Alix Robertson | Schools Week

Unison: Redundancies forcing school support staff to fill the gaps

Over 70 per cent of school support staff are being forced to take on tasks that used to be performed by a colleague on more pay, as school funding cuts continue to bite, according to one of the UK’s largest trade unions. In May Unison carried out a UK-wide survey of 12,120 school support staff, […]

Uniform supplier School Trends leaves pupils in the lurch before new school term

Deliveries from a school uniform supplier that serves over 5,000 schools and academies across the UK have been delayed by a “technical glitch”, leaving parents and their children in the lurch with no uniforms for the first day of the new school term. The Twitter account for School Trends has been inundated with complaints in the […]

Schools won’t have to contribute to early career bonuses for maths teachers

The government has confirmed it will proceed with its plans for early career bonuses for maths teachers who choose to stay in the profession, and has announced that schools will not have to contribute at all to the payments. In October last year Schools Week reported that the maximum bursary on offer to new maths […]

National supply teacher agency database now available for schools

Schools can now access a national supply teacher agency database that reveals the mark-up each company charges, under a new government drive to help school leaders avoid rip-off fees. Developed by the Department for Education and the Crown Commercial Service (CCS), all schools have been emailed the new national list of recommended suppliers to use […]

Why the DfE’s plan to spend £2.3m on cost-cutting consultants is a great deal for schools

My twitter timeline heated up a bit last night when I saw quite a lot of negativity to the Schools Week Story about the DfE spending £2.3m on a ‘new army of cost-cutting consultants, set up to help schools save money’. This was seen as a universal waste of money – why not just give […]

Spielman warns off-rolling ‘could get worse’ after sharp rise in pupils leaving school before GCSEs

Ofsted chief inspector Amanda Spielman has warned that the problem of schools removing pupils from the roll in order to manipulate exam results “absolutely could get worse” if it is not tackled effectively. Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live today, Spielman told listeners that the education watchdog is looking into the “worrying” issue of off-rolling, […]

GCSE Results Day 2018: Students succeed against the odds

GCSE results day 2018 is over and it will have been an emotional experience for teachers and pupils across the country. Schools Week wants to congratulate everyone for the time and effort that has gone into getting through a tough couple of years with lots of new information to take on board. We have taken […]

Revealed: The 24 North Yorkshire primary schools that will get ‘opportunity area’ speech and language support

Twenty-four primary schools on the North Yorkshire coast will get support to improve pupils’ speech, language and communication skills. The support is part of the government’s opportunity areas programme, which will allocate £72 million in funding to 12 parts of the country with low levels of social mobility. As part of the project, schools may get […]