Author: Jess Staufenberg

The vast majority of headteachers do not believe their reception pupils are “school-ready”, according to a survey by the National Association of Head Teachers, as the government prepares to announce its latest plans for primary testing. Of the 83 per cent of heads who said there was a problem, 97 per cent said it lay […]

The Department for Education has this morning put out figures on the number of admissions appeals for the 2016-17 academic year. The overall proportion of upheld appeals has barely changed, but more parents are successfully appealing primary places while fewer are succeeding at secondary level.   What are the main findings for this year? 1. […]

Only three private schools have been taken off the independent schools’ register in the past three years, even though Ofsted found more than 200 have failed to meet the standards. Figures obtained by Schools Week show that two independent schools were removed from the schools’ register in 2014-15, with another one following last year. Six more were threatened with closure, but these either improved, successfully appealed or are appealing. […]

England’s first “low-cost” private school has delayed its planned opening date in September because the Department for Education has still not signed off on it. The Independent Grammar School: Durham, which aims to charge parents £52 a week to deliver a “traditional curriculum”, now plans to open its doors to pupils in January 2018. Chris […]

Nearly half of pupils made no progress or dipped in attainment in English in their first year at secondary school, according to new research, which has used an innovative comparative judgment method to measure progress. Forty-two per cent of year 7 pupils either stood still or “regressed” in English, and 37 per cent of pupils […]

The Isle of Man is consulting on plans to force parents who home-school to provide annual reports on their childrens’ development. The crown dependency’s education minister, Graham Cregeen, put forward the proposal for “home educators to provide an annual report of the education they have provided for their children”. In England, the former Conservative MP […]

GCSE results reveal a spike in the lowest grades in some core EBacc subjects, which experts have said could be due to more lower-ability pupils taking these instead of creative and vocational subjects. Geography, physics, chemistry and history have all seen their proportion of top grades fall and their proportion of lower grades rise. Other […]