Welcome back to the new academic year and autumn term, I do hope you all managed to enjoy some down time and change of scenery over the summer break.

Back to school has provided a renewed energy from the government with a three-year budget settlement; so although the government has talked about a “£14bn increase in school funding”, that figure actually refers to the cumulative additional funding that will be spent between 2020-21 and 2022-23.

It is not an additional £14bn per year for schools – it totals £7.1bn per year by 2022-23. According to the Department for Education, that additional £7.1bn by 2022-23 should meet the costs of:

• A growth in pupil numbers (around £1bn)
• A real-terms protection of per-pupil funding (around £3bn)
• Additional funding for pupils with high needs (£700m in 2020-21 only, with further years to be decided)
• The cost of increases to teachers pay, including raising starting salaries for all new teachers to £30,000.

It also assumes that the £700m on high needs is held flat, meaning that it would be worth around £580m in real terms by the end of 2022-23 and around £600m short of what the education select committee says is needed to plug the deficit in high needs!

With the beginning of the school term, brings the introduction of the new Ofsted framework, however at the end of August, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has revealed a raft of new measures aimed at tackling under performing schools and ensuring standards improve. One change is that schools rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted will no longer be exempt from routine Ofsted inspections, having previously only attracted visits if the watchdog had concerns about their performance.

You will hopefully have received the new CPD offer in the internal post, which the team have worked very hard on over the last few months. You will notice a fresh new, look and feel about the CPD publication, where we have acted on feedback. The offer is constructed around statutory and core requirements of our schools, building on innovation from Learning Hubs and bursary schools, these are clearly indicated throughout the brochure using different colour coded Camden Learning butterflies. This year, we have also placed a greater emphasis on feedback and each course has a dedicated QR code so that participants will be able to provide instant feedback on sessions attended.

Please note the deadline for Hub sign up is 13th September 2019; please send your choices to customersupport@camdenlearning.org.uk.

Finally, I do hope you all have the 4th October saved in your diaries for the Camden Learning curriculum event (whole day event) which will be held in 5PS on the 11th Floor. I am pleased to announce that we have Steve Rollett as an our guest speaker who is a curriculum and inspection specialist at ASCL, Steve will be leading the morning session, considering the curriculum in light of the new framework. Steve’s session will explore how leaders lead on the curriculum, understanding what progression through the curriculum means and deliberating over the challenges that exist. Please do bring along either your deputy or curriculum lead if possible, so that as many colleagues as possible can benefit from the input and discussion.

Jon Abbey

Managing Director, Camden Learning