improved pay offer for teachers - a watershed moment for a union that had never balloted all members in England over strike action; and a ��Vlog analysis of trust accounts showed that more than half of the country’s largest MATs increased the six-figure salaries of their top earners last year.

Government guidance is increasingly prioritising the phrase “adaptive teaching” over the long-established term “differentiation” - but, as columnist Alex Quigley argued in this article, education needs to agree on a clear definition of adaptive teaching to make the most of the shift.

And as the Education Endowment Foundation published a new toolkit outlining the principles of good early years education, ��Vlog drew out four key areas of research that every early years practitioner should know about.

How can school leadership teams work together more effectively? That was the question this in-depth article set out to answer. In another article this month, our analysis team asked whether the primary testing regime was inclusive enough for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or those on an education, health and care plan.��

And in Scotland, four leading education researchers showed why there is often a wide gap between the aims of Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence and the reality of how it plays out in schools.

March

MATs that run both primary and secondary schools told us they were increasingly being forced to divert funds towards younger pupils to prevent falling standards or closures in the face of funding pressures and declining rolls.

Our analysis also showed that secondary school teacher vacancies had soared by up to 36 per cent above pre-pandemic levels in some regions, while ��Vlog revealed that flagship government school mental health support teams faced an exodus of specialist workers who felt “in over their heads” amid lack of wider service gaps to support rising need among pupils.

Will digital exams become the norm for all pupils in the future? Grainne Hallahan talked to an exam board and schools who trialled digital exams last year to hear about the reality of running computer-based assessments, and why it may not be long before this is something all schools are administrating.

And Tim Oates, one of the architects of the 2014 national curriculum, spoke about whether his views on knowledge have changed.

In the early years foundation stage, adviser Angela Cogan argued that, though arts and crafts are staples of the early years classroom, schools need to stop obsessing over the end product and pay more attention to the process of creating.

And in Scotland, after hearing of many schools not organising trips abroad after the pandemic, we explored an emerging question facing headteachers: is the huge effort put into ambitious foreign excursions worth it, or should schools be reimagining school trips?

April

��Vlog analysis of FFT Education Datalab data revealed that the absence rate among Year 11 students was 75 per cent higher than pre-pandemic levels over the autumn and spring terms this academic year. The revelations sparked warnings over the return of GCSE grade standards to pre-pandemic levels. Former schools minister Robin Walker, chair of the Commons Education Select Committee, said the findings were a “grave concern” and needed to be addressed as a “priority” by the government.

We took a deep dive into the issues causing the problems, too.

Flexible working is becoming commonplace in many industries - can teaching do the same? Grainne Hallahan spoke to an array of schools and trusts already rolling solutions out.

Over on the teaching and learning desk, we interviewed Jean Gross about the gap between disadvantaged children and their more affluent peers being wider than ever, and ways for schools to level the playing field.

In Wales, some early and worrying signs about the implementation of the new curriculum were emerging, as this report from a major conference showed.

And in Scotland, just after a new first minister and a new education secretary took up their posts, this piece looked at what their impact might be on schools.

Plus we got an exclusive look at the school thought to have the highest fees in the world - which also offers fascinating parallels with curricular reform in Scotland.

May

��Vlog revealed how MAT leaders feel they are operating “in the dark” over the criteria the government is using to decide how and when schools are moved in and out of trusts. This was despite the DfE promising more transparent decision making as it promotes the government’s vision of a MAT-led school system.

Meanwhile, union leaders and SEND experts hit out at the government for having a “hidden agenda” after it refused a ��Vlog request to publish its projections on the financial impact of its planned reforms for pupils with SEND.

In our big analysis this month, we looked at why so many teachers over the age of 50 have left education in the past decade. It caused a huge debate within the sector about the impact this has had and how to fix it.

Amid conflicting theories about the best ways to manage behaviour, how do school leaders determine what their school policy should include? In this feature, John Morgan took a look at the evidence and interrogated the ideas underpinning government-backed behaviour hubs.

Elsewhere, Ofsted flagged executive functions as an area that EYFS teachers need to understand more about. Three researchers summarised what practitioners need to know, and dispelled misconceptions, in this article.

After news surfaced about the difficulties faced by primary pupils in their KS2 Sats reading paper, we looked at the data around the test to show why there was so little time given to children to read, comprehend and answer the questions put to them.

Senior reporter Emma Seith unpacked a landmark report that talked up the strengths of teacher education in Scotland but also found underlying tensions between schools and universities; and we published the first detailed account anywhere on the findings of the “national discussion” on Scottish education, published just a few minutes after a parliamentary debate on the matter had finished.

June

The recruitment crisis that we had covered all year came to a head during the teacher ‘transfer window’. Our investigation found that the deadline for this year had been the “worst” and was causing “major anxiety” amid a wider capacity challenge.

As pressure mounted on Ofsted over the impact of its inspection regime on school leaders following the tragic death of headteacher Ruth Perry, we revealed that nearly three-quarters of heads’ freedom of information requests to see Ofsted inspectors’ evidence about their school have been rejected by the watchdog over the past four years.

Meanwhile, as Ofsted and the government fought to bat away calls for radical reform of the inspectorate, we revealed that an influential former chief inspector, Michael Wilshaw, had changed his mind and was now calling for one-word judgements to be scrapped.

The DfE had its eye on an additional role for Ofsted, though: chasing up usage of government catch-up schemes.

Social media-driven “copycat” behaviour has been blamed for recent increases in various mental health and neurodevelopmental conditions. But are children really “catching” syndromes from the content they’re viewing online? In this feature, we investigated the phenomenon of social contagion.

Meanwhile, growing numbers of UK parents are asking for their summer-born children to start Reception a year later. But should schools always grant these requests? This article weighs up the evidence.

How have schools and trusts adapted to the requirement to ensure they offer 32.5 hours of education per week? We spoke to a cross-section of leaders to find out the work required to shift timetables to meet the new policy - and why it has not just led to longer lunchtimes.

And a state-of-the-nation piece on Northern Irish education looked at the history that weighs heavily on the system and the signs of fundamental change; plus we published an exclusive interview with Welsh education minister Jeremy Miles, in which he shared his views on the progress of the new Curriculum for Wales.

July

Education unions and the government reached an agreement for a 6.5 per cent pay rise for all teaching staff. Meanwhile, Sir Martyn Oliver, CEO of Outwood Grange Academies Trust, was reported to be the DfE’s pick for the next chief inspector of Ofsted.

Labour unveiled details of its education mission, revealing policies including a tweak to Progress 8, a curriculum review and a big focus on the early years. Former government adviser Sam Freedman said there was a mismatch between the party’s aims and the fiscal caution it is stressing will underpin its plans if it wins the next election.

Meanwhile, the DfE released guidelines that will determine how schools are matched with MATs and how it will be decided whether MATs can grow. It also updated the Academy Trust Handbook.