Freddie Whittaker | Schools Week

Performance-related pay criticised by thousands of teachers

Thousands of teachers have criticised the government’s performance-related pay system, with many claiming it has denied them access to even the smallest pay rise. A joint survey of 13,000 teachers by the National Union of Teachers and Association of Teachers and Lecturers found that 21 per cent were denied pay progression in 2016, up from […]

ASCL leadership election: Geoff Barton wins landslide victory

Geoff Barton, the popular headteacher and anti-establishment challenger in the race to be the new leader of the Association of School and College Leaders, has won a landslide election victory. Barton, a fierce critic of government policy, received 2,716 votes from members of the traditionally moderate union, more than four times as many votes as his opponent […]

Government considers PISA tests for 5 year olds

The government is considering taking part in a pilot of tablet-based tests for some of the youngest children in England’s primary schools. Department for Education officials are understood to have expressed an interest in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) international early learning and child well-being study (IELS) next year. A final decision […]

Ministers consider new ‘national selection test’ to replace 11-plus

Ministers are considering a new “national selection test” to replace the 11-plus, with a ‘selective education team’ led by Nick Timothy established to drive through grammar proposals. Minutes of a meeting between ministers and the Grammar School Heads’ Association (GSHA) also reveal that the government expects new grammar schools to recruit the top 10 per cent […]

Greater Manchester is seventh UTC to announce closure

The Greater Manchester University Technical College (UTC) will close at the end of this year, becoming the seventh of the institutions to shut its doors as a result of recruitment problems. Leaders at the UTC told students this afternoon that the college had been unable to recruit enough pupils in Oldham “and further afield” meaning […]

Mike Kane, MP, Shadow schools minister

It’s Holocaust Memorial Day and parliament’s Central Lobby is bustling with school groups and easily recognised faces. Mike Kane, MP for Wythenshawe and Sale East, greets us himself – he has no staff in London – and seems cheerful and relaxed as he guides us past the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Chief Rabbi to […]

Department for Education indefinitely delays move to new offices

The Department for Education’s plan to save £19 million a year by moving offices has been indefinitely postponed, Schools Week has learned. The move was proposed in 2014 when the government announced it would move about 1,600 staff from Sanctuary Buildings to the Old Admiralty Building in Whitehall, overlooking Buckingham Palace, by this summer. BAM […]

Top DfE civil servant blames poor communication for an accounting blunder

The Department for Education’s top civil servant has admitted that better communication could have solved an administrative error that led to it being the only department hauled in front of MPs over poor accounting. Jonathan Slater (pictured), the DfE’s permanent secretary, told the House of Commons public accounts committee on Wednesday that the need for […]

‘Superhead’ Jo Shuter has teaching ban overturned

A superhead who was banned from teaching for life over her expenses can now return to the classroom after a government disciplinary panel ruled that a prohibition order against her be set aside. Jo Shuter was banned for life in 2014 after a misconduct hearing into expenses claimed at London’s Quintin Kynaston School, but was […]