Billy Camden | Schools Week

Education Development Trust boss Steve Munby announces retirement

Steve Munby has announced that he will step down from his role as chief executive of Education Development Trust next August. Munby will have led the education charity, formerly known as CfBT Education Trust, for almost five years when he leaves in 11 months’ time. It comes at a time of heightened change at the trust […]

Pupil nationality data is safe with us, says government

The government has reassured parents that pupil nationality data collected by schools will not be passed to immigration officials. The intervention follows a Schools Week investigation that exposed schools were misinterpreting new data collection rules – including asking pupils for passport copies and if they were asylum seekers. But human rights groups are still urging […]

SPTA academy trust ‘rebrands’ to Delta Academies Trust

One of England’s largest academy chains is changing its name as part of a major rebrand to make a “fresh start” after a turbulent couple of years. School Partnership Trust Academies (SPTA), which sponsors 44 academies across Yorkshire and the Humber, will become Delta Academies Trust from next month. The rebrand has been led by […]

UTC architect Lord Baker slams government over ‘narrow’ EBacc

The architect of the University Technical College (UTC) model has launched a scathing attack on the government’s “narrow” English Baccalaureate (EBacc), slamming it as a “missed opportunity” to fulfil the prime minister’s vision for social mobility. Lord Kenneth Baker, former education secretary and founder of the Baker Dearing Educational Trust set up to promote the […]

Where did the paralympic gold medallists go to school?

Independent schools disproportionately represent Great Britain at elite level sport, but an analysis of this year’s Olympic and Paralympic medal tables shows that state schools are starting to close the gap. Just under 70 per cent of Team GB’s medal-winning athletes at the Olympics were educated at state-maintained schools with a handful of athletes, including […]

Prep school exaggerated 11-plus results

A prep school boasting of its impressive record of getting pupils to grammar school has been rapped by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for exaggerating its 11-plus successes. St Christopher’s school in Canterbury claimed a 94 per cent pass rate for last year’s grammar school qualification exams – advertising the result on its website and […]

Pupils who were not white British told to send in birthplace data

Schools are demanding copies of pupils’ passports, and asking parents to confirm if their children are asylum seekers or refugees amid confusion over a new legal duty requiring the collection of nationality data. Schools Week revealed in June that the Department for Education (DfE) had expanded the census details schools must collect from this month […]

Rebrokered academies given 3-year Ofsted grace period

Rebrokered academies will be classed as “new schools” and entitled to a three-year grace period from Ofsted inspectors. The watchdog announced in October last year that initial inspections for new schools that opened from September 2014, including converter academies, would be put back from their second to third year of operation. But the three-year period […]

Grammar school expansion threatens comprehensives’ pupil premium budgets

Proposals in the green paper for grammar schools to admit more pupils from low-income families will suck out cash from comprehensives that would help the most deprived children, warns the former pupil premium champion. Schools receive about £1,000 pupil premium funding per eligible child, but the cash follows the pupil – meaning if they move […]