Freddie Whittaker | Schools Week

How much impact does CPD really have? Here’s the evidence

In a profession as complex as teaching, it seems obvious that we should provide educators with access to professional development that helps them keep improving their practice. But there’s also an obvious challenge, write James Zuccollo and Harry Fletcher-Wood. Teachers’ time is limited, and so are school budgets: is professional development valuable enough to prioritise? […]

Coronavirus: What do schools need to know?

Public Health England has published guidance for schools and other educational settings about how they should respond to COVID-19, or “coronavirus”. According to the agency, the guidance is not new, and is likely to be made up of things schools already know, but it brings together all of their advice in one place for the […]

Unions warn the DfE: Don’t short-change experienced teachers

The government’s proposals to reform teacher pay risk “short-changing” more experienced teachers and exacerbating retention problems, education unions have warned. Leadership unions NAHT and ASCL, along with the National Education Union and Voice, have made a joint submission to the School Teachers’ Review Body, which makes recommendations to ministers on teacher pay. We have to […]

Baroness Berridge confirmed as new academies minister

New education minister Baroness Berridge has taken on the school system brief previously held by Lord Agnew, the Department for Education has confirmed. Berridge was promoted last week. She was previously a whip who sometimes spoke for the government on education issues in the House of Lords. Her promotion follows that of Agnew, who is […]

Lord Agnew’s DfE career in Schools Week front pages

Lord Agnew, the former academies minister, has departed the Department for Education. The academy trust founder has got a new job at the Treasury after a controversial stink in Sanctuary Buildings, where his dogged pursuit of savings in schools annoyed a lot of headteachers. His exploits also earned him a fair few headlines, and he has […]

DfE in ‘serious data breach’ after naming whistleblowers

The government chose not to redact the names of three whistleblowers who gave evidence relating to cheating allegations against a multi-academy trust. The disclosure casts doubt on the government’s commitment to protecting teachers who raise concerns that they believe to be in the public interest under the cover of anonymity. Schools Week revealed last week […]

DfE proposes legal definition of ‘full-time’ education

The government is seeking to define what constitutes full-time education in law for the first time, as part of efforts to clamp down on the operation of illegal schools. The Department for Education has launched a consultation which proposes to “expand on and more clearly define what full-time institutions are” under the law. It means […]

Ministers want academy trusts to open their own AP

Some of England’s largest academy trusts are considering establishing their own alternative provision for excluded pupils. It comes as Lord Agnew said this was a potential solution to problems with off-rolling and high levels of exclusion among SEND pupils – urging larger trusts to ‘own the problem’ More active thinking is going on with our […]

Ofsted extends curriculum grace period for a year

Schools will get an extra year to bring their curriculum into line with Ofsted’s new inspection framework, after the watchdog announced an extension to its transition period. The new framework, which places greater weight on curriculum content and less on outcomes, came into effect last September. However Ofsted worked in a year-long transition so that […]