James Carr | Schools Week

Emails reveal Ofsted permitted use of its logo by private company

Ofsted did give permission to a private firm that sells curriculum packages to schools for thousands of pounds to use its official logo in a magazine, an internal email chain has revealed. In February, Ofsted’s involvement in Cornerstones Education’s The Curriculum magazine was brought into question after the publication bore the inspectorate’s logo and the […]

Coronavirus: ESFA urges caution as fraud cases soar

The government is warning academies and local authorities to exercise caution when dealing with suppliers, following a 400 per cent rise in coronavirus-related fraud last month. The Education and Skills Funding agency today released additional guidance to support schools and councils operating during the pandemic after March saw a spike in scams. “Periods of instability, […]

Departing DRET boss set to become new Astrea CEO

The departing chief executive of one of the country’s biggest academy chains is going back to her family roots to join the Astrea Academy Trust. Rowena Hackwood, currently chief executive of the David Ross Education Trust, will join Astrea, which has 27 schools in South Yorkshire and Cambridgeshire, in the summer. She will replace Astrea’s […]

Coronavirus: Trust launches redundancy consultations amid national crisis

An academy trust has been criticised for notifying staff their jobs were at risk during the first week of coronavirus school shutdowns Bradford Diocesan Academies Trust (BDAT) launched a restructuring consultation process at Shipley C of E primary just last week despite guidance from unions calling to halt such action. Under consultation plans sent to […]

Coronavirus: Ofsted extends complaints procedure consultation

Ofsted has extended the deadline of a consultation on plans to overhaul its complaints procedure as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The consultation was launched at the beginning of March and proposes that formal complaints raised by schools within two working days of receiving a final report will effectively delay publication of the report […]

England’s teachers can’t get no satisfaction, TALIS finds

The OECD has this week published the second volume of results from its latest teaching and learning international survey (TALIS). The organisation surveyed thousands of teachers from 48 countries, addressing such matters as prestige, career opportunities, collaboration and autonomy. Here are the four most interesting findings: Under one-third of teachers feel that the profession […]

UKSA praises DfE’s new school funding stats – but says more context is needed

The statistics watchdog has praised the Department for Education for improving its school funding statistics, but says more context is still needed. The UK Statistics Authority said the government’s new approach, introduced earlier this year following criticism of ministers’ presentation of school funding figures, addresses “a gap in the provision of official statistics on schools”. […]

Schools halt redundancy plans amid coronavirus outbreak

Schools are halting redundancy plans as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to cause unprecedented disruption across the nation. Harris Federation – one of the country’s largest trusts – is among those calling off crunch talks with employees. The reality is that there would only have been a tiny number of redundancies, if any, across our 48 […]

More secondary schools full or over-capacity as population bulge moves through

The proportion of secondary schools that were full or over capacity increased last year, new data reveals. Department for Education statistics released this morning show 17 per cent of secondary schools were full or over-capacity in 2019, up from 15 per cent in 2017. In contrast, the proportion of full or over-capacity primary schools continued […]