Author: Jess Staufenberg

The government has accepted most of the recommendations in the Rochford Review, including scrapping ‘P’ levels for pupils working below national curriculum level. The DfE has published its “ongoing” consultation response to the review, which looked at how pupils working below the standard of national curriculum tests should be tested. Chaired by Diane Rochford, an executive headteacher, […]

The government has abandoned recruitment controls for initial teacher training courses, allowing providers to recruit to an unlimited extent in almost all subjects for the first time. In an email seen by Schools Week, the National College of Teaching and Leadership says it has lifted recruitment constraints for postgraduate courses run by school-based ITT providers […]

Reception pupils will once again face a “baseline assessment” when entering school, Justine Greening has announced, two years after the government climbed-down over its failed policy to bring in such tests. A “teacher-mediated assessment”, which simply means the teacher will be present, will be rolled out in the first year of school from 2020, according […]

Pupils will sit their times-tables check in year 4, rather than in year 6 as originally planned, the education secretary has announced. The policy was first announced as part of the Conservatives’ general election manifesto in 2015 but focused on year 6 pupils, rather than year 4. Teachers subsequently noted that multiplications are taught in […]

Confusion reigns in the current headteacher board elections, amid accusations that ballots aren’t being received and heads are “too nervous” to stand. What’s more, it is unclear whether executive heads of academies who also act as trust CEOs will be able to vote – even though they make up the majority of candidates standing for […]

The Department for Education has declined to provide millions of pounds in funding to a mooted fast-track headship college, the brainchild of two of the most visible figures in education, Schools Week can reveal. The free schools advocate Toby Young and former top headteacher Sir Anthony Seldon were “in talks with ministers” in April last year […]

Faith groups wanting to open new schools may find the government “makes it easier” to set up voluntary-aided schools if the cap on faith-based places is not lifted, Toby Young told a forum this morning. He also revealed that the government had not yet decided what it would do with the £50 million set aside […]

Ofsted has launched a last-minute attempt to overturn a High Court decision to strike off its damning report into the controversial Durand Academy in London. The education watchdog lodged its appeal just hours before the deadline, and just over a week after the school’s chair of governors, Sir Greg Martin, resigned. Last month, Durand convinced the High […]

Hundreds of academy chains that received a slice of a £30 million fund to help them expand have been named by the Department for Education. 350 academy chains received lump sums ranging from £15,000 to more than £300,000 from the regional academy growth fund last year. Amongst the chains that received the largest windfalls in […]