Freddie Whittaker | Schools Week

Private suppliers tout ‘rapid’ Covid tests to schools for £450 a box

Headteachers are being urged to check the legality of Covid tests from private suppliers after new “rapid” antigen tests started being offered on the open market, with one school quoted £450 for a box of 20. The Department of Health and Social Care said all tests bought from private companies must have a CE mark […]

Settling Durand dispute could hit ‘services for vulnerable children’

A London council has told of the “keenly felt human cost” of having to meet a seven-figure compensation demand over a school site row, saying services for “vulnerable children and adults” will take the hit. Lambeth could be forced to pay out millions for leisure and accommodation facilities on the site of the former Durand […]

SEND pupils told schools ‘can’t accommodate them’, claims Spielman

Schools have been telling parents they can’t accommodate pupils with special educational needs and disabilities during the coronavirus pandemic, Amanda Spielman has claimed. The chief inspector of schools told the National Children and Adult Services Conference this morning that children had been “left without access to therapy and education for months”. They’ve been told that […]

GCSEs 2021: Teachers CAN use one-off tests for MFL speaking

Teachers will not be prevented from using “one-off assessment opportunities” to test pupils spoken language in GCSE modern foreign language subjects next year, Ofqual has said. The exams regulator has published its decisions following a consultations on changes to the way MFL GCSEs are to be assessed next year. It is part of a suite […]

Face coverings mandatory in communal areas of all secondary schools

The wearing of face coverings will become mandatory in communal areas of all secondary schools from Monday. Following the announcement of the government’s decision to hold another month-long lockdown from this Thursday, the Department for Education has published updated guidance for schools. Until now, face coverings in communal areas have only been mandatory in some […]

Revealed: The 32 providers selected to deliver the National Tutoring Programme

Thirty-two providers, most of them commercial businesses, have been selected to deliver the government’s National Tutoring Programme in its first year. Education giant Pearson, charities The Brilliant Club and Tutor Trust, and prominent tutoring organisations MyTutor and Action Tutoring are among those chosen to provide subsidised tutoring to around 250,000 pupils at schools across England. […]

Fewer than 1 in 5 teachers support calls for full school lockdowns

Fewer than one in five teachers want schools to close, but over two in five think rotas should be enacted, a new poll has found. A survey of over 8,000 school staff by Teacher Tapp found that just 17 per cent wanted schools to close to all except the children of keyworkers and vulnerable pupils […]

Schools to remain open during second national lockdown, PM confirms

Schools in England will remain open during the month-long national lockdown due to begin on Thursday, Boris Johnson has confirmed. The second national lockdown announced by the prime minister today will see pubs, restaurants and non-essential shops shut and socialising between households banned indoors in all parts of England from 12.01am on Thursday. But schools, […]

Multiple rule breaches found in Dunham Trust ESFA investigation

An academy trust that paid out tens of thousands of pounds to related parties, spent over £1,000 for staff to attend a summit in Jordan and paid an employee’s parking ticket broke academy funding rules, an investigation has found. The Education and Skills Funding Agency investigated the Dunham Trust last June after receiving “allegations around […]