Freddie Whittaker | Schools Week

ESFA extends deadline for academy accounts amid Covid ‘challenges’

Academy trusts will be given an extra month to submit their audited financial statements and accounts returns because of “challenges” presented by Covid-19. In a letter to academy accounting officers, Education and Skills Funding Agency chief executive Eileen Milner said the deadline for submission of financial statements for the year ending August 31 2020 would […]

DfE top boss Jonathan Slater to leave

The Department for Education’s permanent secretary Jonathan Slater is to be replaced, the government has announced. The Financial Times reported earlier today that Slater, the top civil servant at the department will leave the post amid the fallout over exams and rules over masks in schools. Now the DfE and Cabinet Office have confirmed he […]

ASCL writes to Ofqual over ‘deflated grades’ fears

The Association of School and College Leaders has written to Ofqual and the government “as a matter of urgency”, amid concerns that pupils at schools that followed advice to mark down their own teacher grades have been “punished by that process”. Geoff Barton, ASCL’s general secretary, said that some of his members who deflated grades […]

Boris Johnson claims exams fiasco has been ‘sorted out’

The fiasco over GCSE and A-level results this year has “finally been sorted out”, the prime minister has claimed. During a speech at a school in Leicestershire, Johnson told pupils their grades were “almost derailed by a mutant algorithm”, and acknowledged how “stressful” the situation must have been. The schools community is still reeling from […]

EPI: Attainment gap has stopped closing for the first time in a decade

The attainment gap between poorer pupils and their better-off peers has stopped closing for the first time in 10 years, new research from the Education Policy Institute has found. The research, based on Department for Education data, found that disadvantaged pupils are now 18.1 months behind their more advantaged peers in terms of learning time […]

Government to U-turn on masks in schools

Staff and older pupils will be expected to wear face coverings in schools in England from September following a government U-turn, Schools Week understands. Ministers are expected to announce the change later today following growing pressure in the wake of a similar decision in Scotland and changes to World Health Organisation guidelines. It means staff […]

DfE confirms U-turn over masks in schools

Pupils and staff in secondary schools in high-transmission areas will be required to wear face coverings following a U-turn by the government. The Department for Education has tonight confirmed that it will revise its guidance on the use of face coverings in schools to state that in areas of national government intervention, face coverings “should be […]

Sally Collier to be replaced by Dame Glenys Stacey as Ofqual chief regulator

The chief regulator of Ofqual Sally Collier is to leave following the exams fiasco that has engulfed England in recent weeks and be replaced by her predecessor, Schools Week has learned. Dame Glenys Stacey, who served in the role from 2011 to 2016, will take up the role again in an acting capacity until December, […]

Pressure mounts on government over face coverings in schools

The government is under growing pressure to review its guidance on the use of face coverings in schools, as one of England’s largest academy trusts announced it had ordered visors and masks for staff and some pupils. Oasis Community Learning, which runs 52 academies across England, will provide face coverings for all staff and visitors […]