Jess Staufenberg | Schools Week

Nominations open for RSC headteacher board elections

The nomination process to elect headteachers and academy trust bosses onto influential boards that advise regional schools commissioners has launched today. The Department for Education has given top academy headteachers two weeks to nominate themselves as candidates if they wish to advise RSCs on school takeovers, according to a new election website. The results of […]

EEF: Debate-style teaching boosts pupils’ progress

The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) has released the findings from four programmes aimed at improving pupil grades – with only one resulting in positive progress. A project which encourages pupils to debate and discuss in class is the only trial found to have any impact on pupil learning out of the four. One of the […]

Home education doubles, with schools left to ‘pick up pieces’ when it fails

The number of pupils leaving school to be educated at home has almost doubled over the past six years, an investigation by Schools Week reveals. The influx also appears to have driven a rise in the number of home-educated pupils returning to schools – which headteachers say is leaving them “picking up the pieces” when […]

Academy boss: 20 schools is ‘too small’ for a multi-academy trust

Twenty schools is “too small” for a multi-academy trust because they will not be able to fund the training and services that are increasingly expected of them, says the chief executive of a multi-academy trust. Jon Coles, of United Learning, said the “long-term risk” to the academy system being successful was “not trusts being too […]

Grammar supporters ‘wrong’ to think reasoning paper can’t be learned, says neuroscientist

People who say it is fairer to test pupils on non-verbal reasoning for grammar school entrance are “completely wrong” because teenage brains are very responsive to training, says an expert in adolescent brain development. Sarah-Jayne Blakemore (pictured), professor of cognitive neuroscience at University College London, told delegates at the Festival of Education that contrary to […]

Schools must plan curriculum and be able to show inspectors, says Harford

Schools will need to show they have “designed” their curriculum and whether it helps pupils to be upwardly socially mobile, says Sean Harford, Ofsted’s national director of education. He said Ofsted would increasingly look for evidence of “strategic decision-making” in a school’s curriculum, something that was likely to form part of a new common inspection […]

Detentions are a kind of ‘violence’ against pupils, says expert

Detentions were “a kind of violence” against pupils, said a conflict expert during a heated panel debate on pupil behaviour. Maria Arpa, chief executive of the Centre for Peaceful Solutions, which helps to prevent community conflict, said that detentions aimed to improve behaviour by telling pupils they should do the right thing because otherwise “someone […]

Pupils who are extreme internet users more likely to be bullied, report warns

Pupils who use the internet to “extreme” levels are more likely to be being bullied, a new report shows. “Extreme internet users”, who use the internet for more than six hours a day, are more likely than pupils who use the internet for only one or two hours a day, to be seeking solace online […]

Schools warned to expect drop in rate of English literature top grades

Schools can expect a lower proportion of their pupils to get top grades in their English Literature GCSE this summer, Ofqual has warned. Cath Jadhav, associate director of standards and comparability at Ofqual, said more pupils in lower ability sets were likely to have been entered for the English Literature GCSE this year, so they […]