One-word Ofsted ratings for schools to be scrapped immediately

Published

9 months ago

September 2, 2024

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One-word Ofsted judgements for state schools are being scrapped with immediate effect in a move that has been hailed as a “landmark moment for children”.

Previously, the education watchdog awarded one of four marks to schools it inspects: outstanding, good, requires improvement and inadequate.

From this academic year, four grades will be awarded across the existing sub-categories: quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development and leadership and management, the Department for Education (DfE) has announced.

School report cards will be introduced from September 2025, which will provide parents with a “comprehensive assessment of how schools are performing and ensure that inspections are more effective in driving improvement”, it added.

The change follows engagement with the education sector and family of headteacher Ruth Perry, who took her own life after an Ofsted report downgraded her Caversham Primary School in Reading from “outstanding” to “inadequate” over safeguarding concerns.

Last year, a coroner’s inquest found the inspection process had contributed to her death.

The DfE said “reductive” single phrase grades “fail to provide a fair and accurate assessment of overall school performance” and the change will help “break down barriers to opportunity”.

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson told Sky News’ Breakfast with Kay Burley programme: “We are today making that change because I believe that parents need more information about what goes on within our schools and the system that we’ve got at the moment just isn’t working.

“It’s too high stakes, and it doesn’t have a sharp enough focus on how we drive up standards in our schools. And that is incredibly important because I want all of our children to get a great education and a great start in life.”

The change has been a central mission of the new Labour government, which has vowed to raise standards in state education and generate additional funding through a tax on private school fees.

As part of the announcement today, the government said it will prioritise improvement plans for schools identified as struggling, rather than relying on changing management.

From early 2025, regional improvement teams will be introduced to work with underperforming schools to address areas of weakness.

In cases of the most serious concern, where schools would have been rated inadequate, the government will continue to intervene.

This could include issuing an academy order, which forces maintained schools to become an academy and which may in some scenarios mean transferring to new management, the DfE said.

Ms Phillipson earlier said: “The need for Ofsted reform to drive high and rising standards for all our children in every school is overwhelmingly clear.

“The removal of headline grades is a generational reform and a landmark moment for children, parents, and teachers.”

She added that single headline grades are “low information for parents and high stakes for schools”.

“Parents deserve a much clearer, much broader picture of how schools are performing – that’s what our report cards will provide.

“This government will make inspection a more powerful, more transparent tool for driving school improvement. We promised change, and now we are delivering.”

Reforms ‘could go further’

The announcement comes as pupils return to the classroom this week.

The removal of single headline grades will apply to state schools due to be inspected this academic year, with other settings like independent schools and colleges expected to follow.

The plans have been welcomed by teaching unions, who have long called for reform.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Headteachers, said: “We have been clear that simplistic one-word judgments are harmful and we are pleased the government has taken swift action to remove them.”

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However, NASUWT general secretary Dr Patrick Roach said while the new government has “made the right decision”, it could go further and “end the fallacy that academy conversion is the only route to securing the improvements our schools need”.

“Whilst today’s announcements are an important step in the right direction, it remains the case that in the absence of root and branch reform to fix the foundations of the broken accountability system, teachers and school leaders will continue to work in a system that remains flawed,” he said.

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Politics

Moody’s downgrades US credit rating due to rising debt

Published

2 hours ago

May 17, 2025

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<div>Moody's downgrades US credit rating due to rising debt</div>

Moody’s credit rating agency downgraded the credit rating of the United States government from Aaa to Aa1, citing the rising national debt as the primary driver behind the reduction in creditworthiness.

According to the May 16 announcement from the rating agency, US lawmakers have failed to stem annual deficits or reduce spending over the years, leading to a growing national debt. The rating agency wrote:

“We do not believe that material multi-year reductions in mandatory spending and deficits will result from the current fiscal proposals under consideration. Over the next decade, we expect larger deficits as entitlement spending rises while government revenue remains broadly flat.”

The credit downgrade is only one degree out of the 21-notch rating scale used by the company to assess the credit health of an entity.

Economy, US Government, United States, National Debt — *An overview of the US national debt. Source:* *US National Debt Clock*

Despite the negative short to medium-term credit outlook, Moody’s maintained a positive outlook on the long-term health of the United States, citing its robust economy and the status of the US dollar as the global reserve currency as strengths, reflecting “balanced” lending risks.

Investors react to Moody’s US credit revision

Moody’s announcement drew mixed reactions from investors and market participants, leaving many unconvinced by the agency’s revised outlook.

Gabor Gurbacs, CEO and founder of crypto loyalty rewards company Pointsville, cited the rating agency’s previous credit assessments during times of financial stress as unreliable, signaling that the outlook was too optimistic.

“This is the same Moody’s that gave Aaa ratings to sub-prime mortgage-backed securities that led to the 2007-2008 financial crisis,” the executive wrote in a May 17 X post.

However, macroeconomic investor Jim Bianco argued that the recent Moody’s credit outlook does not reflect a real downgrade in the perception of US government creditworthiness and characterized the announcement as a “nothing burger.”

US government debt surpassed $36 trillion in January 2025 and shows no signs of slowing, despite recent efforts by Elon Musk and others to reduce federal spending and curtail the national debt.

As the debt climbs and investors lose faith in US government securities, bond yields will spike, causing the debt service payments to go up, further inflating the national debt.

This creates a vicious cycle as the government will have to entice investors with ever-greater yields to incentivize them to purchase government debt.

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Politics

Scotland’s former first minister Humza Yousaf hits out at Starmer’s ‘dog whistle’ stance on immigration

Published

5 hours ago

May 17, 2025

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Scotland's former first minister Humza Yousaf hits out at Starmer's 'dog whistle' stance on immigration

Former Scottish first minister Humza Yousaf has attacked Sir Keir Starmer for his “dog whistle” stance on immigration after the prime minister said the UK risked becoming an “island of strangers”.

In a piece penned by Mr Yousaf for LBC, the former leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) repeated claims the prime minister’s recent remarks on immigration were a “modern echo” of Enoch Powell’s infamous 1968 Rivers Of Blood speech.

The prime minister stirred controversy earlier this week when he argued Britain “risked becoming an island of strangers” if immigration levels were not cut.

After many MPs criticised his language, Sir Keir rejected the comparison to Powell, with his official spokesperson saying migrants have made a “massive contribution” to society but his point was that the Tories “lost control of the system”.

In the LBC piece published on Saturday, Mr Yousaf said: “Powell’s 1968 speech warned of immigration as an existential threat to ‘our blood and our culture’, stoking racial panic that led directly to decades of hostile migration policies.

“Starmer’s invocation of ‘strangers’ is a modern echo – a dog-whistle to voters who blame migrants for every social ill, from stretched public services to the cost-of-living crisis.

“It betrays a failure to understand, or deliberately mask the fact that Britain’s prosperity depends on migration, on openness not building walls.”

Sir Keir made the comments at a news conference in which measures were announced to curb net migration, including banning care homes from recruiting overseas, new English language requirements for visa holders and stricter rules on gaining British citizenship.

The package is aimed at reducing the number of people coming to the UK by up to 100,000 per year, though the government has not officially set a target.

The government is under pressure to tackle legal migration, as well as illegal immigration, amid Reform UK’s surge in the polls.

Mr Yousaf concluded his article saying the UK was “on the brink of possibly handing the keys of No 10 to Nigel Farage”.

Politics

Everstake defends non-custodial staking as SEC weighs industry input

Published

13 hours ago

May 17, 2025

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Everstake defends non-custodial staking as SEC weighs industry input

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has held discussions with Everstake, one of the largest non-custodial staking providers globally, to explore clearer regulatory definitions around staking in blockchain networks.

The meeting, which also involved the SEC’s Crypto Task Force, comes at a time when over $193 billion in digital assets are staked across major proof-of-stake (PoS) networks.

However, despite the massive scale of participation, staking remains in a legal gray zone in the US as regulators wrestle with its classification under existing securities law.

The previous SEC administration also took enforcement actions against major players such as Kraken, Coinbase, and Consensys due to their staking services. The agency, under pro-crypto President Donald Trump, has recently dismissed these enforcement actions.

During the meeting, Everstake told the SEC that non-custodial staking should not be classified as a securities transaction. The company said that users maintain full control over their digital assets throughout the staking process and do not transfer ownership to a third party.

They argued that this makes staking a technical function, not an investment product.

“Our main assertion is that staking is not a financial instrument or security transaction, but rather a technical process, a base-layer protocol mechanism—akin to an oracle in a database—that maintains the integrity and functionality of decentralized networks,” Everstake founder Sergii Vasylchuk told Cointelegraph.

Everstake calls for regulatory clarity

In a letter submitted to the SEC’s Crypto Task Force on April 8, 2025, Everstake asked the agency to extend regulatory clarity to non-custodial staking and custodial and liquid staking models.

In the letter, which came in respond to Commissioner Hester Peirce’s call for input on regulatory treatment of blockchain services, Everstake argued that non-custodial staking should not be considered a securities offering.

It claimed that non-custodial staking, where users retain control of their tokens, does not involve the pooling of assets or the expectation of profits from managerial efforts.

In its model, Everstake said users delegate only validation rights while maintaining ownership of their digital assets. The staking rewards are algorithmically distributed by the blockchain network itself, and the firm merely provides technical infrastructure.

Non-custodial staking fails the Howey test

The letter also details why non-custodial staking fails each prong of the Howey test. Users do not make an investment of money in a common enterprise, do not expect profits from Everstake’s efforts, and are not dependent on the company’s management for financial returns.

Instead, any rewards come from network-level incentives and fluctuate with the market value of the underlying asset.

Everstake proposes specific criteria that should exempt non-custodial staking from securities classification. These include user asset control, absence of pooled funds, permissionless unstaking, and the provision of purely technical services.

It likens non-custodial staking to proof-of-work mining, which the SEC has previously ruled out as a securities transaction.

Margaret Rosenfeld, Everstake’s chief legal officer, also told Cointelegraph that “with non-custodial staking, there’s no handover of assets, no investment contract, and no third-party risk.” She added:

“Treating it as a securities offering undermines the decentralized model and risks chilling innovation in the blockchain sector.”

Nevertheless, the SEC has so far withheld a definitive stance. Rosenfeld said that the agency did not make any “specific commitments” on staking guidance. However, it continues to listen to industry stakeholders.

“The Task Force is actively engaging with a range of stakeholders—including those involved with non-custodial staking, ETFs, and broader blockchain infrastructure—to gather input.”

In an April 30 letter to the SEC, nearly 30 crypto advocate groups led by the lobby group the Crypto Council for Innovation (CCI) asked the agency for clear regulatory guidance on crypto staking and staking services.

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