James Carr | Schools Week

School drops sports course questioned by Ofsted

A Liverpool school has dropped a controversial sports science qualification that Ofsted said might not be in the pupils’ “best interests”. St Francis Xavier’s College, one of ten schools found not to be providing effective education during the pandemic, said it decided to drop the course before the inspectors’ visit. A monitoring inspection conducted in […]

Ofsted sex abuse review: Schools ‘consistently underestimated’ scale of problem

Ofsted has accused school leaders and teachers of “consistently underestimating” the scale of sexual abuse and harassment occurring among their pupils. The watchdog today released its findings of a rapid review into sexual abuse within education settings. The review was requested by the government in response to allegations of abuse shared on the Everyone’s Invited […]

Ofsted inspectors to question schools that record no sex abuse cases

Inspectors will now interrogate schools that fail to provide a log of sex abuse cases and speak to pupils about such issues after Ofsted admitted its inspections do not yet ‘sufficiently assess’ the extent of sexual harassment in schools. The changes follow Ofsted’s rapid review into sexual abuse within education settings which found a number […]

Ofsted: Brexit ‘insecurity’ and lack of CPD pose languages ‘challenges’

“Insecurity” around Brexit and a lack of continuing professional development could pose “challenges” for schools in delivering a high quality languages curriculum, Ofsted has warned. The watchdog today published its fourth research review, which focuses on languages. Its previous reviews covered maths, science and religious education. The review noted a “worrying fall” in the number of […]

Pandemic learning loss has undone up to two thirds of disadvantage gap progress

Learning loss among poorer primary school pupils as a result of the pandemic has undone as much as two thirds of the progress made over the last 10 years in closing the disadvantage gap, a new government report has warned. The Department for Education has today released the second and third reports from its research project […]

Free school meals voucher extension risked legal challenges

The government’s last-minute U-turn on providing free school meals vouchers over the summer holidays risked exposing it to legal challenges that would have a “medium to high” chance of success, internal documents reveal. However, Department for Education officials said that as the £191 million contract extension for Edenred – awarded without a tender – was […]

DfE snubs calls for sprinklers in all new schools

The Department for Education (DfE) is planning to amend guidance to recommend fire suppression systems – such as sprinklers- be installed in all new special schools and new school buildings with a floor level above 11 metres. A revised Fire Safety Design for Schools bulletin was published today setting out its changes as part of […]

Covid: Schools close sites after surge in Indian variant

Schools are being forced to close on-site provision and switch to online learning due to surging Covid rates linked to the Indian variant. While some have shut down their sites to all but keyworker and vulnerable children, others have had to send home whole year groups and have allowed parents to keep their children off […]

Speed read: Ofsted’s guide to a ‘high-quality’ maths curriculum

Ofsted has highlighted the key qualities of teaching a ‘high-quality’ maths curriculum which raises pupil attainment and prevents struggling pupils from falling further behind. The inspectorate today published its third research review in a series which has so far covered science and religious education. Ofsted said it recognised there was no “singular way of achieving […]