Freddie Whittaker

  • Public accounts chair wants schools to publish clearer financial information online

    Schools should have to publish more financial information about themselves on their websites to make it easier for parents to hold them to account, the chair of a powerful parliamentary committee has said. Labour MP Meg Hillier, the chair of the public accounts committee, highlights education as one of six “departments of concern” in her…

    10.37 Jun. 29th, 2018 | News

  • Nicky Morgan calls for return of character education grants

    The government should resurrect its programme of character education awards and grants, Nicky Morgan has said. The former education secretary, who made character education her pet project during her two years at the helm at the Department for Education, told Schools Week that her successor Damian Hinds is “interested” in the area, and that she…

    5.00 Jul. 2nd, 2018 | News

  • Exposed: The Downing Street teacher reception where academies reigned supreme

    A Downing Street reception for school teachers hosted by the prime minister last month was an “ideological love-in” at which staff from academies and free schools outnumbered those from maintained schools five to one. Theresa May and Damian Hinds welcomed more than 100 “high-performing” teachers to Number 10 on May 21 for a celebration of…

    5.00 Jun. 29th, 2018 | News

  • Ofsted right to consider separate behaviour judgment, says Nicky Morgan

    The former education secretary Nicky Morgan has backed a proposal to have Ofsted inspectors award schools a specific mark based on pupil behaviour. Though her comments in support of heads who make pupils write lines or do community service have attracted more publicity, the announcement by Ofsted’s chief inspector Amanda Spielman, that inspectors will focus…

    7.00 Jun. 29th, 2018 | News

  • New editor appointed at Schools Week

    Schools Week is proud to announce the appointment of John Dickens, its former chief reporter, as its new editor. Dickens (above, right) will return to the newsroom in September following a year-long sabbatical. He will take over from Shane Mann (above, left), the managing director of Schools Week publisher Lsect Ltd, who has served as the…

    5.00 Jun. 29th, 2018 | News

  • DfE: Schools 'must no longer request' pupil nationality data

    Schools have been instructed to stop collecting data on their pupils’ nationality and country of birth, after the controversial collection was scrapped by ministers. Schools Week revealed in April that the Department for Education had decided to reverse its divisive move in 2016 to collect the data via the school census to include in the…

    9.47 Jun. 28th, 2018 | News

  • 'Learn lessons' from the 'terrible case' of Whitehaven and Bright Tribe, says Damian Hinds

    The government must “learn lessons” from the fiasco surrounding the troubled Whitehaven Academy and its sponsor the Bright Tribe Trust, the education secretary has said. Damian Hinds told the parliamentary education committee this morning that he accepted that a scandal which has left the struggling Cumbria school in special measures and with rapidly deteriorating buildings had…

    11.58 Jun. 27th, 2018 | News

  • Damian Hinds resolutely silent on school funding

    The education secretary Damian Hinds has clashed with MPs on school funding, after he refused to say how much extra cash he is fighting for. Appearing in front of the parliamentary education committee this morning, Hinds claimed he is “always striving to make sure the funding is there” for education, but would not give details.…

    10.39 Jun. 27th, 2018 | News

  • Ofsted: Half of pupils who leave before their GCSEs don't end up in another state school

    Around 50 per cent of pupils who left school before taking their GCSEs last year did not end up in another state school, prompting warnings about schools deliberately “off-rolling” problem children. New Ofsted analysis of school census data shows that more than 19,000 pupils who were in year 10 in 2016 did not progress to year…

    12.54 Jun. 26th, 2018 | News

  • Proportion of 'good' and 'outstanding' schools drops after Ofsted reporting change

    The proportion of schools recorded as ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ has dropped by two percentage points after missing data for 702 schools was added to Ofsted’s statistics. Once their data is added to the watchdog’s datasets, 86 per cent of schools are now rated ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’, down from 88 per cent. Most of the missing…

    10.00 Jun. 26th, 2018 | News

  • Ofsted at the public accounts committee: Five things we learned

    Leading figures from Ofsted, the Department for Education and trades union movement were questioned by MPs about the quality of school inspection in England. The parliamentary public accounts committee, which oversees government spending, called a hearing to discuss the findings of a recent National Audit Office report into Ofsted’s activities. Witnesses included Amanda Spielman, the…

    18.28 Jun. 25th, 2018 | News