Freddie Whittaker | Schools Week

Computing teachers to get 40 hours of training to upskill

Computing teachers without qualifications in their subject will receive at least 40 hours of continuing professional development through an £84 million programme announced in the chancellor’s autumn budget. Nick Gibb, the schools minister, has shed further light on the government’s plans to “upskill” 8,000 computer science teachers. In a written answer to a question from […]

Justine Greening at education questions: 5 things we learned

The education secretary Justine Greening took questions from MPs in the House of Commons this afternoon. Here are the five most important things we learned: 1. A QTS consultation and a new social mobility plan are due this week The government will publish its long-awaited consultation on qualified teacher status this week, Greening said. This […]

Consultation on strengthening QTS to run over Christmas

A consultation on the government’s plans to strengthen qualified teacher status (QTS) will be published this week, Justine Greening has announced. The education secretary told MPs today the long-awaited proposals on teacher qualifications will be revealed “later this week”. The timing of the release of the consultation means it will run over Christmas. The government […]

Ofsted leadership approval soars under Spielman

A survey of civil servants working at the schools watchdog shows a surge in approval of Ofsted’s leadership and ability to manage change this year. The 2017 civil service people survey has offered the first glimpse into life at the inspectorate under Amanda Spielman, who took over as chief inspector from Sir Michael Wilshaw in […]

Academy trusts will appear in January’s league tables

Next year, the public will be able to see for themselves how well multi-academy trusts are doing in the school performance league tables for the first time. From January 25 next year, academy trusts will be included alongside individual schools on the Department for Education’s website, as it seeks to make information about trusts more […]

Revealed: The two schools ‘double-bounced’ between sponsors

Crawshaw Academy and Wigan UTC are the only two schools to have been rebrokered twice since records began, the government has revealed. The Department for Education has responded to questions from the parliamentary education committee about the movement of schools between academy trusts. In its response, the government said that Crawshaw Academy in Pudsey, West […]

Campaigners launch judicial review proceedings to stop collection of pupil nationality data

Campaigners seeking to halt schools from collecting data on pupil nationality and country of birth will today request permission for a judicial review of the policy in the High Court. The campaign group Against Borders for Children, represented by the human rights charity Liberty, will focus its legal argument on whether the policy infringes the […]

Schools fail to ‘obtain’ nationality data on quarter of pupils

Schools failed to obtain nationality data for a quarter of their pupils this year, indicating a significant resistance to the controversial new requirement to collect it from school staff, parents and pupils. New government data shows the information was successfully collected from around three quarters of the 8.1 million pupils who were registered in January. […]

A third of EAL pupils are fluent in English

A third of pupils with English as an additional language are fluent in it, according to new data from the school census. A new requirement that schools record data on EAL pupils’ proficiency in English came into effect last summer. The system involves schools grading proficiency on a sliding scale from “new to English” to “fluent”. […]