Author: Jess Staufenberg

Northern schools feel unsupported by their regional schools commissioners, who fail to communicate “any plan” for the area, according to a new report from the children’s commissioner. Anne Longfield, who oversees children’s rights in England, found “very little evidence” of thorough work by RSCs, academy trusts or councils to tackle low pupil attainment at northern […]

Toby Young has resigned from the New Schools Network due to ongoing “media attention” about his continued role as director. The charity, which is partly funded by the government to support free schools, announced this afternoon that the journalist and free school founder will be leaving his role as director. On its website, the charity […]

Higher salaries for maths and science teachers would have prevented the recruitment crisis in those subjects, according to new research. The current shortages of secondary science and maths teachers could have been completely avoided if a “modest” five-per-cent pay increase had been introduced in 2010, research by Education Datalab shows. Academies have also failed to […]

More than 500 academies got millions of pounds of extra cash because the government funded them on a model usually reserved for new schools, Schools Week can reveal. A Freedom of Information request shows that from 2013-17, 543 converter and sponsored academies received loans based on estimated pupil numbers, rather than on the previous year’s […]

Struggling schools can now apply for a leadership development programme run by Teach First, with funding available for specialist support. Nick Gibb, schools minister, announced the launch of the Leading Together programme today. Teach First won money for the programme from the Teaching and Innovation Fund last September. Schools graded ‘requires improvement’ or ‘inadequate’ in […]

The government will invite bids for a special wave of free schools for excluded pupils and those with special educational needs this year. The Department for Education has set out plans for a wave of alternative provision and special free schools, vowing to bring the alternative provision sector from the “periphery” of the schools system. […]

There will be a new £4 million alternative provision fund to support excluded pupils to return to mainstream schools. The investment is part of a series of measures the government announced this week, which include a review into exclusions practices in schools led by a former education minister. The cash will be used to test […]