Jess Staufenberg | Schools Week

Ofqual calls for evidence on ‘risks and benefits’ of teachers writing exams

Ofqual is calling on schools to submit evidence on the risks and benefits of involving teachers in writing exam papers, following a cheating scandal that rocked several of England’s most famous private schools over the summer. The exams watchdog especially wants the views of teachers who work with colleagues who have access to confidential assessment material, or […]

Academy trusts spend millions on uninspected private alternative provision

Multi-academy trusts spend three times as much on private alternative provision as they do on local authority alternative provision – even though many private providers have never been checked by Ofsted. Schools Week asked the largest multi-academy trusts to give details of the private alternative providers they have used to educate their pupils over the […]

Researchers hit out at controversial Laker and Hill headteacher study

Rival researchers have condemned a new study that recommends controversial ways headteachers can turn failing schools around – accusing its authors of “confusing correlation with cause”. The study suggests significant staff turnover of between 30 and 50 per cent as one measure for success, as well as 95-per-cent pupil attendance and establishing all-through schools. In […]

Executive heads can vote multiple times in headteacher board election loophole

Executive headteachers are able to vote more than once using a loophole in the headteacher board elections, Schools Week has discovered. And if they’re standing, they are potentially able to cast multiple votes for themselves, plunging the fairness of the whole system into doubt. The elections opened this month, to elect panels which will then […]

Top Newham sixth form kicks pupils out half-way through A-levels

Another top London sixth form has been accused of “effectively excluding” pupils at the end of year 12 because they did not get high enough grades, even though the government recently blasted another school for doing the same thing. Newham Collegiate Sixth Form Centre, led by former City lawyer Mouhssin Ismail (pictured), did not issue […]

Private schools repeatedly fail school standards but stay open

Almost 200 small independent schools are still open despite repeatedly failing to reach Ofsted standards, according to new Schools Week analysis, suggesting the government needs to do more to intervene. In the past three years, 190 non-associated private schools failed the independent school standards but stayed open, and 48 per cent are still open despite […]

Carter identifies 8 kinds of ‘decliner’ and ‘improver’ schools

The national schools commissioner wants to challenge the idea there are only “the very best” or “very weak” schools by identifying them along eight different streams: strongest performers, rapid improvers, steady improvers, steady and secure, rapid decliners, steady decliners, improver decliners, and weakest performers. At a conference in London on Tuesday, Sir David Carter revealed […]

Superhead researchers reveal 9 indicators of a successful ‘turnaround’ headteacher

Heads with the best long-term school improvement plans are often nearly fired two years into the job simply because they don’t get “quick exam results”, according to a new study by controversial management researchers Ben Laker and Alex Hill. Boards expect to see better exam results almost immediately under the regime of a new headteacher, […]

Laker and Hill: Replace at least a third of staff to fix failing schools

Heads need to change between 30 and 50 per cent of the teaching staff at a failing secondary school in their first three years if they want to see a successful “culture shift”, according to new research into the behaviour of successful turnaround heads. The research hasn’t pleased everyone, however, and teaching unions have shot […]