Jess Staufenberg | Schools Week

Flagship National Citizen Service under fire for £1m-a-year offices

The government’s flagship National Citizen Service trust has been slammed after its rent ballooned by more than ten-fold to over £1 million last year, following a move to new offices in west Kensington. The trust, set up by former prime minister David Cameron as part of his “Big Society” agenda in 2011, also missed more […]

‘This is about social mobility’: Academy trust boss defends exclusions record

The boss of an academy trust under the spotlight for high rates of temporary exclusions has insisted strict behaviour expectations “prevent chaos” in its challenging schools. The Outwood Grange Academies Trust (OGAT) has been the focus of several articles this year for some of the highest rates of fixed-term exclusions across the country. As revealed […]

Trust praised by ministers tops suspensions tables in Ofsted’s areas of concern

An academy trust praised by ministers tops the fixed-term exclusions tables in four authorities that concern Ofsted Exclusions divide education. The government’s Timpson Review is currently looking at the practice and earlier this year Ofsted wrote to schools in ten local authorities about their high fixed-term exclusion rates. Six of those ten have provided figures […]

Duvet days boost retention, says academy trust CEO

An academy boss has warned that “machismo” leadership teams are thwarting the wider use of “wellbeing days” – claiming his policy to allow staff days off “for whatever they need” has reduced turnover. Dan Morrow, chief executive of the Woodland Academy Trust, which has four schools in south London and Kent, has introduced three wellbeing […]

DfE seeks bidders to run comparative judgment ‘alternative’ to KS2 writing test

The government is inviting companies specialising in comparative judgment assessment models to design an alternative to the current key stage 2 writing test. The Standards and Testing Agency is “interested in speaking to comparative judgment suppliers” about creating a “new approach” to statutory teacher assessments of writing, the government’s website states. The contract, which is […]

Investigation: SEND funding crisis pits parents and schools against councils

Council bosses say pressure on their SEND budgets leaves them at risk of not being able to deliver core services – which would result in the government imposing emergency spending controls. Dave Hill, executive director of children, families and learning at Surrey County Council, this week told the education select committee that councils have been […]

New method of exams marking ‘could transform’ teacher workload

Grading exam essays using comparative judgment is “significantly” quicker and still as reliable as double-marking them, Ofqual has found. On Tuesday the exams watchdog published findings from research it conducted over the past five years into improving the quality of examiner marking at GCSE, AS and A-levels. It found paired comparison, also known as comparative […]

EBacc ‘not had much effect’ on MFL uptake, admits DfE official

The EBacc has “not had much effect” on take-up in modern foreign languages, a senior Department for Education official has admitted. Josh Beattie, assistant director in the department’s curriculum division, admitted his team were “miles off” their target for 75 per cent of pupils to be taking a modern foreign language as part of the […]

Ofsted ‘worried’ heads are failing to delegate curriculum design to subject leads

Some headteachers are doing “all the thinking” about the school’s curriculum when they should be delegating more responsibility to subject leads, according to a senior Ofsted figure. Chris Jones, deputy director for research and evaluation at the inspectorate, said his team were “worried” by examples of schools in which heads had too much control over […]