Author: Jess Staufenberg

Primary schools are using isolation rooms to punish pupils as young as five years old, with some secondaries admitting they are willing to put older pupils into seclusion for up to five days in a row. A Schools Week investigation has today lifted the lid on the scale and details of how schools across the […]

Opportunity area boards seem “too led” by the government and local stakeholders need more influence over deciding on the programmes, a report has warned. An independent analysis of the government’s opportunity areas, which is its flagship social mobility programme for 12 of the most deprived areas of the country, has found some local representatives have […]

The government has raised the cap on fees set by school-centred teacher training providers to put them on a par with what university-based providers charge. Until now, school-centred initial teacher training providers (SCITT) could only charge up to £9,000 per trainee, but university or higher education courses could charge £9,250. Now the Department for Education […]

Over half of secondary schools and a minority of primaries are using “internal inclusion units” as a behaviour strategy – but not many schools have evidence that such strategies actually work. The Department for Education has this morning published investigative research it commissioned into alternative provision, following concerns from MPs and school leaders about rising […]

Schools will no longer have to inform the Standards and Testing Agency if they are going to administer tests to pupils in several sittings, despite sector concerns around cheating. Updated guidance on the assessment and reporting arrangements for key stage 2 has “tidied up” some of the rules around SATs, according to a sector expert. […]

The percentage of poorer pupils who are progressing into education, employment or apprenticeships has dropped, destinations data released this morning show. Only 85 per cent of disadvantaged pupils were in sustained education, or had a job or an apprenticeship after finishing key stage 5 in schools two years ago, which is a one percentage point […]

The first teacher training route in which students get a degree without leaving the school site will encourage more teaching assistants and career changers into the profession, claim sector experts. Eight undergraduates have started a three-year ITT course in which they gain a BA Hons in primary and early education, delivered by university lecturers who […]

A school that took in two mentally ill pupils from a nearby school before their GCSEs has been held accountable for their exam results as the government toughens up on removing pupils’ league table scores. The Department for Education also rejected requests from the school to remove from performance data the results of two pupils […]

Ofsted has been branded “contradictory” by school leaders after inspectors praised the strict behaviour policies of a school responsible for almost 40 per cent of temporary exclusions across a whole local authority. The Outwood Academy Shafton, in Barnsley, temporarily excluded nearly a quarter of its pupils last year, totalling almost 3,000 days’ worth of suspensions. […]