Freddie Whittaker | Schools Week

Covid: Masks still in place and onsite testing returns in ‘Delta’ hotspot schools

Headteachers in “Delta” Covid variant hotspots are “praying” the virus does not rip through their schools again in the coming weeks, with one having to send seven in ten pupils home last half term. Mask rules remain in place in many north-west schools, while some have resumed in-school testing and have hosted temporary vaccine centres. […]

Sports charities demand clarity on future of £320m PE and sport premium

The leaders of 40 charities and sporting organisations have written to the government demanding “urgent clarity” on the future of the £320 million PE and sport premium. With less than six weeks to go until the end of the summer term for most schools, leaders are still waiting to hear whether the funding, worth £18,000 […]

PM incorrectly claims 6 million pupils will benefit from tutoring

The prime minister has incorrectly claimed in Parliament that six million pupils will benefit from the government’s tutoring reforms. Boris Johnson also claimed to have “introduced” a £30,000 starting salary for teachers – over two years before the policy is due to be finally implemented. Johnson was today questioned by MPs during prime minister’s questions […]

Minister denies education recovery ‘catalogue of chaos’ (but claims she doesn’t know why catch-up tsar resigned)

The government’s education recovery programme is not a “catalogue of chaos”, a minister has insisted, as she claimed she did not know why catch-up tsar Sir Kevan Collins resigned over the package. A Labour motion calling for more generous investment in education recovery passed this afternoon by 224 votes to zero after all but one […]

DfE extends pupil premium to children with ‘no recourse to public funds’ after legal threat

Schools will be able to claim additional pupil premium funding for children with “no recourse to public funds” who were given temporary free school meals eligibility last year, following a legal threat. Last April, the Department for Education extended free school meals eligibility to children usually denied them because of their parents’ immigration status as […]

Bring back face coverings in secondary schools and vaccinate pupils on site, say unions

Face coverings should be reintroduced in secondary school classrooms and for students in communal areas, unions representing teachers and support staff have said, amid growing fears about the impact of the Delta variant of Covid-19. The National Education Union, along with support staff unions Unison, the GMB and Unite, have also said pupils should be […]

Covid-19: Almost 1 in 3 Bolton secondary pupils absent as Delta variant surges

Attendance data has revealed the scale of Covid-19 disruption to schools in some parts of England, with almost one in three secondary pupils in Bolton absent because of the virus in the last week of term. Data from attendance surveys published by the Department for Education shows 31.5 per cent of secondary pupils and 21.3 […]

Wilshaw returns to headship with interim role at London school JFS

The former chief inspector of Ofsted Sir Michael Wilshaw has stepped back into headship after almost a decade, with an interim role at a London Jewish school. JFS, in Brent, has informed parents that Wilshaw has agreed to serve as its interim executive principal for the “remainder of this term”, following the departure at the […]

Chris Russell to replace Sean Harford as Ofsted’s national education director

Ofsted is to name Chris Russell as its new national director of education, replacing Sean Harford, Schools Week has learned. The watchdog revealed last month that Harford will leave at the end of August this year after deciding to take early retirement. Russell is currently Ofsted’s regional director for the south east, having previously held […]