ISC Daily News Summary

Ministers are to introduce the Education for All Bill to help deliver their proposed changes to the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system, it was confirmed yesterday in the King’s Speech. During the speech, King Charles said: "A bill will be brought forward to raise standards in schools and introduce generational reforms of the special educational needs system." Briefing notes published alongside the speech added that ministers have vowed to "improve fairness across the system" by "funding schools on a fair and consistent basis" across the country, and "requiring schools to pool a portion of their funding for SEND". By John Roberts, Tes. His Majesty's speech can be read in full at gov.uk.

Schools face an "unrealistic" deadline to bring in new safeguarding proposals, leaders have said. The consultation on updates to Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) guidance concluded on 22 April, but designated safeguarding leads (DSLs) have warned the changes proposed mark a "significant overhaul" and not enough time has been left for implementation. KCSIE guidance is updated and reissued every year, with the final version typically published between May and June. Calling on ministers to confirm the changes as soon as possible, Thomas Michael, a safeguarding lead at a maintained school in the West Midlands, told Tes: "It will all require a certain amount of time to make sure policies are correct." By Kyle Tormey. 

The government’s White Paper sets out a new expectation that all schools need to do more to foster inclusivity, including specialist or inclusion support bases. Writing in Tes, Kiran Gill, CEO of The Difference charity, explores research by her organisation and the National Foundation for Educational Research that offers an in-depth picture of what effective internal provision looks like in practice. "In schools The Difference has worked with, that clarity of purpose – and the discipline to measure against it – is often what separates provision that transforms a young person’s trajectory from provision that simply contains them," she explains. 

Internal exclusions may not lead to fewer suspensions from school, according to early research by the Education Policy Institute. "Tentative correlations" between the use of internal exclusions – where pupils are removed from class but stay within school – and rates of suspensions were identified in the analysis, which comes as the Department for Education plans to share new guidance with schools to encourage headteachers to only send pupils home for the most serious cases of poor behaviour and violence. Researchers said the relationship between types of exclusion should be looked at with larger samples in the future. By Ruth Lucas, Schools Week.

More than half of students in the UK are missing classes, which is up from about a third of undergraduates in 2006, according to research by the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) and TechnologyOne, published today. The amount of time missed by those who did not attend all lectures and tutorials had also risen, from an average of three hours a week to five hours. The fall could be explained by more youngsters having to work part-time to earn money, students having more ­difficulty attending lectures in person and having worse mental health, HEPI said. By Nicola Woolcock, The Times. 

The Guardian meets seven-year-old N'raeah who has won a full scholarship to St Paul's Cathedral School. She is the fourth chorister from St John the Divine Kennington (SJDK) to win a fully funded scholarship to one of the UK’s most prestigious musical institutions in recent years. Commenting on SJDK's achievement in developing a large youth choral programme and helping some 1,000 children since 2013, Joe Tobin, the church's director of music, said: "The great success early on was that the church was able to create a model that worked really well for this area." By Aamna Mohdin.