Alix Robertson | Schools Week

Urgent action needed to save MFL from ‘extinction’, claims expert

GCSE entries to modern foreign languages continued to fall this year, in a dropoff that could even see some subjects becoming “extinct” in schools, according to one expert. Overall, MFL entries were down by 7.3 per cent this year at around 300,000 in total, while the drop in the population of 16-year-olds in England sat […]

Heads unhappy with lack of government reassurance on new GCSEs

School leaders want “public acknowledgement” of the challenges this year’s reformed GCSEs have presented to teachers and pupils, but the Department for Education has refused to offer any new reassurance. Some senior sector figures want the government to work harder to demonstrate it understands the difficulties schools have faced in implementing the latest GCSE reforms. […]

EBacc improves pupils’ chances of studying A-levels

Studying subjects in the English Baccalaureate increases the likelihood that a student will stay on at school and sit A-levels, regardless of their ability, according to new research. Students who pursue the full range of EBacc subjects – maths, English, science, history or geography, and a language – between the ages of 14 and 16 […]

Small school sixth form judicial review costs taxpayer £76,000

A legal challenge brought against the Department for Education over the opening of a small-school sixth form has cost tax payers over £75,000. The case, which was settled out of court at the very last minute, ended with the DfE paying out £60,000 to cover the Association of Colleges’ costs – on top of the […]

A-levels 2017: Top science grades take a tumble

There was a sharp fall in top grades for science A-levels this year, following significant reforms to their content. The proportion of A* and A grades awarded to 18-year-olds in England has dropped 2.3 percentage points in biology, 2 points in chemistry and 1.6 points in physics. Biology, chemistry and physics were among the 13 […]

Headteachers struggling to find time for training

Headteachers are missing out on training opportunities because of funding shortages and heavy workloads, according to research commissioned by the Department of Education. The study by CooperGibson Research found that very few leadership development courses are actually targeted at headteachers or executive headteachers. It also found that “budgetary constraints, workload at full capacity and staffing […]

New ‘careers leader’ apprenticeship for school staff proposed

Middle leaders in schools could be trained to deliver careers advice through a proposed new apprenticeship. The teacher training charity Teach First has called for an “apprenticeship qualification” to give every school “a trained careers middle leader”. The role would involve developing and leading a “whole school strategy for careers and employability”, and the proposal […]

A-level maths is more useful for top university places than private school

Taking maths at A-level is more helpful for landing a place at a Russell Group university than studying at a grammar or private school, research from University College London’s Institute of Education suggests. A new report on the relationship between a student’s A-level subject choices and the university they attend found that sitting maths was […]

Academy trust fights on to pick its own feeder schools

A multi-academy trust will keep fighting to give pupils who attended its own primaries priority admission to its flagship west London secondary, despite legal setbacks. Aspirations Academies Trust has lost its court bid to maintain a controversial admissions policy that labelled two of its own primary academies as “feeders” for Rivers Academy in Feltham. Earlier […]