Author: Freddie Whittaker

The House of Commons education committee has spent the morning grilling academics, think tank leaders and faith school bosses about multi-academy trusts. Here is what we learned. 1. Academies don’t necessarily offer autonomy to their schools and teachers Some leading academics agreed this morning that the ‘freedom’ which supporters of the academies programme often talk about […]

Improvements in schools’ results after they become sponsored academies cannot be attributed to the actions of their sponsors, a key piece of research has claimed. The Education Policy Institute (EPI) is demanding the government look again at research before continuing its planned expansion of the academies programme after analysis by the think tank and the […]

Schools should be “positive about masculinity” and not try to “make boys something they are not”, a Conservative MP has claimed. Karl McCartney, the MP for Lincoln, wrote in an article for PoliticsHome that schools and colleges should be inspiring boys, and “helping them to see what they can achieve” to address the educational achievement […]

Councils will team up to investigate large gaps between their pupils’ key stage 2 writing and reading results amid claims inconsistent moderation could be to blame. Government figures released yesterday showed regional differences in the performance of pupils in primary tests. Some areas had unusually high discrepancies between the proportion of pupils achieving the expected […]

Ofsted boss Sir Michael Wilshaw has taken aim at government plans to lift the ban on new grammar schools as he enters his final term as chief inspector, claiming a return to selection would be a “profoundly retrograde step”. During a speech to the London Councils education conference this morning, Wilshaw said the notion that […]

The new leader of the National Union of Teachers has said he “can envisage” further walk-outs by teachers this term as he warned school budget pressures could exceed the 8 per cent cuts predicted by financial experts. Kevin Courtney, who was recently elected to replace Christine Blower as general secretary of the 300,000-member union, said teachers […]

Independent schools have challenged a leading government commission after it called on employers to collect data on the educational background of job applicants. The Independent Schools Council told Schools Week it was “uneasy” about what it described as attempts to “deselect job applicants on the basis of background”, and said companies should select the “right […]