Need to know: Sunak or Truss, staff pay rises and handwriting

After last week’s announcement of an “unfunded” 5 per cent pay rise for experienced teachers, school leaders were this week grappling with an increase of up to 10.5 per cent for support staff, again without any extra funding - prompting warnings that they could be forced to cut jobs.

Meanwhile, Tes looked into what the choice of the next Conservative leader - and prime minister - could mean for schools; a government consultation on its plans to reform the SEND support system revealed major concerns; and a Tes article reignited the debate about the need to teach joined-up handwriting.

Catch up on your must-read Tes news and features articles from the past week right here:

News

• School support staff offered pay rise of up to 10.5 per cent 
  Local authorities have offered school support staff a flat pay rise - but leaders have warned that this “unfunded” rise, on top of the teachers’ pay increase, could force schools to make cuts.
   
• £1bn support-staff pay rise could “break” school budgets 
  School leaders have warned that the pay rise offered to support staff could be “the straw that breaks the camel’s back” in terms of school finances, with some being forced into making redundancies.
   
• SEND: 7 key problems with the government’s plans 
  A public consultation on the Department for Education’s SEND Green Paper plans has highlighted major concerns among teachers and parents.
   
• Ofsted: We don’t know which subjects get the most “deep dives” 
  Ofsted’s admission that it does not have a central record of the “deep dives” that inspectors have carried out into different subjects this year has raised concerns that some subjects are facing more scrutiny in school inspections than others.
   
• Sunak wants every Ofsted inspection to rate PE lessons 
  Rishi Sunak, one of the two candidates aiming to be the next prime minister, says he would ask Ofsted to assess the quality of PE in every school inspection.

Features

• Truss or Sunak: what it would mean for education 
  Former Department for Education policy adviser Sam Freedman looks at how the choice of the next Conservative leader - and, therefore, prime minister - out of either Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak, will affect schools.
   
• Teacher pay: too little for staff, too much for schools 
  Jack Worth, of the National Foundation for Educational Research, explains why the teacher pay rise announced by the government has been badly received by teachers and school leaders.
   
• How schools should calculate holiday pay for part-year workers 
  After a landmark Supreme Court ruling in a case involving a music teacher and an academy trust, one legal expert explains the new calculations schools will need to use to work out holiday pay for part-year workers.
   
• Why it’s time to drop joined-up handwriting 
  Cursive writing isn’t part of the national curriculum, so why do so many schools insist on teaching it? Aimee Robinson finds out.
   
• How you should plan for positive behaviour 
  Good lesson planning doesn’t necessarily lead to good behaviour, says principal Sam Strickland. Teachers need to spend time specifically planning for good behaviour in their classrooms - and here’s how to do it.