Author: Jess Staufenberg

The government’s long-awaited teacher vacancy advertising service has finally gone live across England, weeks later than planned. Ministers initially promised the website, designed to help schools save money spent on commercial advertising, would be up and running for all schools in February. But the service, which schools can access for free, has only just been […]

Poor pupils in rural schools are more likely to get low GCSE scores than their disadvantaged peers in every other type of area. Research by the thinktank LKMco suggests that the correlation between the background and attainment of pupils is strongest in rural areas, leaving schools struggling to break the link between deprivation and achievement. […]

Up to 20 school sites have been shortlisted by the government’s education property company as having surplus land that can be sold off under a pilot scheme to raise cash. The land could include swimming pools, grassed areas and recreation areas, and comes as the government’s own “school resource management advisers” are now also recommending […]

An education academic has resigned from an Ofsted advisory group in protest at the way senior officials conduct themselves on Twitter and the “partisan” nature of such groups. Viv Ellis, a professor at King’s College London, was invited to sit on the external advisory group for intial teacher education inspection before the summer, but tweeted […]

The government is facing a potential judicial review over “confusing” guidance about the use of isolation booths in schools, after one pupil reportedly made a suicide attempt while in one. Lawyers have delivered a pre-action letter to the Department for Education demanding it review the guidance, and particularly consider the impact of isolation on pupils […]

One of the largest trusts in the country faces having one of its schools taken away if any more of its academies in the region are given Ofsted’s bottom grade. Copperfield primary academy in Kent, which is run by the Reach2 academy trust, was hit with an ‘inadequate’ rating in January, with Ofsted singling out […]

One in seven Ofsted inspection reports of initial teacher training providers failed to make any mention of pupils with special educational needs over the past decade, research has found. Fifty out of 354 inspections over the last ten years didn’t mention special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) once, according to literacy charity the Driver Youth […]

Schools in Suffolk face having to fire staff after their council bungled the introduction of a new “banding” system for high-needs pupils. Suffolk county council (pictured) wrote to heads two months ago to apologise after passing on just 70 per cent of funding for special educational needs pupils in mainstream schools. The error was made […]

The government has given its approval for nearly three-quarters more councils to shift millions of pounds of school funding into their high-needs pot. Twenty-two local authorities have been allowed by the Department for Education to move more than 0.5 per cent from the schools block to the high-needs block this September, according to a written […]