Jess Staufenberg | Schools Week

GCSE results 2017: Standard pass rates steady despite major grading reform

Half of all pupils sitting the reformed GCSEs achieved a grade 5 – a “strong pass” – or above, UK results show. Meanwhile, 68 per cent of pupils passed at a grade 4 or above, a result that still counts as a “standard pass” Nationally there is an 18.3 percentage point gap between the proportion […]

GCSE results 2017: More than 2,000 pupils scored 9s in all three reformed exams

About three per cent of grades awarded to pupils were the highest available in the newly reformed GCSE subjects. But while a small proportion of pupils got the highest grade 9, in two of the reformed subjects – Maths and English language – a higher proportion achieved between a 7 and a 9 than previously […]

Costs of rebrokering academies to be published for first time

The mounting costs of passing failing schools between academy trusts are finally to be revealed by the Department for Education, after a Schools Week investigation revealed plans to massage the figures. In recent years, the number of schools transferring from one academy trust to another has rocketed – from 26 in 2014, to 131 last […]

New GCSEs dogged by ‘long tail of underachievement’

England’s efforts to boost its standing in global education rankings by overhauling the way it grades maths and English GCSEs will be dogged by the “long tail of underachievement”, according to a new report. On the eve of the results of the new 9 – 1 GCSE grades, the Education Policy Institute has sounded a note of caution, in […]

United Learning removes advert for ‘unpaid internship’ in school after MP complains

United Learning, England’s fourth largest multi-academy trust, has removed a job advert for an intern to work in one of its schools unpaid for up to a year after an MP publicly complained. The advert, for Walthamstow primary academy in east London, had sought a person to work at least three days a week for […]

Opportunity areas exclude regions where attainment gap grows fastest, EPI finds

The government’s ‘opportunity areas’ fail to include regions where the gap in attainment between the poorest pupils and their richer peers has grown fastest, a new analysis has found. The Department for Education’s (DfE) has pledged £72 million additional funding for 12 opportunity areas that have been identified as being the most challenged when it […]

Neil Carmichael takes job at political lobbying firm PLMR

Neil Carmichael, the former chair of the education select committee who lost his seat as an MP at the last election, has been appointed a senior adviser at the political lobbying firm PLMR. The ex-Conservative MP, who lost his Stroud seat in June, started his new role today, working one day a week “to provide […]

Dropping practicals from science A-level grades gets mixed response, says Ofqual report

The reformed science A-levels could be driving higher-ability pupils away from practicals, after mandatory experiments were dropped from the curriculum, according to a new Ofqual report. Most teachers interviewed by the exams watchdog agreed that the previous science A-level format, in which a practical experiment made up 20 per cent of a pupil’s final grade, […]

Unions: DfE must ‘fully fund’ schools to offer higher pay rises

Five teaching unions have urged the government to fund pay rises and reject the recent recommendation by the School Teachers’ Review Body to keep increases capped at one per cent. The unions have written to education secretary Justine Greening this morning, saying she must “either” guarantee that raises are fully funded by the government, or […]