Travel and self-isolation: How will this affect schools?

On 8 June 2020, the rules on travel changed, bringing in the obligation on individuals to provide details of their journey to the UK, contact details and where they will be staying. In addition, individuals travelling/ returning to the UK will be expected to self-isolate for 14 days upon arrival. This requirement is now solidified by the Health Protection (Coronavirus, International Travel) (England) Regulations 2020.

Exam Results and Subject Access Requests

Following the announcement that the government has cancelled this summer's exams due to the coronavirus pandemic, the exam regulator, Ofqual has confirmed that it will award GCSE and A-Level grades by a combination of teacher assessment, class ranking and the past performance of the school.

Under the system proposed by Ofqual, schools will be asked to recommend a grade for pupils in each subject. The assessments will be kept confidential and will not be shared with individual students. Pupils' final grades will then be awarded by the exam boards using the prior attainment of the year group at each school, each school's exam performance in recent years and the expected national outcomes for all pupils. These assessments are to be kept confidential in order to ensure that teachers' professional judgements are as objective as possible and not influenced by pupils or their parents or carers.

Employment law implications for academy conversions

Despite the ongoing upheaval that has been caused by Covid-19 and in particular the upheaval that this has caused for schools there are some things which continue on as normal.

At Forbes Solicitors we are experienced in navigating the academy conversion or rebrokerage process and these have been continued despite the ongoing uncertainty and disruption caused by Covid-19.

Recruitment and Employing Staff in Education - The next 12 months

Wednesday 5th August | 9.30am - 10.30am | Hosted online via Zoom

Forbes Solicitors and Hays have joined forces to consider the key issues in recruiting and employing staff whilst the pandemic is still affecting us locally or nationally and beyond.

They will discuss new approaches based on the latest guidance for re-opening of schools and other educational establishments; new ideas to help you get the best staff for the role and retain them and will take your recruitment and employment questions in a Q&A session.

If you would like to join the webinar please click here to register and joining instructions will be sent to you in due course.

Academies Financial Handbook 2020 Update

A new handbook was released last week to be effective from 1 September 2020.

Academy trusts must comply with this handbook as a condition of their funding agreements. The thought behind it is that managing your resources well will help you be accountable and enable you to get best value. It is what is expected of you in using public funds.

One of the unexpected changes is the confirmation that every trust must have a clerk to the board. The role is more than administrative support; it is about providing independent and expert advice. So, choose your clerk wisely! DfE have a Clerking Competency Framework to assist with what is needed.

Full re-opening for Education

There are common themes though around steps to be taken to ensure that transmissions rates remain low; contingency planning for remote education in the event of local lockdowns or periods of self-isolation, action and reporting to public health in the event of some one contracting COVID 19; transport; assessment of pupils/students and provision of education.