Jess Staufenberg | Schools Week

Pearson launches virtual A-levels to battle teacher shortage

An exam board will launch its first “virtual” language A-level so pupils can earn their qualifications online despite the shortage of teachers of modern foreign languages. Pearson will offer an online Spanish A-level from next September, in which pupils get access to tutors, resources and tests online. There are more languages to follow, Schools Week […]

Teachers must abandon rote learning, says top neuropsychologist

Teachers should use a “rich and complex” understanding of memory to improve how pupils learn – throwing out rote-learning in favour of testing immediately after they’ve digested new information. Dr Ashok Jansari, a cognitive neuropsychologist at Goldsmiths University, gave teachers tips for helping pupils consolidate their knowledge using memory research. First, he warned, memory is […]

School’s success not possible without young staff, says head

Having “very young members of staff” who are prepared to implement a new system of behaviour management has been crucial to a new school’s success. Peter Lee (pictured), the head at Q3 Academy Langley, an academy outside Birmingham, said his young staff were willing to employ methods drawn from other academies and free schools, which […]

Teach critical thought, says Hillsborough disaster academic

Teaching pupils to think critically about “truth” is as important as ever, according a top academic who investigated corrupted evidence during the inquest into the Hillsborough football disaster. School leaders heard about the immediate aftermath of the tragedy in 1989, in which 96 people died at a football stadium in Sheffield, and the long-term lessons […]

Ofsted hopes to move away from safeguarding ‘compliance’ checks

Ofsted wants its safeguarding procedures to have “impact”, rather than merely checking that schools are “compliant”, an inspector has said. Lee Northern (pictured), a specialist advisor on inspection policy, hopes his employer will do away with its “compliance-checking function” and move to “an impact-checking function” in future. Safeguarding, he told SSAT delegates, is like marking, […]

Sponsors for WCAT schools have ‘variable’ school improvement record

The government needs to explain why it picked certain trusts as sponsors for the schools that belonged to the collapsed Wakefield City Academies Trust, a former shadow education secretary has said, after it emerged they had a variable record of school improvement. WCAT announced it would close in September, and that its 21 schools would […]

Greening reminds teacher pay body to be ‘flexible’ on rises

Justine Greening has asked the School Teachers’ Review Body, which makes recommendations for teacher’s salaries, to consider a “more flexible approach to public sector pay” – repeating calls already made by the Treasury after the 1 per cent cap was lifted. In a letter to Dr Patricia Rice, the chair of the STRB, Greening said […]

National Citizen Service faces staffing challenge as programme for schools grows

Finding enough staff to care for and ensure the safeguarding of pupils on the National Citizen Service is a “challenge” for the government’s flagship youth programme as it continues to expand, a senior member at the organisation has admitted. The programme, which takes 16 to 18 year olds, on outward-bound trips and run community projects […]

Schools save over £1 million in late exam entry fees

Schools saved more than £1 million in exam entry fees last year by entering more pupils on time, even as the cost of exam entries crept upwards. The proportion of late entries fell from three per cent last year to 2.8 per cent this year across GCSE and AS/A-level entries, Ofqual’s latest figures show. For […]