Billy Camden | Schools Week

Head pleads with DfE to change its mind on legacy GCSEs

The government’s decision not to count 17 “legacy” GCSEs in the 2018 performance tables will have a potentially catastrophic effect on schools who enter pupils early for exams, claims a leading headteacher. Keven Bartle, the head of Canons High School in the London borough of Harrow, has called on the Department for Education (DfE) to […]

Charity steps in to provide school uniforms

A charity is planning to buy school uniforms for 55,000 children after Manchester City Council’s grant for school uniforms became a victim of budget cuts. Wood Street Mission, a children’s charity based in Spinningfields, Manchester, has received £200,000 through a grant and a legacy to launch SmartStart Manchester & Salford. The charity hopes to distribute […]

Education select committee: Who’s who

New members of the Education Select Committee were recommended to the House of Commons on Monday. The eleven will now sit on the cross-party scrutiny board which meets on an almost weekly basis. Ann McGauran dug into their biographies and election supporters to discover who they are and what they will bring to the table.

Who bankrolled the education select committee members?

Two donations from key figures linked to schools have been registered by one of the new MPs on the education select committee. Lucy Allan, the new Conservative MP for Telford, registered a donation of £3,000 from David Ross, who is the sponsor of the David Ross Education Trust (DRET). She also registered a £5,000 donation […]

Gibb denies ‘hierarchy’ of schools

Schools minister Nick Gibb has finally acknowledged good schools across the maintained sector in England, even name-checking some of them in Parliament, after weeks of goading by shadow schools minister Kevin Brennan. At this week’s education and adoption bill committee Mr Gibb said that the government did not see maintained schools at the bottom of […]

Philosophy sessions improve pupil learning

Philosophy sessions for pupils as young as 9 and 10 can improve progress in maths and reading, especially for disadvantaged children, according to a new report from the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF). Maths and reading scores improved by an average of two months after pupils took part in the Philosophy for Children study. The change […]

RSC ignores 92% of people and changes school

A regional schools commissioner has given the green light for an academy in Redditch to convert to a two-tier school – despite more than 92 per cent of stakeholders opposing the change. Pank Patel, regional schools commissioner for the West Midlands (pictured), approved an application for Tudor Grange Academy to expand its age range in […]

Recruitment agencies ‘hoover up’ and sell back new teachers

“Predatory” recruitment agencies have been blamed for fuelling a teacher recruitment crisis by “hoovering up” job seekers to offer to struggling schools for tens of thousands of pounds. Schools Week has learnt of three schools that failed to get any response to advertisements for teaching posts – then were offered a candidate from a recruitment […]

BBC defend decision to send pocket-sized computers to every year 7 pupil

The head of BBC Learning has defended the decision to send around a million pocket-sized computers to pupils in the UK for free, despite facing cuts in its budget due to austerity measures. The BBC micro:bit — a codeable computer that encourages children to “get creative” with technology — was launched yesterday and will be […]