Jess Staufenberg | Schools Week

Feeder pre-school charges £275 ‘retainer fee’ for free nursery place

A primary’s “feeder” pre-school has been charging parents a “retainer fee” of almost £300 to secure government-funded nursery places that should have been free. St Peter’s pre-school playgroup, in Heswall, the Wirral, charged the parents of a toddler £275 to reserve a place for her ahead of her third birthday, despite her being entitled to […]

The Giles Academy trust issued with financial notice over ‘serious breach’ of land-buying agreement

An academy has been issued with a financial notice to improve after “seriously breaching” the academies financial handbook by buying land without getting government permission first. The Giles Academy, which is a secondary modern in Lincolnshire, broke several agreements in the handbook including that it did not seek the go-ahead from the Education Funding Agency (EFA) […]

Pupils who record own learning make four months’ progress in maths – and two other EEF trials

A programme that develops pupils’ ability to reflect on their own learning has returned promising results for attainment in maths – but had negative impacts on reading, according to researchers. Evaluators at the University of Manchester found that 10-year-olds who took part in the ReflectED programme, in which they took photographs, made notes and kept […]

Multi-academy trusts 6 times more likely to be named after men than women

Multi-academy trusts are six times more likely to be named after men than women, a Schools Week investigation has revealed. Analysis of the names given to multi-academy trusts (MATs) show 63 are named after men while only 10 are named after a woman – and none after a female MAT founder. Free schools, opened since […]

EEF trial finds breakfast clubs more effective than infant free school meals

Breakfast clubs are more cost-effective than the government’s flagship £1 billion universal infant free school meals policy in improving outcomes for pupils in disadvantaged areas, according to researchers. A year-long trial in 106 primary schools, funded by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), found pupils made an extra two months’ progress when a free breakfast club […]

Government told to ‘come clean’ on EBacc consultation findings after six-month delay

The government has failed to publish a report from its own consultation into the EBacc launched a year ago, with unions and campaigners calling on ministers to “come clean” and reveal the findings. The Department for Education (DfE) launched a three-month long consultation on this day last year about making 90 per cent of pupils study […]

Plans for new engineering A-level to recruit more creative students are dropped

Proposals to develop a new engineering A-level have been dropped, Schools Week can reveal, as more A-levels bite the dust. Schools Week reported last year that the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE) had submitted plans to develop a more creative engineering A-level to exam board Pearson, in an attempt to encourage more girls into undergraduate […]

Michael Gove backs grammar plan – despite previous resistance to selective school expansion

Michael Gove has today backtracked on his historical resistance to new selective schools by saying the prime minister’s plans to expand grammars is “right” and will “spread excellence”. Speaking to the BBC’s World at One, the former education secretary appeared to whole-heartedly back Theresa May and Justine Greening’s proposals to end the ban on new grammar […]

Greening wants trainee teachers to experience more school placements

School Direct teacher training “needs to be longer” if trainees are to get the experience across different schools that Justine Greening has said she wants to see. The education secretary told delegates at the SCHOOLS NorthEast summit in Newcastle last week that she wanted trainees to “work in a number of different settings” so they […]