The curriculum and assessment review will publish its interim report “in the spring”, the schools minister has confirmed, as she ducked calls to rule out cutting core subjects back or scrapping SATs.
And the education secretary Bridget Phillipson has insisted that “scaremongering” about the impact of its policy to introduce VAT on private school fees on state schools has not “come to pass”.
Phillipson took education questions in the House of Commons chamber alongside schools minister Catherine McKinnell and early education minister Stephen Morgan.
Here’s what we learned.
1. Curriculum review interim report coming in ‘spring’
The government previously promised its curriculum and assessment review panel would publish its interim report in “early 2025”.
Today, schools minister Catherine McKinnell confirmed “the interim report will be published in the spring”.
She said Labour “will bring forward a cutting edge curriculum that ensures all our children leave school ready for work and ready for life.”
2. No ‘reassurance’ core subjects won’t be cut back
Curriculum review chair Becky Francis has said “if we’re putting things in, we also need to find things to take out”, acknowledging complaints that it is “overstuffed” in some areas.
But shadow minister Neil O’Brien asked ministers today to “reassure the house that time will not be taken away from the core academic subjects as a result of this review, and that their content will not be cut back as a result of this curriculum review?”
However McKinnell gave no such reassurance.
“The government entered office to unprecedented challenges, crumbling public services, crippling public finances,” she said.
“And in the face of a significant black hole in finances, we are taking tough decisions to fix the foundations, but we are protecting key education priorities, rebuilding schools, including rolling out breakfast clubs, and we will continue to do so.”
3. And minister doesn’t rule out end of SATs
McKinnell was also challenged by Tory MP and former Downing Street chief of staff Nick Timothy to “rule out abolishing SATs in primary schools”.
Again, the minister made no guarantee.
“Assessment clearly has an important role to play in supporting achievement and supporting development within schools also,” she said.
“We will consider how the reform curriculum and assessment will affect schools, and we recognise the importance of supporting schools with any changes that come forward in the interim and the final report.”
4. ‘We’ll say more on SEND reform this year’
One of the biggest issues facing the government is the growing crisis in special educational needs and disabilities support.
The government has appointed a panel of experts to make recommendations on reform of the system.
Asked for the timescale for this, McKinnell told MPs “we will be announcing more details of reform plans this year”.
“We do recognise the unprecedented pressures that local authorities are under and indeed families also that want the best for their children, the best education possible, and a system that does not currently deliver that as quickly or as thoroughly as it should.”
The Guardian has reported a SEND white paper is being planned.
5. Private school VAT ‘scaremongering’ hasn’t ‘come to pass’
Labour’s policy of introducing VAT on private school fees has prompted warnings it could push pupils out of the system and into state schools that lack capacity.
But the Guardian reported today that more families had received their first choice of state school this year.
London Councils reported “no obvious impact” from the policy, with the proportion of families in the capital getting their first choice up by 1 percentage point this year.
And a survey of 70 councils outside London by the Press Association found a rise in first choice offers in 44. Two had no change and 24 reported a fall.
Bridget Phillipson told MPs today that “contrary to all of the scaremongering that we have seen from the private schools lobby more children at national offer day last week got their first choice place.
“The scaremongering that they have been suggesting just hasn’t come to pass.”
6. Delivery has started on half of rebuilds
At the autumn budget, the government announced a £1.4 billion extension to the school rebuilding programme, which will rebuilt or significantly refurbish 518 schools.
But the programme has been slow getting off the ground.
Early education minister Stephen Morgan told MPs today that “all projects have been given indicative timelines for delivery based on prioritisation of need, and around half have been commenced various stages of delivery activity so far”.
7. £90m advertising contract needed for recruitment
The Guido Fawkes blog reported last month that the DfE had issued a £90.7 million one-year contract for “advertising and media services” to agency Manning Gottlieb.
Today, the shadow education secretary Laura Trott asked Phillipson “how on earth” she could justify the spend when cutting programmes like the £4 million Latin excellence programme, adding: “doesn’t this show that the secretary of state’s priorities are all wrong?”
On the Latin programme, Phillipson said the Conservatives had also “designed the scheme to terminate in February. Maybe she can tell us why that was.”
She also insisted Labour was investing in schools.
“And yes, some of the investment we do need to make is about making sure people come forward to train as teachers, particularly because of the chronic issues we face around recruitment and retention because of the mess left behind after the last Conservative government.”
It comes after the DfE announced plans last year to “immediately resume – and expand – its flagship teacher recruitment campaign, Every Lesson Shapes a Life. It will also restart its further education recruitment campaign, Share Your Skills.”
Big spends on teacher recruitment adverts are not unusual, even under Conservative governments.
A Freedom of information request found the DfE spent more than £37 million on advertising for teacher recruitment between the 2016-17 academic year and 2018-19.
