Jess Staufenberg

  • 9,600 schools sign up to baseline assessment pilot

    More than 9,600 schools have signed up to the pilot of the government’s new baseline assessment, according to the Department for Education. Schools minister Nick Gibb has claimed the number of schools which have registered to take part is “significant” because they will help ensure the baseline assessment works. But Dr Mary Bousted, joint general…

    0.01 May. 14th, 2019 | News

  • Majority of schools with sixth forms post deficit as funding plunges 26%, EPI reveals

    More than half of schools with sixth forms posted in-year deficits, as funding has plunged by more than a quarter, a new analysis shows. Research by the Education Policy Institute found 54 per cent of maintained schools with sixth forms had in-year deficits last year, compared with just 37 per cent nine years ago. Meanwhile,…

    0.01 May. 13th, 2019 | News

  • Revealed: Unfunded support staff pay rise leaves specialist schools struggling

    Pay rises for support staff are crippling academy trusts that have specialist provision schools – with one trust facing almost £670,000 in additional costs. Heads say the government is treating alternative provision (AP) and special educational needs schools as the “forgotten sector” by failing to fund salary increases for the support staff they rely on.…

    15.00 May. 10th, 2019 | News

  • ESFA pulled £3m funding pledge when academy refused to join a MAT

    The government revoked a £3 million pledge to fix a school’s crumbling building because its leaders refused to join a multi-academy trust. The Education and Skills Funding Agency told Dorcan academy in Swindon it would “no longer qualify” for capital and school improvement cash after it decided it would not join the Excalibur Academies Trust,…

    5.00 May. 10th, 2019 | News

  • Council advised schools against applying for EHC plans

    A council has been accused of trying to discourage schools from applying for Education Health and Care plan for pupils with special educational needs in a letter to heads. A leader at East Sussex council admitted his team wrote to schools telling them to keep EHCPs “under review, to ascertain whether or not the child…

    14.36 May. 8th, 2019 | News

  • Computing education in 'steep decline' after reforms, warns report

    The number of computing or ICT qualifications sat by pupils fell 45 per cent last summer, prompting academics to warn youngsters are now less likely to access a computing education than before the government’s reforms five years ago. Pupils took about 144,000 fewer qualifications in either the government’s preferred computer science GCSE or other ICT…

    5.01 May. 8th, 2019 | News

  • Opportunity areas suffer from lack of cross-government support, MPs warned

    Opportunity areas are suffering from a lack of support from other governmental departments, board representatives have warned MPs. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the Department for Work and Pensions must be “proactively” involved in opportunity areas if they are to fulfil their purpose of improved social mobility, the education select committee…

    13.08 May. 1st, 2019 | News

  • Major private school chain quits Teachers' Pension Scheme

    At least ten private schools are in talks with a school leaders’ union about pulling out of the Teachers’ Pension Scheme (TPS), with one major chain already set to move staff out. The potential exodus could leave state schools facing further pension contribution hikes to fill a “black hole” in the scheme. Employer contributions will…

    19.00 Apr. 26th, 2019 | News

  • Harris schools swamp ESOL exam with native English speakers

    A top trust last year entered hundreds of native English speakers into a qualification intended for pupils with English as a second language. In February Luke Tryl, then Ofsted’s director of strategy, warned that the watchdog was looking at secondary schools entering native speakers into the Cambridge International level 1/2 certificate in English for Speakers…

    5.00 Apr. 26th, 2019 | News

  • Ofqual confirms changes to reviews of coursework marking

    Changes to the way schools review coursework marks requiring leaders to judge marking consistency have been confirmed by the exams regulator. Ofqual launched a consultation in December, which proposed, among other things, a rule change around reviews of marking to make them “clearer and more effective”. Today, the regulator published its official response to the…

    17.28 Apr. 23rd, 2019 | News

  • Co-op Academies Trust slams 'fundamentally flawed' Progress 8

    A major academy trust has slammed the “fundamentally flawed” progress 8 performance measure for punishing schools with challenging cohorts – vowing to publish its own value-added progress scores for parents. The Co-op Academies Trust, which runs 20 schools in the north-west including in some of the country’s most deprived areas, said the performance measure favours…

    0.01 Apr. 23rd, 2019 | News