10-year investment plan of £1bn for school upgrades
The PM has announced a £1bn school rebuilding programme for England. Labour's flagship Building Schools for the Future was abandoned in 2010 and stopped over 700 refurbishment projects in their tracks.
It seems the focus of the new school upgrades over the next ten years will be in northern England and the Midlands.
Senior Leaders, although welcoming the investment, have fed back that they don't think this investment is anywhere near enough to help schools upgrade to a satisfactory condition, however.
Johnson pledges £1bn school rebuilding programme for England - The Guardian
PM Boris Johnson promising £1bn to rebuild crumbling schools - BBC
A decade of school building starts with £1bn from 2020-21 - TES
New DfE figures show continuing retention issues in the sector.
Nearly a third of teachers leave their roles within five years of qualifying according to new data from the DfE. Statistics published by the DfE reveal that of teachers who qualified in 2014, just 67.4 per cent were still in service after five years in 2019.
There is some good news hidden in the data, though.
There has been the first increase in the one-year retention rate for nearly a decade. Out of teachers who qualified in 2018, 85.4 per cent were still teaching in 2019. Hopefully, we will soon see the 5-year retention trend improving also.
Third of teachers leaving the profession within 5 years - TES
Fines for parents who do not send their children back to school in September.
"It is going to be compulsory for children to return to school unless there's a very good reason, or a local spike where there have had to be local lockdowns," Gavin Williamson.
Teaching unions have urged against reintroducing fines, warning that many parents will remain anxious about the health risks of sending their child back to school. The unions have recommended reliance on trust rather than financial penalties. Non-attendance fines have been suspended during the Covid-19 pandemic and parents have given the option to choose whether their children return as schools, but that is soon to change it seems.
Fines for school non-attendance in England to resume from autumn - The Guardian
School absence fines will resume in September, says Williamson - Schools Week
Penalty fines for missing school next term - BBC