Freddie Whittaker | Schools Week

Empty free school sites will be rented to property guardians

Empty buildings snapped up for future free schools will be rented out as housing for young professionals. Company accounts for LocatEd, set up by the government to find sites for new free schools, reveal plans to introduce more property guardian schemes in “appropriate vacant properties” to make affordable living space available to the rental market. […]

Halfon’s ‘reckless’ plan to scrap GCSEs a ‘non-starter’, says baccalaureate fan

Calls to replace GCSEs and A-levels with a “holistic baccalaureate” have been branded a “non-starter” by an advocate of a similar model. Tom Sherrington, a trustee of the National Baccalaureate Trust, warned that “headline-grabbing” comments made this week by Robert Halfon, the chair of the education select committee, and a number of other high-profile leaders […]

Timpson review to demand excluded pupils count in schools’ results

A landmark review of exclusions will demand the government revives plans to make schools retain responsibility for the results of pupils they exclude. Leaked documents show that the Timpson review will call for a “significant shift” for schools, alternative provision settings and councils, demanding that ministers “remove the potential” for heads to game the system […]

Grammar school to prioritise poorer pupils from out of area over 11-plus high-scorers

A grammar school in Dorset will prioritise poorer pupils from outside its catchment area over those with the highest 11-plus scores in order to secure government expansion funding. Bournemouth School for Girls has set out changes to its admissions criteria, moving children eligible for the pupil premium from out of catchment up the ladder at the […]

AQA increases dominance of GCSE market as OCR slumps

The exam board AQA now issues three in every five GCSE certificates after increasing its dominance of the market for the second year in a row. AQA’s share of the GCSE market reached 60 per cent in 2017-18, up from 52 per cent the year before and 46 per cent in 2015-16. The increase has […]

Another studio school considers closure over poor recruitment

Leaders of a studio school in Liverpool are “strongly considering” closing their institution next year, after poor recruitment affected its financial viability. Studio@Deyes has a capacity of 300 but just 196 pupils, and accounts show it ended the last academic year with a deficit of almost £600,000. Twenty-one studio schools have closed to-date, and a […]

The lost generation: Are we failing England’s deaf children?

Deaf children in England fall a whole grade behind their peers at GCSE, according to new analysis that has prompted warnings of a “lost generation” of young people. The National Deaf Children’s Society analysed Department for Education data, and found that deaf children achieved an average GCSE grade of 3.9, historically a grade D, while […]

Science ‘downgraded’ in primary schools, Ofsted warns

A move by some primary schools to “downgrade” science teaching could have a “serious impact” on the depth and breadth of understanding and knowledge of the subject that pupils take into secondary school, Ofsted has warned. In the latest report on ongoing curriculum research by the watchdog, Ofsted warned that science “has clearly been downgraded in […]

Rural and coastal schools feel isolated from government support, research finds

Ministers should review how schools bid for government support and intervention to improve access for isolated schools, researchers have said. A joint report by academics at Plymouth Marjon University and the University of Plymouth found that a lack of access to externally-funded educational interventions can lead to schools in rural or coastal communities feeling isolated. […]