Billy Camden | Schools Week

Engineering A level needs to be more creative

Proposals for a new engineering A level have been drawn up to entice more creative pupils and propel the UK from Europe’s bottom spot when it comes to recruiting women engineers. The Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) has spent 18 months alongside industry, higher education and school representatives on a new-look engineering A level. It aims […]

Jail threat for teachers could ‘flood’ social work system

Stretched social services departments could be inundated with “a flood” of unnecessary casework if the government carries through with threats to jail teachers who fail to report the suspected sexual abuse of children, according to the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL). On Tuesday, prime minister David Cameron used a Downing Street summit to […]

GCSE science spat: Ofqual wanted to retain practical element

Ofqual is pushing ahead with a plan to stop science practical work contributing to overall GCSE grades in the face of opposition from the government. Education secretary Nicky Morgan has said the change that confines science assessment to written exam questions “was in danger of holding back the next generation of scientists”. She wrote to […]

Labour pledge support for ‘most able’ as Ofsted find fault

A “gifted and talented fund” to support the most able pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds will be launched by a Labour government, Tristram Hunt has pledged. The shadow education secretary made the pledge on Wednesday, the same day Ofsted released a report criticising schools’ approach to more able pupils. It is expected the fund will be […]

Morgan orders reviews in schools with Syria links

The education secretary has ordered a review of schools whose pupils have fled to Syria – just days after she wrote to one such academy offering her full support. Nicky Morgan won plaudits for a sensitively-worded letter to Bethnal Green Academy last Tuesday after three of its teenage pupils left the country, without their families, […]

Pay back teacher student loans to encourage recruitment, says Policy Exchange

Repaying teachers’ student loans would bring more graduates into the profession – that is the suggestion in a manifesto launched today by Policy Exchange. The think-tank, set up by a group including Conservative MPs Michael Gove, Francis Maude and skills minister Nick Boles, believes such a scheme would encourage more graduates into the profession. In […]

7 Education Ideas That Could Change Everything

When men become heads of their schools, they receive a pay rise of roughly £8,000. For women that figure is just shy of £6,000. The government are working flat out to hire graduates with physics degrees – paying as much as £50,000 for them to train. Yet dig into the data and you will find […]

Schools set to focus on careers

Schools, colleges and education providers will be encouraged to focus on careers as LifeSkills National Careers Week (LNCW) launches on Monday. It comes at a time when careers guidance is a much debated aspect of education. The Education Secretary, Nicky Morgan, announced in December that a new “employer-led” company will launch in 2015 aimed to […]

Are schools really making the GCSE grade?

Schools have now had a week to digest the GCSE league tables released by the Department for Education. But have they spotted what we saw? Last week, the Department for Education (DfE) released data about the performance of secondary schools. But while some schools demonstrated high proportions of pupils gaining five A*-C GCSEs, including English and […]