Billy Camden | Schools Week

Academy in shadow of Grenfell could stay shut until Easter

The school just yards from the Grenfell Tower blaze in west London will start the next academic year in temporary accommodation and might not return to its home until after Easter. Kensington Aldridge Academy (KAA) has been closed since the fire at the 24-storey housing block on June 12 in which it is thought more […]

Two organisations named to deliver government’s new ‘school leader’ qualifications

The government is to launch revamped leadership qualifications for school leaders in September using two organisations incorporating over 100 teaching school alliances and multi-academy trusts. The Department for Education has earmarked £10 million to support the reformed National Professional Qualifications (NPQs) in schools. Two separate organisations – Ambition School Leadership and Outstanding Leaders Partnership – […]

Two schools fail cladding fire safety tests

Two schools in London have been found to have combustible cladding during tests carried out by the government following the Grenfell blaze. Checks on schools with Aluminium Composite Material that were over four storeys – or above 18 metres – began last month. So far just two schools have been tested to see if their […]

Private-state partnership project fails to collect necessary data

The government spent over £175,000 on partnership projects between state primaries and independent schools, but cannot measure how effective they were because officials did not collect the appropriate data. A research report called ‘Independent State School Partnerships’ was released this afternoon by the Department for Education, looking at how effective 18 different schemes were between the […]

DfE doesn’t know how many free schools have sprinklers

The government has admitted it does not know how many free schools have been built without fire-preventing sprinklers. The schools minister Nick Gibb admitted as much in a written answer to a parliamentary question tabled by Helen Hayes MP last week, amid heightened concerns over fire safety in schools following the Grenfell Tower blaze in […]

Academy to slash breaks and extend day to meet new GCSE demands

An academy’s plans to slash its lunchtime break and extend the school day is the latest example of a revamped timetable following the introduction of the new “big fat” GCSEs. Ashlawn School, a partially selective academy in Rugby, told parents the timetable changes have been proposed to “meet the challenges” of the reformed GCSEs and […]

Ofsted gives 700 sponsored academies a fresh start

The Ofsted ratings of more than 700 schools have been wiped clean after becoming an academy or rebrokering, a Schools Week analysis reveals. There are hundreds of thousands of pupils in these sponsored academies, many of which were categorised as underperforming by the education watchdog before having their Ofsted grades removed. Ofsted classifies failing schools […]

Charity wants to bin exams at 16 for five-year ‘phase’

“Cliff-edge” GCSE exams at 16 should be scrapped in favour of a 14 to 19 “phase” where pupils complete their qualifications “at the right pace for them”, the Edge Foundation has said. The independent charity, which aims to raise the status of practical and vocational learning, has warned the UK’s education system is failing to […]

Extra £1.3 billion needed to plug hole in school budgets, EPI warns

The government needs to find an additional £1.3 billion to compensate for inflation pressures faced by schools and protect the education budget by 2022, a think-tank has warned. The Education Policy Institute claims that this extra cash will need to be found over and above the £4 billion commitment already included in the Conservative manifesto. […]