Author: Freddie Whittaker

A studio school in Manchester plagued with financial and performance problems since it opened in 2014 faces closure after the schools commissioner said turning it around would be a “challenging task” for any new sponsor. The regional schools commissioner, Vicky Beer, has written to everyone involved with the Manchester Creative Studio to inform them of […]

An academy trust founded by a minister is considering a merger with another chain after it admitted that it cannot continue to run three primary schools on its own. The Floreat Education Academies Trust, set up by Lord O’Shaughnessy, a health minister and a former adviser of David Cameron’s in 2014, is in talks with […]

The parliamentary education committee spent almost two hours grilling the national schools commissioner Sir David Carter and the academies minister Lord Theodore Agnew. It was Agnew’s first appearance in front of the committee since his appointment, and Carter’s first hearing for at least a year. Here are the 6 most important things we learned…   […]

The Education and Skills Funding Agency has written to the trustees of academy trusts with just one school that have staff earning more than £150,000 a year to ask for justification of the salaries. The letter, from new ESFA chief executive Eileen Milner, specifically targets so-called “single-academy trusts” and requests further information on their “rationale for […]

The government has published details of its long-awaited careers strategy. Here are the main proposals for schools. 1. Dedicated “careers leaders” £4 million in new funding will provide “training and support” for at least 500 schools and colleges to train a dedicated careers leader. This funding works out as about £8,000 per school, and by […]

Schools will get funding to train new designated “careers leaders”, the government has announced in its long-awaited careers strategy. The government has announced that it is allocating £4 million to provide “training and support” for at least 500 schools and colleges, but says it wants to aim for a leader in “every school and college”. […]

Police are looking into the activities of the Bright Tribe academy trust. Cumbria Constabulary has confirmed that it is conducting “preliminary enquiries” into the trust, which currently runs 10 schools across the north of England and East Anglia. The force has not launched a formal investigation, but will do so if initial enquiries find that […]

Bright Tribe academy trust is to give up Whitehaven Academy in Cumbria, following intense pressure from school staff and parents. The secondary school has been at the centre of a row over the way the trust runs its schools in the north of England for over a year, but matters came to a head last […]