Freddie Whittaker | Schools Week

What does the industrial strategy mean for schools?

The government’s long-awaited industrial strategy white paper has been published by the business secretary, Greg Clark. Here are the most relevant bits for schools… 1. Performance measures to recognise T-levels The government’s new vocational T-level qualifications will be introduced in 2022 for 16 to 19-year-olds, with funding of £500 million a year. But there have […]

Warrington academy reduces intake, blames nearby free school

A secondary school in Warrington intends to reduce its intake, blaming the arrival of an award-winning free school on its patch. Birchwood Community High School (pictured), an academy in the Birchwood area of Warrington, is consulting on a proposal to reduce its intake by 40 pupils from September 2019 after the King’s Leadership Academy Warrington, […]

Ofsted to ‘publicly acknowledge’ work of school management teams

Ofsted is to take steps to “publicly acknowledge” the work of entire school management teams, to address a tendency to pin successes and failures on headteachers alone, Amanda Spielman has said. The chief inspector of schools told the Ark Schools Teach 2017 conference in Birmingham today that she was “all too aware” of a tendency […]

Academy trusts ‘not the only answer’ to inter-school collaboration, RSC admits

Multi-academy trusts are “not going to be the only answer” to collaboration between schools “any time soon, if ever”, a regional schools commissioner has admitted. Christine Quinn, who oversees all the academies and chains operating in the West Midlands, said today that although multi-academy trusts are the “best” option for encouraging schools to connect and work […]

‘Help us tackle inspection culture of fear’ – Ofsted chief’s plea to heads

The schools community has a “collective responsibility” to tackle the “culture of fear” surrounding inspections, the chief inspector has said, as she attacked headteachers who “manufacture tension” between Ofsted and schools. Amanda Spielman told a teaching conference in Birmingham this morning that the anxiety felt by teachers and school leaders about Ofsted was an “enormous […]

DfE to draft clearer home education guidance

The government will revise its guidance on home education, the academies minister Lord Agnew has said. According to the minister, the Department for Education plans to draft and consult on revised guidance documents on elective home education for local authorities and parents. The changes will make clearer to councils the powers available to them and will […]

£20m crack team of digital specialists to help solve teacher workload

A crack team of digital specialists will be set up in the heart of government to encourage education technology startups to solve problems faced by schools, such as teacher workload. The new “GovTech Catalyst” unit will get £20 million over the next two years to provide match funding to public bodies wanting to commission tech […]

NAHT: Senior leader recruitment getting even worse

Schools are increasingly struggling to recruit senior leaders, with the proportion of heads failing to hire a new assistant head or principal almost double what it was last year. The NAHT union’s annual recruitment survey has found that 19 per cent of leaders failed to fill one of these vacancies this year, up from 10 […]

Budget 2017: Greening will write to teacher pay body ‘shortly’

The education secretary will write to the body that makes recommendations on teacher pay rises “shortly”, the government has confirmed. Following today’s budget announcement, Justine Greening is now free to write to the School Teachers Review Body about its remit for next year’s pay award. Every year, the STRB receives a “remit letter” from the […]