Freddie Whittaker | Schools Week

Unions consider legal challenge to grammar school ‘get-out clause’

Unions are preparing to challenge the government’s ‘grammar school get-out clause’ over claims that it is not a correct interpretation of the law which banned the expansion of selection in England in 1998. Mary Bousted, the general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, told a packed fringe event at the Conservative Party conference […]

Four things we learned from Nicky Morgan at Conservative conference

Nicky Morgan gave Conservative Party Conference delegates a rare insight into her time as education secretary when she addressed a fringe event on educational inequality this morning. Here’s what we learned… Justine Greening will announce a new ‘social mobility areas’ policy tomorrow Nicky Morgan said the key announcement was set to feature in her successor’s speech tomorrow, and although […]

Removing faith selection cap will increase segregation, say humanists

Allowing faith schools to select their entire intake will lead to increased segregation, the British Humanist Association has claimed. Analysis of government statistics by the BHA has revealed that schools which can choose their entire roll based on pupils’ faith are less diverse than those subject to a 50 per cent cap on the number […]

EXCLUSIVE: Labour admits ‘no policy’ on academies

Labour does not have a policy on the future of the academies programme, a member of the party’s frontbench team has admitted. Lord Watson, the shadow education minister in the House of Lords, told a fringe event at the Labour party conference that the party was in the “early stages” of policy development. Party leader […]

New teacher training recruitment caps explained

New initial teacher training recruitment caps will be based on three subject categories and providers will get a grace period before being forced to close courses, the government has announced. Following problems in the past year which saw some university courses in popular subjects such as history and PE close at short-notice, the National College for Teaching and […]

Corbyn: Labour will give schools £160m ‘arts pupil premium’

Labour will introduce an “arts pupil premium” to pump £160 million of extra funding into schools if it wins the next general election, Jeremy Corbyn has announced. The leader told his party’s conference today that if Labour won a general election, it would introduce the cash boost to help pupils learn to play instruments, learn drama and […]

Phonics results rise again but writing falls behind at KS1

The government has reported a boost to year 1 phonics check results, but pupils’ writing standards are falling behind reading and maths. Department for Education statistics on the phonics check show that 81 per cent of year 1 pupils met the ‘expected standard’ this year, up from 77 per cent in 2015. The rate at […]

Chair of Education Funding Agency doubts all-academy and grammar plans

The chair of the Education Funding Agency’s advisory board has cast doubt on plans to convert all schools into academies and questioned proposals for more grammar schools. Les Walton, who also chairs the Northern Education Trust, told a fringe event organised by teaching unions at the Labour Party Conference that the government had to be […]

Labour to launch childcare taskforce to ‘transform’ early years

Labour will launch a new childcare taskforce to “transform” early years education in England, Angela Rayner will announce this afternoon in a speech aimed at defying her critics. The shadow education secretary has appointed Liz Snape, deputy general secretary of UNISON, to undertake the review, which will be aimed at improving access to affordable high-quality […]