Author: Freddie Whittaker

The headteacher of a school at the centre of fierce protests over LGBT-inclusive lessons hopes her landmark court victory will protect other schools from abuse. Sarah Hewitt-Clarkson has spoken of her “relief” after the High Court permanently banned protesters from outside the gates at Anderton Park primary in Birmingham. Now our case is a piece […]

Schools will benefit from a share of the Conservatives’ £100 billion infrastructure fund if the party regains power, but will have to wait until after the election to find out by how much. Speaking exclusively to Schools Week, Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, also asked the sector “to please not read anything into” the omission […]

Boris Johnson has pledged to trial “no-notice” Ofsted inspections for schools if he is re-elected. In a surprise announcement, Johnson said he wanted to change the way inspections work, so they give a “true reflection” of how well schools are performing. No-notice inspections will do more harm than good The proposal did not feature in […]

Just 7 per cent of academy trusts and large academies met a new apprenticeship recruitment target in the first year of its existence, new figures have revealed. The public sector apprenticeship target came into force for schools last March, requiring all individual institutions and trusts with more than 250 employees to recruit 2.3 per cent […]

A Catholic diocese preparing to open a new voluntary-aided school has insisted its decision to admit a fifth of pupils based on where they live, rather than their faith, does not breach Canon Law. In June, the Roman Catholic Diocese of East Anglia was granted permission in principle by the government for a new VA […]

The proportion of secondary schools that lost their ‘outstanding’ rating almost doubled last year amid a clampdown on underperforming schools that are exempt from inspection. Ofsted analysis of inspection data, seen by Schools Week, shows 75 per cent of previously ‘outstanding’ secondary schools inspected during the 2018-19 academic year were downgraded, compared with just 38 […]

Ofsted has reported a 9 per cent rise in the proportion of small private schools rated ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’, but one in ten remains inadequate. Analysis published by the watchdog this morning shows that as of August, 75 per cent of so-called “non-association independent schools” received one of the two top grades at their most […]

Teachers in schools rated ‘requires improvement’ and ‘inadequate’ have to report more frequently on pupil performance, according to new research. A survey by Teacher Tapp for Education Datalab found that although almost all teachers are required to provide leaders with data on how pupils are progressing “at least every term”, the frequency of reporting varied […]