Freddie Whittaker | Schools Week

Minimum secondary school per-pupil funding to rise to £5,150

Secondary schools will receive at least £5,150 for each pupil from 2021, the government has announced. Ministers have set out the minimum funding levels for schools that will apply under the second year of their three-year funding settlement. Schools in inner London are set for the lowest increase (2.3 per cent), while schools in the […]

Revealed: The 37 special and AP free schools approved by the DfE

Two areas promised special schools have missed out after competitions to find sponsors were unsuccessful. The Department for Education yesterday approved 37 new special and alternative provision schools to open from September 2022, providing more than 3,000 extra places. (See full list below). The government had promised to deliver schools in 39 areas to help […]

Concerns over school meals as two major caterers announce redundancies

Fears about the capacity of school catering teams to provide meals from September have been raised after two of England’s largest education catering firms announced plans to cut staff. Caterlink and Chartwells, which work with around 3,400 schools and colleges between them, both told Schools Week they were making redundancies in anticipation of falling demand […]

Reassure parents about safety of schools if you want them to return to work, heads tell PM

The government must reassure parents it is safe for their children to return to school if it wants people to return to work, a headteachers’ union has said. Boris Johnson announced today that the government will be relaxing its “work from home” advice from August 1, allowing employers to decide whether to ask staff to […]

Claudia Harris to step down as Careers and Enterprise Company CEO

The chief executive of the Careers and Enterprise Company is to step down to run a firm that supports mid-career switchers to train as software engineers. Claudia Harris, a former adviser to Tony Blair who was appointed as the CEC’s first leader five years ago, will leave this month to become CEO of Makers, a […]

Ministers announce opportunity areas ‘twinning’ project to help address impact of Covid-19

The government’s 12 social mobility opportunity areas will be “twinned” with places facing similar challenges in an effort to help disadvantaged pupils recover from the Covid-19 pandemic, it has been announced. Michelle Donelan, the minister in charge of the project, announced today that £1 million of the project’s £18 million in funding for 2020-21 will […]

DfE paid £490k to rebroker three failing Steiner schools

The government paid out almost half a million pounds in grant funding to rebroker three failing Steiner schools, new data shows. Steiner free schools in Bristol, Exeter and Frome were moved to the Avanti Schools Trust last year after all three were placed into special measures by Ofsted. The schools are now called Avanti Gardens […]

Ofsted confirms shake-up of redress system – but will give schools longer to complain

Ofsted has confirmed it will proceed with a shake-up of the redress system for inspections, but will give schools five working days to complain, rather than two. The watchdog has published the outcome to its consultation on changes to complaints, which was launched in March. The consultation proposed that formal complaints raised by schools within […]

ESFA raps trust that spent £2.4k on wellbeing conference and spa break for senior staff

An academy trust that spent over £2,400 on a wellbeing conference and spa break for senior managers has been ordered by the government to take “urgent action” to resolve issues with its financial management. The Education and Skills Funding Agency has published a report of an investigation into the Learning Academy Partnership (South West), a […]