Author: Freddie Whittaker

Headteachers across England have been advised to anticipate an end to the current “secure fit” model for teacher assessments of writing from 2017-18, Schools Week has learned. The government has been consulting on plans to move to a “best fit” model, which would place more weight on the judgment of teachers. Under the current secure-fit […]

The Education Funding Agency has published its annual report and accounts. Here are some of the more interesting findings… 1. Overdue debts double in a year The value of overdue debts owed to the Education Funding Agency has more than doubled in a year, the agency’s annual accounts show. According to the documents, the EFA […]

A technical change to the government’s target for the proportion of pupils studying the EBacc subjects means that ministers are actually delaying their own ambitions for the measure by seven years. David Cameron’s government pledged in 2015 to have 90 per cent of pupils entered into GCSEs for the full slate of EBacc subjects by […]

The government has finally published its response to the consultation on the EBacc performance measure. Here are its main points… 1. EBacc targets revised to 75 per cent by 2022, 90 per cent by 2025 The government wants 75 per cent of year 10 pupils in state-funded mainstream schools to be starting EBacc GCSE courses […]

The government’s ambition to have 90 per cent of pupils studying the full slate of EBacc subjects by 2020 has officially been abandoned. Justine Greening, the education secretary, has confirmed plans set out in the Conservative Party’s election manifesto to push the target back to 2025. The government had wanted nine in ten pupils to […]

The new chair of the education select committee has pledged to prioritise evidence from pupils and teachers instead of relying solely on “experts in quotation marks” and “people from very important think-tanks”. Robert Halfon, the former skills minister who narrowly beat Nick Boles to lead the committee in a vote of MPs earlier this week, told […]

The government stands accused of offering schools a “sticking plaster” by “robbing Peter to pay Paul” after it announced an extra £1.3 billion in revenue funding for schools, paid for using savings from existing budgets. Justine Greening’s announcement has prompted disappointment and frustration in some quarters after it was found to include no new money […]

Justine Greening has announced £1.3 billion of additional funding for schools over the next two years – promising to maintain per-pupil funding in real terms until 2019-20. Addressing MPs in the House of Commons this afternoon the education secretary pledged the “significant” extra money alongside a commitment to deliver the national funding formula in 2018. […]

The former shadow education secretary Lucy Powell has been elected to serve on the education select committee alongside two former teachers. Powell tweeted on Saturday that she was “delighted” to join the committee, which also includes Ian Mearns, who has served on the committee in the last two parliaments. The full slate of Labour MPs […]