Freddie Whittaker | Schools Week

The 9 policies in Angela Rayner’s 2018 Labour conference speech

Labour is set to announce sweeping reforms to England’s school system at its annual conference tomorrow. In a speech, Angela Rayner will announce plans to curtail the freedoms of academy trusts and put councils in charge of opening new schools and deciding who can go to existing ones. Here are all the policies she is set […]

Labour mulls creation of state-funded supply teacher agency

Labour will look into the feasibility of creating a state-funded supply teacher agency to compete with commercial providers and save schools £500 million a year, Angela Rayner has announced. The shadow education secretary told the Labour Party conference today that she has tasked Mike Kane, the shadow schools minister, with setting up a teacher supply […]

Union demands Brexit certainty for EU teachers

Schools need urgent clarity about the work restrictions teachers from Europe will face in Britain after the country leaves the EU, the National Education Union has said, amid confusion following a landmark report. The migration advisory committee has published its recommendations for the Home Office on how migration to the UK from the European Economic […]

Councils to get sweeping powers over academies under Labour reforms

The shadow education secretary Angela Rayner is to announce sweeping reforms to the school system that will clip the wings of academy trusts while boosting the powers of individual schools and local authorities. Under a future Labour government, the free schools programme will end, and only councils will be allowed to open or “commission” new […]

Heads divided on Labour academies plan, but Wilshaw says it’s ‘bonkers’

It would be a “huge mistake” to hand academies back to local authorities, Sir Michael Wilshaw, the former chief inspector of schools has said. Plans announced by Labour to allow councils to take back academies from failing trusts have divided opinion in the schools community, with some heads in favour but others concerned that the […]

Shadow minister: ‘We’ll ban Ofsted banners’

A future Labour government would ban schools from displaying banners promoting their Ofsted grade, the shadow schools minister has said, as he accused the watchdog of “measuring class rather than quality”. Labour MP Mike Kane told a fringe meeting at his party’s annual conference today that the “floppy banners”, which are controversial because they often […]

Rayner: ‘I’ll turn my back on Gove’s reforms’

Angela Rayner, the shadow education secretary, plans to “turn her back” on Michael Gove’s school reforms, she said today. The MP told a Guardian fringe event at the Labour Party conference that party policies going forward will focus on “collaboration not competition” and ending “fat cat salaries”, indicating she will seek to address concerns about […]

Bright Tribe founder resigns from £31k-a-year private school

Michael Dwan, founder of the Bright Tribe academy trust, has resigned as chair of governors at a private school in Cumbria after eight years at the helm. Dwan’s departure from Windermere School, which charges up to £31,335 a year for boarding pupils, comes after a recent BBC Panorama investigation into his role at Bright Tribe. […]

DfE has ‘no plans’ to scrap national schools commissioner role

The government has announced it has “no plans” to scrap the role of the national schools commissioner, putting to bed rumours that a review of school accountability policies could see the job axed. The move to appoint Dominic Herrington (pictured) to replace Sir David Carter as the new NSC on a part-time, interim basis earlier […]