Alix Robertson | Schools Week

DfE ‘minded to terminate’ funding of ‘inadequate’ primary academy in Wiltshire

A Wiltshire primary school that is part of the Diocese of Salisbury Academy Trust faces having its funding stopped and being rebrokered to a new sponsor after receiving an ‘inadequate’ grade from Ofsted in July. Marden Vale CofE Academy was judged ‘inadequate’ in every category except its early years provision, which ‘requires improvement,’ following its […]

Students stage underground poster campaign against school exclusions

An anonymous group of south London students have chosen GCSE results day to stage a protest about school exclusions, by replacing posters on the Northern line with images of an underground line running from ‘School to Prison’. The imaginary train line pictured on the posters travels from being ‘sent out of class’, through ‘detention’, ‘isolation’, […]

GCSE results 2018 – How did boys and girls do in English and maths?

In this year’s GCSEs, only the results in English and maths are directly comparable with 2017, as these two reformed subjects were the only 9 to 1 GCSEs introduced last year. Schools Week took a look at how girls and boys performed in these reformed core subjects, in their second year of exams. There were […]

E-ACT primary school has SATs results cancelled for reading and maths

Year 6 pupils at a primary academy in Birmingham run by the chain E-ACT will not receive scores for their reading and maths SATs, after the Standards and Testing Agency (STA) found “doubt over the accuracy or correctness” of the results. The STA has been examining how the tests were managed at Nechells Primary E-ACT […]

GCSE results 2018: Send us your (non-traditional) success stories!

Teenagers across England will find out the results of their GCSEs tomorrow. Every year, Schools Week takes an alternative approach to reporting pupil success stories. Usually, we focus uniquely on those who attend secondary modern schools – non-selective schools that recruit from the same neighbourhood as grammar schools. We do this, not to ‘condone’ a selective school system, but […]

Ofqual lowers pass grade for higher tier science

Ofqual has dropped the pass threshold for the GCSE science higher tier exams this year, following concerns that too many pupils would receive an ‘unclassified’ result. In a blog post released today, Cath Jadhav, associate director of standards and comparability at Ofqual, explained that during the awarding period this year exam boards had reported to the […]

Pupil destinations will trump Progress 8 as headline measure for UTCs

The Department for Education is changing the way it judges the success of university technical colleges and studio schools, by moving its focus from the Progress 8 accountability measures to pupil destinations. In a letter to the Office for Statistics Regulation, Neil McIvor, chief data officer and chief statistician at the DfE, explained changes that will be […]

How to apply for re-marks and appeal A-level results 2018

A-level results day is an exciting, if stressful, time for pupils and teachers across the country. While many will be celebrating the outcomes from yesterday’s results announcements, others may need to rethink their options. Exams officers, teachers and school leaders are there to help those who haven’t got the results they had been expecting. Each […]

A-level results 2018: boys vs girls

Boys have again beaten girls to the top A-level grades – with 8.5 per cent of male candidates achieving A*s, compared with 7.6 per cent of female entries. Last year, boys reversed a pattern of higher female achievement that had lasted for nearly two decades. Boys had previously led the way on A* grades but it […]