Author: Jess Staufenberg

One-fifth of all grammar schools plan to apply for cash to expand, new analysis shows. Thirty-five of the 163 grammar schools in the country have claimed in consultation documents on their websites they are applying for a share of the £50 million-a-year selective school expansion fund. The figures were obtained by anti-selection campaign group Comprehensive […]

Learning to speak a European language first is more helpful for pupils than beginning with Mandarin, the chief inspector of schools has said. The government has spent millions to encourage more pupils to take up Mandarin, but Amanda Spielman insisted during a radio interview that pupils make the “most rapid progress” in languages that are most […]

Grammar schools will no longer be able to use a government funding pot meant for all schools to expand their pupil numbers – now that they have their own dedicated funds to do so. Schools minister Nick Gibb has confirmed in a written answer that grammar schools are not allowed to apply for the Condition […]

Schools get the best outcomes for the very poorest pupils when they account for “every pound” of pupil premium funding spent, according to a new report. The National Governance Association also warned that some schools are too inward-looking, and must learn to base spending decisions on evidence, rather than the opinions of senior staff. Schools […]

A prominent peer whose inquiry into special educational needs paved the way for the practice of statementing has accused Ofsted for a “contradictory” approach to SEND. Baroness Mary Warnock told MPs this morning that the inspectorate does not give schools an incentive to be inclusive. Warnock, a moral philosopher who chaired the 1978 inquiry into […]

Schools will not see a real-terms drop in per-pupil funding next year, a coalition of unions has admitted, after wrongly claiming that they stand to lose an average of £59. The School Cuts coalition, which includes the National Education Union and leadership unions ASCL and the NAHT, claimed yesterday that the government had “broken its […]

The government has published 26 more warning notices identifying failings at private schools around the country. The notices, which cover February and March this year, include both pricey special schools and low-cost faith schools, and warn about low expectations of pupils, poor safeguarding and one school which teaches creationism as its main scientific theory for the Earth’s […]

Schools are getting bigger as pupil numbers continue to rise. New data on schools, pupils and their characteristics data shows primary and secondary schools had an extra two pupils on average on their rolls in January compared with the same time last year, though special schools are growing even more. Here’s what we learned from […]

A “no frills” low-cost private school has won government approval to open after a year-long delay. The Independent Grammar School: Durham will now open in September for 65 primary pupils, its founders told Schools Week. The model, which will cost parents £52 a week, is the first of its kind in the UK. The founders […]