Jess Staufenberg | Schools Week

Strict traditional teaching methods are ‘pushing oracy out’, says MP

Traditionalist “chalk and talk” pedagogy is pushing oracy skills out of the curriculum to the detriment of poorer pupils, according to an MP who was once a primary teacher. Emma Hardy (pictured), Labour MP for Hull West and Hessle, said that schools favouring Victorian-style teaching methods in which pupils are “seen and not heard” is […]

Compulsory Saturday lessons could ‘burn out’ teachers, union warns

A school has made it compulsory for some pupils to come in on Saturdays to drive up GCSE results – but a union leader has said five-and-a-half-day weeks are “not sustainable” for staff. Royal Docks Academy in east London is open from 9am to midday on Saturdays, including the holidays, and has a longer school […]

Selective sixth form forced to scrap grades threshold after joining trust

A celebrated sixth form with top A-level results has been forced to stop kicking pupils out for low grades after it converted to academy status in order to shed its uncertain legal status. The Newham Collegiate Sixth Form Centre in south London was widely praised because 99 per cent of its pupils achieved A* to […]

Government tsar calls energy drinks ‘child protection issue’

There are fresh moves afoot to make energy drinks illegal for anyone under 16, as one school resorts to bag searches for caffeinated drinks and sugary snacks to improve pupil behaviour. A public health nutritionist wants to ban the sale of energy drinks, which can have more caffeine than a filter coffee, to pupils, so […]

DfE let two free schools rack up £2 million debts over pupil numbers

Two free schools racked up almost £2 million in debt after the Department for Education repeatedly allowed them to over-predict pupil numbers for three years without any plan for dealing with the deficits. Perry Beeches III, part of the now-defunct Perry Beeches Trust in Birmingham, and Robert Owen Academy, a vocational free school in Hereford, […]

Second wave of ‘opportunity area’ plans published: What do schools need to know?

The education secretary Damian Hinds has released delivery plans for the government’s next six “opportunity areas”, after publishing the first set three months ago. The plans are for Bradford, Doncaster, Fenland and east Cambridgeshire, Hastings, Ipswich and Stoke-on-Trent, which were named as the second wave last year. Each area will spend £6 million, aimed at improving […]

Sixth form with ‘dodgy’ legal status joins City of London Academies Trust

A sixth form investigated for being “unlawful” has finally become official nearly four years after it was told it would need to convert to an academy, Schools Week can exclusively reveal. The Newham Collegiate Sixth Form Centre in east London has joined the City of London Academies Trust, one of the top-performing chains in the […]

Harris to move alternative provision pupils to new vocational school site

Harris has announced plans to move its Aspire AP academy, which caters for pupils at risk of exclusion, onto the same site as its new vocational sixth-form. The Harris Professional Skills Sixth-Form, also known as HPS6F, is a free school opening in south London in September which is unusual for only offering vocational courses. Harris […]

Confusion reigns over secretive ‘selective schools team’

Confusion reigns over whether there is a specific team for grammar schools at the Department for Education. Officials are claiming it’s been disbanded – but a group of school leaders seem to have met a similar team just a few weeks ago. The National Association of Secondary Moderns, which represents non-selective schools in areas with […]