Jess Staufenberg | Schools Week

Review launched after ‘more than half’ of primary school pupils with language disorders not identified

A new inquiry has been launched to discover why speech and language disorders are going unidentified in the majority of primary school pupils. The review follows a Schools Week investigation that uncovered such disorders were being missed by local authorities amid overly-simplistic assessments. Experts said councils were reluctant to pay for assessments by therapists amid […]

Regional schools commissioner Jennifer Bexon-Smith to retire

Jennifer Bexon-Smith, regional schools commissioner for the East Midlands and the Humber, will retire in March after just over two years in the role. Bexon-Smith was previously the executive principal and chief executive of the Tudor Grange Academies Trust in the west Midlands before taking on the task of improving regional school performance in September […]

Flexible hours demand scuppers Return to Teaching pilot

One of the largest lead schools in the government’s “returner teachers” pilot says demands for flexible working scuppered the scheme – leaving it with just three of the 23 teachers it retrained. In last year’s Return to Teaching pilot schools were given £1,900 to retrain and employ qualified teachers no longer working in state schools. […]

Headteacher performance not linked to subject background, new analysis claims

A new analysis has found a headteacher’s performance is not linked to their subject background – challenging previous research that claimed heads of failing academies can be categorised into five different types. Researchers from the Centre for High Performance published a report last year that claimed “architects”, often a former economist, historian or music teacher, […]

Norfolk council rakes in £500,000 from academy conversion fees

Schools in Norfolk have paid more than £500,000 in “conversion costs” to their local authority to become academies, Schools Week can reveal. The charges cover almost the entire estimated cost to the council of legal and financial work during the conversion. But in other parts of the country schools paid far less, or nothing at […]

Councils given £4.2m funding boost to tackle ‘remaining challenges’ in SEND reforms

The government has announced several million pounds of special educational needs (SEND) funding to help councils move to the new system of education and health care (EHC) plans, admitting there are still “remaining challenges” in delivering the changes. Edward Timpson, minister for vulnerable children and families, has confirmed that £40 million will be available to […]

Autism diagnosis can cause other special needs to be ‘neglected’

Schools are struggling to support the rising numbers of pupils diagnosed with autism because the label means other learning needs can be “neglected”, parents and experts have told Schools Week. The latest Department for Education (DfE) data shows a 25 per cent increase in autism diagnoses over the past four years. However, experts say the […]

Catholic Church will take government to court over school admissions letters from priests

The Catholic church is set to take the government to court early this year over its decision to reject a priest’s letter as a legitimate way of admitting faith pupils. The diocese of Westminster will challenge the Office of the Schools Adjudicator (OSA) in a judicial review planned to take place between March and May, […]

Christian schools claim Ofsted used them as ‘soft target’ after ‘inadequate’ judgments

A network of independent Christian schools which teach creationism claim they were used as a “soft target” by Ofsted after nine of their schools were inspected and downgraded. Ten of the 24 schools which follow the Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) programme in England were inspected by Ofsted at the request of the Department for Education (DfE) […]