Alix Robertson | Schools Week

Ex-children’s minister gets £550-a-day safeguarding review job

The former children’s minister and MP Edward Timpson will chair a new panel set up to examine child safeguarding practices. The child safeguarding practice review panel has been set up by the Department for Education to commission national reviews of child safeguarding cases that they believe are complex or of national importance from June 29. […]

Fifteen schools chosen as T-levels pioneers

Fifteen schools are among the first 52 providers chosen to deliver the government’s new technical qualifications. These new T-Levels are designed to have “parity of esteem” with A-levels, and will give young people the option of a vocational route from the age of 16. Three so-called “pathways” will be taught from September 2020, involving courses […]

New £9.8m fund to gather world’s ‘best’ teaching practices

A new £9.8 million fund will deliver a five-year project to gather the best teaching practices from around the world. The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) and global development charity BHP Billiton Foundation will fund the project which will build “a global evidence network” of strategies to tackle common challenges and boost attainment in schools. It will […]

TAs miss out on training as funding plummets

Nearly half of teaching assistants claim to have received no training from their schools within the last year as schools cut back to save money. In a survey of 4,500 school support staff, 53.3 per cent of classroom-based staff said their school’s money for training had dropped in the last 12 months, and 45.1 per […]

Ofsted attempts parental charm offensive

Ofsted wants to make its inspection reports more accessible to parents because they are its “most important education stakeholders”, according to a senior official. Amy Finch, its head of strategic development, said this week that when Ofsted’s new framework comes into effect from September 2019, it will improve parental communication by using clearer language in […]

Troubled UCAT trust to shed four schools after finances warning

Four schools run by the troubled University of Chester Academies Trust (UCAT) will be rebrokered to new sponsors following the intervention of a government schools commissioner. Christine Quinn, the regional schools commissioner for the West Midlands, has “agreed with the trust to initially rebroker four schools” in order to “release capacity”, according to a parliamentary written […]

PISA gender report ‘reinforces stereotypes’

A major international report blaming girls’ lack of self-confidence in maths as the main reason for their weaker results – without examining other possible causes – has been criticised for its “outdated” views. The 2015 OECD gender report, which uses PISA data from the same year, reproduced gender stereotypes of “helpless girls” and “and self-orienting […]

AS entries fall by 60 per cent

AS-level entries continued to plummet this year, continuing a trend triggered by reforms which mean AS-levels no longer count towards pupils final grades. AS entries fell by 60 per cent compared to 2017, having fallen by 42 per cent between 2016 and 2017 – the first year where new reformed subjects no longer counted. A-level entries also decreased […]

Art & Design GCSE entries stay strong in face of EBacc

Fewer pupils have been entered for non-EBacc subjects this year, except in art and design which has bucked the decline and increased by two per cent. Official government figures released this morning also show entries to EBacc subjects have soared, especially in the sciences. A larger cohort of pupils means there are more overall GCSE entries […]