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20 April 2026

Author: John Dickens

One in ten secondary schools set to be labelled as “coasting”

More than 800 schools face being labelled as coasting, official figures published today have revealed – with one in ten secondary schools eligible for government intervention. Department for Education figures published this morning show that 804 schools are coasting under provisional Progress 8 measures. One in ten secondaries (327) and 3.5 per cent (479) of […]

The 8 most important findings from the government’s new-look academies report

The Education Committee has today published a “dry run” of how the Department for Education plans to report finances in the academy sector. It reveals more than 100 academy chiefs are paid more than £150,000 – with two staff receiving bumper pay-offs of up to £200,000. The dry run, covering the 2014-15 financial year, has […]

Ofsted ordered to amend report claiming gender segregation broke law

A school has lost its High Court challenge to overturn an Ofsted report placing it in “special measures”, although the watchdog has been ordered to amend its finding which said segregating pupils by gender was against the law. An Islamic faith-based school, which for legal reasons can only be named as ‘School X’, was inspected […]

School ICT costs rise as pound plummets post-Brexit

Schools are facing hikes of more than 10 per cent in their ICT costs after tech giants say post-Brexit exchange rates will force up prices. Microsoft is due to increase prices on some of its cloud services by 22 per cent from January 1, after price rises were announced by Apple, Lenovo, HP and Dell […]

Ofsted offers up extra cash to entice inspectors to lead school visits

Ofsted will offer cash incentives to lure less experienced inspectors into leading more school visits under a new action plan that also targets recruitment in struggling regions. Inspectors will be paid to attend a new “comprehensive” training programme to boost the number of lead inspectors. Ofsted has also launched a trial for Ofsted inspectors, formerly […]

Executive headteacher of 8 local authority primaries paid more than £330,000-a-year

An executive headteacher of a federation of local-authority maintained primary schools has been revealed as one of the best-paid school leaders in the country. Sir Craig Tunstall, who leads the Gipsy Hill Federation, was paid a total of £330,394 last year. His salary was revealed by investigative website ourcity.London earlier today, and was listed in […]

Rise in appeals against ‘tougher’ Key Stage 2 SATs tests

The number of appeals against the marking of this year’s “tougher” SATs tests has risen – with one in ten reviews resulting in scores being overturned. Figures released by the Department for Education this morning show the number of key stage 2 tests that were subject to an appeal has increased this year to 1.9 […]

Primary experts call for reception year review

The government has been called on to launch an official review of the reception year after primary experts found a lack of consistency in how teachers taught pupils when they move into year 1. The Teaching Schools Council today released its Effective Primary Teaching Practice report which made several recommendations on how to improve primary […]