Author: Freddie Whittaker

A former vice-principal who fraudulently claimed expenses from a company linked to his school will not be banned from teaching, the government has ruled. Alan Stevens, who was vice-principal at Sawtry Community College, admitted two counts of fraud by abuse of position at Peterborough Crown Court in 2017 and received a suspended sentence. A prohibition […]

England’s network of illegal schools is “not just a faith school problem”, an Ofsted director has said, after new data revealed thousands of pupils could be languishing in “appalling” alternative provision, sometimes at the taxpayer’s expense. Inspectors have described visiting unregistered settings with “open sewers”, “exposed electrical work” and “holes in walls and floors”, as […]

The number of appeals against GCSE and A-level exam grades rose by more than 40 per cent in 2018, the second year of a new appeals process. There were 847 appeals in 2018, up from 597 in 2017. Of last year’s appeals, 400 were upheld, up from 260 the previous year. The increase in 2018 […]

A long-awaited £95,000 cap on pay-offs for school staff is to finally be implemented, the government has announced. The restriction, first mooted in 2015 by David Cameron’s government, will stop the “huge exit payments” made when public sector workers leave their jobs, the Treasury said today. It is clearly wrong when people leave public sector […]

Another school run by the Academies Enterprise Trust is in hot water and may be rebrokered to another sponsor because of falling standards. Dominic Herrington, the national schools commissioner, has issued another “minded to terminate” notice to AET warning the trust over performance at the ‘inadequate’-rated Bexleyheath Academy in London. If there is no clear […]

Some new teachers are barely earning the national minimum wage because of their pay and the hours they work, the leaders of the National Education Union have warned ahead of a conference set to be dominated by issues of funding and teacher welfare. Dr Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney, the joint general secretaries of the […]

The prime minister this week dodged questions about her government’s cost-saving interventions in schools, despite claims the advice “belonged to the days of the workhouse”. Schools Week revealed last week that school resource management advisers employed by the Department for Education had told school leaders to limit pupils’ lunch portions, keep money raised for charity […]

The education secretary has warned 23 universities regarding their use of “unethical” unconditional offers, following warnings that school pupils are being “backed into a corner” to accept places. Increased competition for students in the higher education sector has led to a spike in the use of unconditional offers. Conditional unconditional offers are damaging the reputation […]