Freddie Whittaker

  • Don't shy away from seeking science specialists, urges new report

    Advertising for general science teachers is no more effective than seeking those with subject-specific qualifications, according to new research. Analysis by SchoolDash of teaching job adverts found roles for specialist positions were less likely to be re-advertised than for those general positions, contradicting a “common assumption that specialist positions are harder to fill”. The results…

    10.10 Apr. 24th, 2019 | News

  • Dominic Herrington made permanent national schools commissioner

    The government has appointed Dominic Herrington as its permanent national schools commissioner. Herrington, also the regional schools commissioner for south London and south east England, was appointed on an interim basis last September to succeed Sir David Carter, but will now take on the job permanently. He will also oversee “operational changes to the work…

    16.35 Apr. 23rd, 2019 | News

  • DfE pledges to publish breakdown of cost-cutters' savings

    Ministers will publish a breakdown of recommendations made by its team of cost-cutting advisers later this year. The Department for Education refused a request by Schools Week last December for documents showing a breakdown of the £35 million of savings that academies minister Lord Agnew claimed his school resource management advisers had helped schools identify.…

    17.40 Apr. 23rd, 2019 | News

  • Edexcel maths paper leaks referred to prosecutors

    Police investigating high-profile leaks of Edexcel A-level exam papers in 2017 and 2018 have passed their first case to the Crown Prosecution Service. Pearson, the exam board’s parent company, has announced today that officers “have made progress in their investigation” from the first “limited” breach in 2017, and have referred their first case to prosecutors.…

    12.43 Apr. 23rd, 2019 | News

  • NEU vows to mobilise parents to 'ramp up' school cuts campaign

    The National Education Union will “ramp up” campaigning on school funding and seek to mobilise parents on the campaign trail if there is a general election this year, one of its leaders has said. Kevin Courtney, the joint general secretary of the NEU, told the union’s annual conference in Liverpool this morning that the School…

    12.00 Apr. 18th, 2019 | News

  • NASUWT union staff vote for further strikes over pay and pensions

    Staff at the NASUWT teaching union will strike again in a dispute over their pay and pensions after voting to back a second round of industrial action. The GMB union, which represents workers at the National Association of Schoolmasters and Union of Women Teachers, says it has secured “overwhelming backing” in an “unprecedented industrial action…

    13.38 Apr. 17th, 2019 | News

  • Let councils regulate 'draconian' school behaviour policies, says NEU

    The rise of “draconian” and “inhumane” behaviour approaches is damaging the mental health and education of pupils, the National Education Union has said, after its members voted in favour of council oversight of behaviour policies in all schools. At the union’s annual conference in Liverpool this morning, delegates voted to instruct NEU leaders to campaign…

    12.47 Apr. 17th, 2019 | News

  • Corbyn: Labour will scrap SATs

    Labour will scrap SATs and abolish the new reception baseline test, Jeremy Corbyn has announced. The opposition leader told the annual conference of the National Education Union today that his party will end the “regime of extreme pressure testing” if it wins power. Labour intends to introduce a “more flexible and practical” primary assessment system…

    16.20 Apr. 16th, 2019 | News

  • Make LGBT+ education compulsory in all schools, says NEU

    England’s largest teaching union will lobby the government to make teaching about LGBT+ relationships compulsory in all schools. The National Education Union has today voted to campaign for a strengthening of new government guidance on relationships and sex education to force all primary and secondary schools to teach LGBT+ education. The union will also demand…

    12.02 Apr. 16th, 2019 | News

  • Two in five don't expect to stay in teaching beyond five years

    Two fifths of teachers don’t see themselves remaining in the profession beyond 2024, while almost one in five expect to leave within two years, a new survey of National Education Union members has revealed. The NEU asked more than 8,000 teachers, school leaders and support staff their views on workload, and found that 40 per…

    0.21 Apr. 16th, 2019 | News

  • NEU will ballot for SATs boycott in 2019-20

    The National Education Union is to ballot its members on a potential SATs boycott next year after delegates at the union’s annual conference voted in favour of the action. Following a heated debate in which different union factions clashed over whether a 2019-20 ballot is achievable within the time available, and after a re-run of…

    18.00 Apr. 15th, 2019 | News