This new guidance was issued on December 14th. It has a lot in it that schools need to consider, with particular implications for DSL training. I am working on advice and a list of possible actions for schools which I hope to have online before Christmas. In the meantime here is a link to the guidance.

On Friday 13th OFSTED issued new handbooks for 2017.

I have upload a version of both handbooks annotated to show the changes and documents listing the key changes.

School_inspection_handbook-section_8 annotated

School_inspection_handbook_section_5 annotated

Key messages and changes for the Handbook for inspecting schools in England under section 5 of the Education Act 2005

Key changes for OFSTED Handbook for short, monitoring and unannounced behaviour school inspections (Section 8 inspections)

I hope that these will be useful. Please let me know if I have missed anything.

The Government has released the latest information on assessment for children who would have been working on P levels. P levels are no longer to be used. The pre Key Stage standards are to become permanent for children able to engage in subject specific learning and should be used in reporting from 2018-19.

The new documents are:

• Primary school pupil assessment: Rochford Review recommendations Equalities impact assessment
• Primary assessment in England Equalities impact assessment
• Primary Assessment in England: Government Consultation Response
• Primary school pupil assessment: Rochford Review recommendations
• Interim pre-key stage 1 standards
• Interim pre-key stage 2 standards
• Teacher assessment frameworks at the end of key stage 1
• Teacher assessment frameworks at the end of key stage 2

For those not able to engage in subject specific learning school should use 7 elements described in the Complex Learning Difficulties and Disabilities Research Project.

There has not been an update to OFSTED handbooks or frameworks this year, but there is a special edition update newsletter. This appears to be based on the training conference run for OSTED inspectors last week. It has a lot of useful information in it, particular about data and assessment. Well worth a read.

The government have produced a new version of  ‘Preventing and tackling bullying’. This merges the previous guidance with the ‘Supporting children and young people who are bullied: advice for schools’ document as well as adding new information about how schools can support children and young people who are bullied