Jess Staufenberg | Schools Week

Teacher interventions in pupil fights cost thousands in compensation

Teachers injured while breaking up fights between pupils are claiming tens of thousands of pounds each in compensation – and behaviour experts say schools must do more to ensure staff are kept safe. Teachers and assistants who intervened in fights, were attacked or had things thrown at them claimed 15 per cent of the compensation […]

More than half of MPs educated in state comprehensives

More than half of the country’s MPs are comprehensively-educated for the first time, in a shift academics say is “very welcome” given how much lower the proportion was seven years ago. Fifty-one per cent of MPs elected on Thursday attended comprehensive schools, up from 49 per cent in 2015 and just 43 per cent in […]

‘Widening gap’ between London and rest of country in language GCSEs, warns report

A widening gap is emerging in the take-up of language GCSEs between pupils in London and the rest of the country, a new report has warned. London is the only region in the country where the percentage of pupils taking language GCSES has risen over the past three years, according to a study published today […]

EEF: New trials include ban on grading pupils’ work

Four new trials have won grant funding from the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), including a trial to test whether GCSE grades can be boosted by not grading work. Schools Week has profiled the four new trials: Flash Marking bans grades on school work The Flash Marking trial, which costs £355,300, will analyse whether not giving pupils […]

Entries to EBacc subjects peak as fewer pupils take creative subjects

Entries to EBacc subjects have increased by almost 10 per cent as entries to non-EBacc subjects have dropped. In 2017, there were 3.85 million entries for the EBacc subjects, compared to 3.54 million last year, a rise of 9 per cent. Meanwhile, the number of entries to subjects not included in the EBacc has fallen […]

Hold open tenders for school takeovers to boost RSC transparency, think tank urges

An open bidding process should be introduced for school takeovers to combat the secrecy and occasionally poor choices made by schools commissioners, a new report has urged. Currently regional schools commissioners and their headteacher boards decide behind closed doors which sponsors should takeover a failing school. While minutes of the meetings are published, they do […]

Church of England sidesteps government rules over multi-academy trust control

The Church of England is to gain overall control of a new multi-academy trust, even though nine of the 10 schools intended for the new trust are secular. The Diocese of Newcastle’s board of education will be allowed to appoint three of the five board members of the proposed ‘Tynedale Community Learning Trust’ if consultation […]

Pupils with special needs waiting for school place more than doubles

The number of pupils with special educational needs waiting in limbo for school places has more than doubled, according to new figures. Released last week, the government data shows pupils with special needs statements or Education Health and Care Plans who are waiting for a school place rose from 1,710 in 2016 to 4,050 this […]

Catholic Church backs down on faith ‘certificate’ court challenge

The Catholic Church has backed down on its plans to take the government to court over faith pupils, and will instead make conditions clearer for parents by rewording its faith “certificates”. The Office for Schools Adjudicator ruled last year that the Catholic Education Service, an arm of the Church, was wrong to introduce a certificate […]