James Carr | Schools Week

School child abuse helpline receives hundreds of calls in first 6 weeks

A helpline set up to report child abuse in education in the wake of the allegations posted to the Everyone’s Invited website has been contacted over 350 times. The Department for Education (DfE) commissioned the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) to set up the helpline to provide support for those […]

School at heart of Covid surge ‘breaks vaccine record’

A school at the centre of Bolton’s fight against the Indian Covid variant estimates more than 10,000 people have now been vaccinated on its site. Essa Academy volunteered to become a vaccination centre after a surge in cases in the town, with the BL3 and BL4 postcodes particularly hard-hit. On Sunday, 3,072 people received their […]

Closing special school rapped by Ofsted ‘frustrated’ by lack of LA support

Leaders at a special school judged ineffective during the pandemic have been left “frustrated” by a lack of support from their local authority ahead of the school’s closure, an Ofsted report has found. Hunters Hill College, in Bromsgrove, is one of only a handful of schools found by the watchdog to not be supporting children […]

Ofsted: New framework ‘demanding but fair’ and 5 other findings from first evaluation

Ofsted has admitted visits under its new education inspection framework (EIF) are “demanding” for school leaders, especially those in small schools, during its first evaluation of the system. The schools watchdog introduced the EIF in September 2019 before being forced to suspend regular inspections the following March due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, within those […]

Ofsted to inspect online schools under new accreditation scheme

Ofsted will step in to inspect online schools as part of a new accreditation scheme after the government failed to find a commercial provider to do the job. An online school accreditation scheme was approved last year following a consultation on plans for online providers to volunteer for inspection against measures similar to the independent […]

Revealed: The 7 new faith school trusts at the heart of the DfE’s academies drive

The government has named the first seven new faith school trusts it is funding to help drive its academisation “vision”. Education secretary Gavin Williamson announced plans for a Diocesan trust formation pilot last month, along with a host of new policies to get more schools to become academies and join trusts. The pilot was established […]

Ofsted: ITE curriculums not ‘sufficiently ambitious’, and 5 other findings

Too few initial teacher education (ITE) partnerships have a “sufficiently ambitious” curriculum for their trainees, and “too many” are over-reliant on school placements to teach content, Ofsted has warned. The inspectorate has today released research and analysis on teacher training during Covid-19. Ofsted was due to begin inspecting ITE partnerships under its new framework from […]

Ofsted may temporarily extend inspection window to seven years

Ofsted may temporarily extend its statutory inspection window by two years in order to ensure Covid disruption doesn’t result in a breach of its legal obligations. Under current legislation, the watchdog must inspect schools within five years of the end of the academic year in which their previous inspection took place. But routine inspections have […]

Ofsted branded ‘disingenuous’ over wellbeing review

Ofsted’s pledge to review whether inspections are affecting staff wellbeing has been branded “disingenuous” after it emerged that no new action is actually being taken. The Department for Education and Ofsted made 12 commitments under an education staff wellbeing charter published this week to help “protect” the mental health of school staff. One of Ofsted’s […]