Freddie Whittaker | Schools Week

Coronavirus: Less than two fifths of eligible primary pupils return in second week of reopening

Less than two fifths of eligible pupils had returned to open primary schools by Thursday last week, almost two weeks after the government encouraged primaries to welcome back more children. The latest attendance data from the Department for Education shows 67 per cent of primary schools had reopened to more pupils by June 11, up […]

Pressure mounts on ministers as study shows fifth of pupils do no schoolwork at home

Children not in school during the lockdown have been spending an average of 2.5 hours a day doing schoolwork, new research suggests. According to the UCL Institute of Education, which conducted the study, the figure is around half that suggested by previous research, “implying that learning losses are much greater than previously thought”. One fifth […]

Schools told they can’t claim back costs of preventative cleaning

The government’s exceptional costs reimbursement scheme must be extended to cover preventative measures as school reopen in the coronavirus outbreak, headteachers’ unions have said. Leaders of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) and the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) told Schools Week the scope of the scheme drawn up by the Department […]

Coronavirus: Six things we learned from Ofqual about exams in 2020 and 2021

Exams were the focus of an education select committee hearing this week, with senior staff appearing from the exams’ regulator Ofqual. Here’s what we found out. 1. Consultation on 2021 exam plans due before summer break Sally Collier, the chief regulator of Ofqual, told MPs schools needed to know what was happening with next […]

Coronavirus: Over 1 in 10 secondary schools set to defy government’s June 15 reopening plan

More than one in ten secondary schools look set to ignore government calls to begin reopening to year 10 and 12 pupils next week. A poll by Teacher Tapp found that although over 70 per cent of state secondary school staff reported their school would open more widely next week, 13 per cent said they […]

GCSE entries: Stats, citizenship and Spanish up, PE, media and engineering down

GCSE entries increased this year as the number of 16-year-olds rose, Ofqual has reported. According to the exams regulator, there have been 5,281,745 entries for GCSE exams this year, up from 5,185,840. The increase of 2 per cent is more than double that seen last year, but is to be expected as it corresponds with […]

Secondary school applications fall for first time since 2013

Applications for secondary school places have fallen for the first time since 2013, new Department for Education statistics show. Data out today shows 600,352 applications were received for a place at secondary school in 2020, a 0.7 per cent decrease on 2019, when 604,496 applications were received. This is in contrast with a 3.7 per […]

Schools need to know 2021 exam plans before summer, says Ofqual chief

Schools need to know what’s happening with next year’s exams “before the summer break ideally”, the head of the qualifications regulator has acknowledged. Sally Collier, the chief regulator of Ofqual, told the Parliamentary education committee this morning that a consultation process on plans for next year will start “in the coming weeks”. “Schools and teachers, […]

Williamson insists government is ‘working towards bringing all pupils back in September’

Education secretary Gavin Williamson had insisted exams will go ahead next year – adding the government is still “working to bring all children back to school in September”. Williamson confirmed in a statement to the House of Commons today that the government has ditched its “ambition” to get all primary school pupils back in school […]