Billy Camden | Schools Week

Schools struggle to support white working-class boys because of definition confusion, report finds

Schools are struggling to help target and provide support to white working-class boys because the government does not have a suitable definition of the term, a new report has found. The finding forms part of a new analysis, published today by the think-and-action tank LKMco, looking into why so few white boys from working class backgrounds progress to higher education. In February, […]

Texting parents about their child’s homework deadlines boosts maths results, new report finds

Texting parents about upcoming tests and homework deadlines can boost secondary school pupils’ maths results by an extra month of learning, a new trial has found. The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) today published the results of the Parent Engagement Project (PEP), which involved almost 16,000 pupils in 36 schools, alongside six more independently-evaluated projects. Researchers […]

Schools minister admits Shanghai maths teachers only do ‘two lessons a day’

Teachers will not share the “luxury” of greater time for lesson planning enjoyed by their counterparts in south Asia, despite the government’s major £41 million scheme to adopt their “mastery” maths model, Nick Gibb has admitted. Speaking at the Advisory Committee on Mathematics Education conference today, the schools minister announced that half of England’s primary […]

European free school nervously awaits Morgan exam approval

The country’s only European-branded state school is at risk of not being able to offer its flagship qualification following an administrative foul-up. Europa School UK (ESUK), based in Culham, Oxfordshire, has written to prime minister David Cameron, to request official confirmation that students can sit the European baccalaureate (EB) when they transfer from an existing European […]

The next micro:bit? BBC launches primary science education campaign 2017

The BBC’s next flagship education campaign will be based around a series of mass participation science experiments for primary pupils, Schools Week can exclusively reveal. The initiative, which is yet to be named, is expected to launch at the start of 2017 and run for two years. It follows this year’s BBC micro:bit device project, […]

Ofsted gains 3 new non-executive directors

An academy director, retired college principal and business leader have been appointed as new non-executives for Ofsted. The new board members, who will serve the education watchdog for three years, are Richard Atkins, former president of the Association of Colleges, John Cridland, former director general of the Confederation of British Industry and Venessa Willms, current […]

Does teacher training need to be tougher to earn respect?

“Rigorous” teacher training could change the perception that the profession is not “prestigious”, says a London teacher. Kris Boulton, deputy head of maths at King Solomon academy in north London, told a packed festival room that teachers needed to “earn the right” to be seen on the same level as other professions such as doctors, […]

Special schools are being ‘left out’ by academy system

Special schools are at risk of being “lost” as the government moves towards an all-academy system, a special educational needs and disability (SEND) school leader has warned. Simon Knight, deputy headteacher at Frank Wise school in Oxford (pictured), said he was worried that multi-academy trusts (MATs) saw secondary and primary schools as their “leader” and […]

Why introverts make good school leaders

Introverted teachers have five key skills that will help them flourish as school leaders, an assistant headteacher told delegates. Iesha Small (pictured), of Kings Langley school in Hertfordshire, delivered one of the final festival sessions on Friday when she took delegates through five different qualities she believed introverts — which she said was her personality […]