Freddie Whittaker | Schools Week

Phonics check pass rate falls for the first time

The proportion of year 1 pupils meeting the government’s “expected standard” in the phonics screening check has fallen for the first time since the test was introduced. In 2019, 82 per cent of year 1 pupils met the expected standard, down 0.6 percentage points on last year. The proportion of pupils achieving the standard by […]

Extend free school meals to secondary pupils, says shadow minister

Labour should look to extend the availability of free school meals to secondary schools “at the earliest possible opportunity”, a shadow minister has said. Sharon Hodgson, the shadow minister for public health, told a fringe event at the Labour Party conference this afternoon that the party should go beyond its current pledge to extend free […]

Labour pledges 32-hour working week, but will it work for teachers?

School staff and other workers across England have been promised “a shorter working week with no loss of pay” if Labour comes to power. But the announcement raises questions about how schools could function under such a system. In his speech to the Labour Party conference in Brighton this morning, John McDonnell told delegates a […]

Angela Rayner: Full text of Labour Conference 2019 speech

Labour activists heard from Angela Rayner at the party’s annual conference this morning. Here is what she said. Conference, it is a pleasure to follow Mark [Drakeford, first minister of Wales]. What a contrast he is to the last three Tory Prime Ministers. They have achieved the impossible – they’ve each been even worse than […]

Anti-private school motion passes at Labour conference

Delegates at the Labour Party conference have passed a motion calling on the party to “integrate” private schools into the state sector and “redistribute” their assets. The motion, which was backed by a number of MPs including shadow chancellor John McDonnell, was debated and approved in Brighton this evening. However, Angela Rayner, the shadow education […]

Labour would replace Ofsted with Local Authority ‘health checks’

A Labour government would replace Ofsted with a new inspection system involving local authorities running “health checks” on schools. In an interview with the Observer newspaper, shadow education secretary Angela Rayner said: “We would abolish Ofsted and we would replace it with a different system… I believe Ofsted measures poverty. It measures deprivation. And I […]

The 4 schools policies in Angela Rayner’s Labour conference speech

Angela Rayner, the shadow education secretary, has addressed the Labour Party conference in Brighton. In a short speech, Rayner announced a number of policies that her party will enact if it wins power in a forthcoming general election. Here are the schools policies she announced. 1. Integration of private schools – but no commitment […]

Pay scales for teachers and leaders in England and Wales from September 2019

The new teacher and school leadership pay rates for 2019-20 have been confirmed by the Department for Education. In July, the DfE announced pay rises of 2.75 per cent for teachers on all pay grades. While local authority-maintained schools are required to follow these pay scales, academies and free schools are allowed to set their own […]

Labour refuses to rule out replacing Ofsted

Labour is “looking at all options” for an overhaul of the school accountability system, including replacing Ofsted. In an exclusive eve-of-conference interview with Schools Week, Angela Rayner, the shadow education secretary, refuses to rule out scrapping the inspectorate, but does concede there is a need to replace it with a new system to hold schools […]