SecEd

2 weeks ago | sec-ed.co.uk | Pete Henshaw

A third of schools are also cutting back on teaching staff and three-quarters are cutting teaching assistants in a bid to balance their books. The survey findings from the National Foundation for Educational Research and commissioned by the Sutton Trust show the extent to which schools are struggling to make ends meet – with secondary schools seemingly suffering the most. The survey involved 1,208 teachers and school leaders across primary and secondary schools.

2 weeks ago | sec-ed.co.uk | Pete Henshaw

The rapid development of artificial intelligence technologies has given rise to the creation of deepfake images and videos, often made using real images found online. In 2023 and 2024, reports from the Internet Watch Foundation documented horrifying ways that AI is being used to create deepfake images – and now videos – of child sexual abuse using real images trawled from the web. The research uncovered thousands of images of abuse on just one single dark web forum.

2 weeks ago | sec-ed.co.uk | Pete Henshaw

Analysis shows that before the pandemic, in 2019, around 42% of year 9 students – both boys and girls – “strongly agreed” that they felt safe at school. However, by 2023, this had fallen to 26% – just 1 in 4. However, the decline is particularly pronounced for teenage girls – while boys’ feelings of safety in school fell by 10% between 2019 and 2023, girls’ feelings of safety have fallen by 22%.

2 weeks ago | sec-ed.co.uk | Pete Henshaw

YouGov polling of almost 1,100 parents and carers found that 64% of them said that the wellbeing of pupils was more important to them than academic achievement. The poll found that 66% believe pupil wellbeing to be a key factor in school choice – ranking higher than things like location (62%), facilities (61%), school culture (56%), Ofsted ratings (52%), and even exam results (43%).

3 weeks ago | sec-ed.co.uk | Matt Bromley

In this five-part series, I am exploring adaptive, inclusive and responsive approaches in the classroom. I am focusing on three areas of professional practice: Lesson planning, teaching, and assessment. In this final instalment, I will consider assessment. School assessments are a vital part of education, measuring progress and guiding learning. However, they can unintentionally discriminate against certain groups of learners, creating barriers to fair outcomes.