Billy Camden | Schools Week

Justine Greening holds up findings of the Teachers Working Longer Review

A group of educationists scrutinising the consequences of teachers working until their late 60s expect their interim findings to be published this month, seven months after they were sent to government. Under new government policy, teachers born after April 6, 1979, are required to work until 68 before claiming a full state pension. For older […]

Boss of country’s largest academy trust steps down

The boss of the country’s largest multi-academy trust has announced he is stepping down from his role as chief executive. Ian Comfort, who has led the 67-school Academies Enterprise trust (AET) since 2012, has confirmed he will leave the post after the new year. AET’s board said Comfort indicated to trustees earlier in the year his desire […]

Ofsted quietly ditches good practice case studies

Ofsted has abandoned its policy of publishing good practice to help to dispel myths that it insists on “prescribed methods of teaching and learning”. The watchdog launched a dedicated webpage in 2010 on which it routinely published examples of good practice found during school visits. However, the page has not been updated since September last […]

Silent army of ‘lost girls’ struggle with reading, experts warn

Teachers have been urged to wise up to behaviourial changes in girl pupils after a new report found a “silent army of lost girls” is suffering with extreme reading difficulties. The study, of more than 60,000 children published today by schools assessment provider GL Assessment, suggests that hundreds of thousands of girls have reading ages […]

Harris plans vocational courses-only school (with GCSE resits)

One of the country’s largest academy trusts is to open a 16-19 free school offering only vocational courses and GCSE resits. The Harris Professional Skills Sixth Form (HPS6F), a standalone free school in Croydon, south London, will offer 170 places for professional skills course, with another 60 places for students retaking GCSEs before progressing on […]

Boys trail girls in literacy because they skim read books, report finds

Boys are being outperformed by girls in literacy because they read less thoroughly than their female classmates, new research has found. A study of more than 850,000 primary and secondary school children by University of Dundee professor Keith Topping revealed that boys tend to miss sections out of pages or skip some completely when reading, […]

Two more UTCs struggling: one planning to become a secondary, the other facing takeover

A university technical college with low pupil numbers has been ditched by an academy trust for costing too much, while recruitment problems in another has forced it to consider converting into a secondary school. Bright Futures Educational Trust (BFET) is relinquishing sponsorship of Wigan UTC as it can no longer afford the 14-19 institution. The […]

Academy sponsors owe £13m in pledged funding

Nearly £13 million in pledged capital funding is still owed to the government by eight academy sponsors, with two trusts owing more than £10 million between them. Early academy sponsors were required to pay 10 per cent of capital costs, capped at £2 million, towards building a new school. But a Freedom of Information (FOI) […]

EEF hands out £1m for second pilot of controversial philosophy programme

A philosophy programme that claims to improve reading and maths skills for pupils as young as nine has been granted a further £1.2 million for testing on a larger scale, despite criticism about the reliability of earlier research. The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) released the findings of a trial into philosophy for children (P4C) classes […]