Freddie Whittaker | Schools Week

Justine Greening pulls out of NAHT conference

Justine Greening will not address the annual conference of the National Association of Head Teachers this weekend after her visit was cancelled by the Department for Education. The education secretary was due to speak at the event in Telford on Saturday morning, but has pulled out at the last minute. Schools Week understands that her […]

Funding system for new schools ‘increasingly incoherent’, say MPs

Funding for new schools is delivered through an “increasingly incoherent” system, with the government frequently paying “over the odds” for sites and building schools without the “full suite of facilities”, a powerful committee of MPs has warned. In a new report, out today, the parliamentary public accounts committee (PAC) warns that while free schools are helping meet the […]

Labour pledges to bring back EMA with corporation tax hike

Labour will raise corporation tax to fund the re-introduction of the education maintenance allowance, the party has revealed today. The payments, aimed at supporting pupils from lower-income households who stay in education between the ages of 16 and 19, were scrapped in England by the coalition government in 2010, although they carried on in Wales, Scotland […]

Corbyn promises to halt rise of ‘super-size’ classes in latest Labour schools pledge

Jeremy Corbyn has claimed that children are being “crammed in classrooms like sardines” and pledged to keep class sizes down if he wins the general election, in the latest of a series of high-profile interventions on education issues. The Labour Party has released analysis of Department for Education data released in January which shows that more than half […]

Grammar schools white paper won’t be published until after election

Ministers will not publish the grammar schools white paper until after the snap general election on June 8, despite Justine Greening having recently pledged to release the publication within the “coming weeks”. The Department for Education (DfE) said “well-established restrictions” on government business during the purdah period in the run-up to local elections on May […]

NUT demands funding formula response before election

Kevin Courtney, the general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, says it would be an “absolute and total disgrace” if the government does not respond to its national funding formula consultation before the election. Theresa May’s announcement that there will be a snap general election on June 8 has cast doubts on whether the government […]

NUT threatens strike over teacher pay

Delegates at the annual conference of the National Union of Teachers have voted to ballot members for a national campaign of strike action over teacher pay it talks with the government fail to make progress. The union is asking for an end to public sector pay limits and the restoration of all real-terms pay losses […]

NUT to seek summer term strike action over school cuts

The National Union of Teachers is taking steps towards regional strikes over school funding in the summer term, based on a pre-existing ballot of its members. Last summer the NUT balloted members on national strike action. The validity of the ballot ends on August 31, ahead of the NUT’s merger with the Association of Teachers […]

Half of young teachers planning to leave within 5 years

Poor management and unreasonable demands from school leaders have prompted around half of young teachers to consider leaving the profession, a survey by the National Union Teachers has found. Of more than 3,000 teachers aged 35 and under who responded to the union’s survey, just 55 per cent said they planned to stay in the […]