GENERAL NEWS
Budget 2024: what it means for education
On Wednesday 30 October, the Chancellor announced the government’s Budget for 2025-26.
The Budget included investment of an extra £1.8 billion into the early years in 2025- 26, so the government will be spending over £8 billion in total. This money will mean the government can continue the expanded roll out of funded childcare hours for parents of children from 9-months-old, up to 3- and 4-year-olds. There is also £15 million to begin delivery of 3,000 school-based nurseries. Schools can bid for up to £150,000 to expand existing nurseries or open a new one. The money is expected to mean 300 new or expanded nurseries open by September
2025.
Funding for schools will rise by £2.3 billion next year. £1 billion of that funding is for high needs, recognising the immense need in the sector. The government is continuing to develop plans to transform England’s Special Education Needs and Disabilities (SEND) system and improve outcomes for young people. This remaining increase to the schools budget will continue to fully fund this summer’s 5.5% pay award for teachers, and help cover pay awards in 2025-26. For schools, government has committed an additional £1.4billion to make sure the School Rebuilding Programme can continue, which means 100 rebuilding projects starting next year and keeps us on track to rebuild 518 schools in total. A further £2.1billion is being allocated to maintain and improve school buildings, which is an increase of £300 million compared to last year.
Colleges will receive a further £300 million to invest in the further education estate, providing certainty for colleges to plan improvements to their facilities. The Budget has also allocated an additional £300 million to further education. Government is also taking steps to transform the Apprenticeship Levy into a more flexible Growth and Skills Levy by investing £40 million to help deliver new foundation and shorter apprenticeships in key sectors.
To support parents, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, government is increasing investment in breakfast clubs to over £30 million, to help ensure children are ready to learn at the start of the school day, and helping drive improvements to behaviour, attendance and attainment.
The investment will both support the existing DfE school breakfast programme, used by around 2,700 schools, and support the roll out of our new free breakfast clubs, with the first 750 schools set to be up and running in the spring. There is also £44 million for children’s social care, to support kinship and foster
carers. Water relief as forest school pupils receive all-weather clothing!
Assistant Headteacher Aimee Helie said: “The support from Inspectas in purchasing all weather waterproofs is a game- changer for our pupils here at Co-op Academy Delius. With this new waterproof gear, all of our pupils can take full advantage of these enriching activities, regardless of their physical abilities or the weather.
Academy pupils can now enjoy year-round outdoor play and education thanks to the sponsorship of property compliance specialists Inspectas.
Inspectas Property Compliance has provided funds for the Delius Co-op Academy in Bradford to buy 50 sets of waterproof jackets and trousers to keep pupils aged from 4-11 dry when using the newly developed outside forest school area. Delius Co-op Academy provides a personalised and ambitious curriculum for 174 children with special needs across two sites in Bradford. This year, it has introduced a forest school in the school grounds to support play, exploration and supported risk-taking through hands-on outdoor experiences.
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“For our pupils with special needs, these outdoor experiences are particularly beneficial in promoting communication, motor skills and social interaction. The addition of the new waterproof clothing will mean that every child can participate fully and comfortably, whether they are building dens, exploring the woods, or learning about local wildlife!”
Inspectas Operations Director, Fiona Lindsay (pictured), added: “A large proportion of the properties we provide occupational management for include schools and universities so we are very aware of the complexities of the buildings and of the large amount of work it will be taking Delius Academy to develop their forest school.
“With so much time and energy going into this outdoor project, it was clear to us that the pupils needed to be able to benefit from it at any time of the year. So we were absolutely delighted to be able to help by providing all-weather clothing to ensure the children the forest school is there for, can enjoy it to its full potential – whatever time of the year!”
November 2024
First AI trained by qualified UK teachers
For the first time, an AI model has been fine-tuned to teach UK key stage 3 and 4 maths and English using national curriculum approved methods.
The 8B parameter Llama 3 model, released in April by Facebook-owned Meta, has been extensively tuned using 550,000 minutes of transcribed explanations from over 300 fully qualified UK teachers, who deliver tutoring on behalf of the online tuition company, TLC LIVE.
The model powers ‘Manda’, TLC LIVE’s AI tutor. ‘Manda’ is named after Manda Barnes, co-founder and director of TLC LIVE. It is currently undergoing testing with students. ‘Manda’ will tutor children studying the UK national curriculum wherever they are in the world and is priced at £10 a month per student (£100 for the year if they sign up for an annual account). Parents can sign up for access at
tlclive.ai.
Simon Barnes, co-founder and CEO says: “We’ve always been passionate about supporting children with tutoring delivered by actual teachers – we know, and research shows, this is the best option. But we saw an opportunity to offer high quality but relatively low-cost AI tutoring, using national curriculum approved methodologies, and decided we should build Manda to at least give parents a new option, amongst all the other AI tutors that have quickly sprung up over the last 18 months.
Manda generates text and code only and has a knowledge cut off date of March 2023. It is updated on an ongoing basis by TLC LIVE’s internal academic team, which continually improves its ability to explain questions to students.
Barnes concludes: “Any AI can ‘tutor’, but Manda’s the first AI in the world to be trained by fully qualified UK teachers and we’re really proud of this!”
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