Freddie Whittaker

  • Revealed: The nine organisations that will share £4m 'alternative provision fund' cash

    Nine pupil referral units, councils and charities will split £4 million from the government’s new “alternative provision fund”, the schools minister has announced today. Nick Gibb has named the four successful bidders for cash from the fund, which was announced in March alongside a review of exclusions by the former children’s minister, Edward Timpson. Bradford Central…

    11.23 Aug. 6th, 2018 | News

  • Investigation: Wrongly disqualified school staff waited months to return to work

    Blameless school staff were left in limbo and fearing for their jobs for months as a result of unclear “disqualification by association” rules, a Schools Week investigation has found. Previously unseen data has today laid bare the extent of the misery caused by rules which disqualified teachers, heads, support staff and volunteers from working in…

    14.41 Aug. 3rd, 2018 | News

  • Revealed: The nine schools chosen to split £2m and become 'language hubs'

    Nine schools will split £2 million in government funding to become “modern foreign language hubs”, after a scheme to boost Spanish, French and German teaching was extended by ministers. The Department for Education announced today that £4.8 million will be spent on creating a language “centre of excellence” with nine “hub” schools. These schools will split…

    0.01 Aug. 3rd, 2018 | News

  • 28 projects to split £10.1 million in strategic school improvement fund round 3

    More than £10 million in government school improvement funding will be handed to 28 academy trusts, councils and teaching schools. The Department for Education has announced the names of successful bidders in the latest round of the strategic school improvement fund, or SSIF. Here’s the full list. Organisation name Organisation type Local authority Number of…

    16.47 Aug. 1st, 2018 | News

  • Teaching and leadership union membership drops to lowest level since 2010

    Trade union membership among school teachers and leaders in England has dropped to its lowest level in seven years. Schools Week analysis of membership figures submitted to the government and Trades Union Congress over the past eight years shows that England’s teaching and leadership unions had 805,736 paying members as of last December, down from…

    9.57 Aug. 1st, 2018 | News

  • Hinds hopes 'communications coalition' will boost home reading and school-readiness

    A coalition of businesses and charities will be asked to help boost school readiness among young children by encouraging their parents to read and learn with them at home, the education secretary will announce today. Damian Hinds will say that the government must address the “last taboo in education policy” – the home learning environment…

    0.01 Jul. 31st, 2018 | News

  • GCSE and A-level exam boards launch malpractice review

    The four exam boards responsible for GCSEs and A-levels in England have launched an independent review of exam cheating. Sir John Dunford, the former general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, will chair the malpractice commission on behalf of the Joint Council for Qualifications, which represents exam boards AQA, Edexcel, OCR and WJEC.…

    9.00 Jul. 26th, 2018 | News

  • Headteachers warn universities about leap in unconditional offers

    The number of unconditional offers made by universities has jumped by 32 per cent in just one year, and almost a quarter of pupils now receive at least one offer of a place that doesn’t depend on their A-level grades. New analysis by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service shows the number of unconditional offers…

    0.14 Jul. 26th, 2018 | News

  • First school mental health support teams will be set to work 'by the end of 2019'

    New mental health support teams will start working with schools “by the end of 2019”, the government has confirmed. Ahead of their official response to a consultation on children and young people’s mental health, the Department for Education and Department of Health have announced they will proceed with plans to employ thousands of extra staff…

    0.01 Jul. 25th, 2018 | News

  • STRB report 2018: 3.5% pay rise for some classroom teachers confirmed

    The Department for Education has announced that pay for some classroom teachers will rise by up to 3.5 per cent next year, with extra government funding available to help schools pay for the increase. The 3.5 per cent rise will apply to the main pay range and unqualified teacher pay range for classroom teachers. The…

    11.01 Jul. 24th, 2018 | News

  • Heads feel 'let down' over teacher pay settlement

    Unions representing hundreds of thousands of teachers and school leaders have revealed their concerns about the pay settlement for teachers announced today. Despite calls by the School Teachers’ Review Body for a 3.5 per cent rise in teacher and leaders’ pay across the board, ministers confirmed today that only those on the main pay range…

    12.53 Jul. 24th, 2018 | News