Author: Freddie Whittaker

An award-winning headteacher is to resign early after vowing never to face another Ofsted inspection, claiming the watchdog’s new regime has left her “powerless”. Lynne Fox, head at Bramhall High School in Stockport, was due to stand down next Easter, but has brought her retirement forward by a year after the school was again rated  […]

The Department for Education is to develop its own “alternative arrangements” for international education exchanges in case the UK drops out of Erasmus+, Gavin Williamson has said. Speaking in the House of Commons, the education secretary said his department was “open” to future participation in the programme, but that arrangements for after Brexit would be […]

The Education Policy Institute has published analysis of teacher numbers and spending trends in England. Here are some of the most interesting findings.   1. Teachers are paid almost £3k less than in 2010 Between 2010 and 2017, the average salary paid to teachers in primary schools fell by £2,900 (or 7 per cent) in […]

Just one in four applicants to the government’s new teaching school hubs programme were approved, new figures show. Data released under the freedom of information act shows the government received 27 applications for the “test and learn” phase of its teaching school hubs, of which 25 were eligible. Ministers announced last week that six schools […]

Claims by leading academy bosses that Ofsted’s new inspection regime favours middle-class pupils have been dismissed as “nonsense” by the watchdog’s former strategy chief. Luke Tryl, who served as Ofsted’s director of corporate strategy until last May, defended Ofsted’s “long overdue” action to clamp down on “gaming” by academy trusts, and accused leaders Sir Dan […]

Former Conservative Party researcher and policy chief Innes Taylor has been appointed as a special adviser at the Department for Education. Schools Week understands that Taylor has replaced Katharine Howell, Gavin Williamson’s former policy SpAd, who moved to Downing Street last month following the election. According to her LinkedIn, Taylor was head of policy at […]

The head of an academy trust with just one school saw his pay rise to at least £280,000 last year – despite already being one of the best-paid school bosses in the country. New accounts show Telford City Technology College Trust, which runs the Thomas Telford School in Shropshire, increased the salary of its highest […]

Gavin Williamson has vowed to send Ofsted inspectors into every ‘outstanding’-rated school in England within five years, as he confirmed an earlier pledge to lift their inspection exemption. The education secretary announced last September that the exemption, introduced by Michael Gove in 2012, would finally be abandoned. It followed repeated warnings from Ofsted that it […]

The exams regulator Ofqual is launching a competition to find out if exams can be marked by artificial intelligence. In a blog published today, the organisation said it wants to “understand whether there might be a role for AI in marking”, and is “particularly interested in whether using AI as a second marker or as […]