John Dickens | Schools Week

Chartered College tells ministers it won’t need further handouts

The Chartered College of Teaching has told ministers they will be self-sufficient from March and won’t need further funding, as membership numbers pass the 30,000-mark. The news comes as the professional body for teaching launches its ‘teachers’ manifesto’ today. The manifesto includes calls for experienced staff to be rewarded with sabbaticals, a national “CPD expectation” […]

End ‘shameful’ fire safety record with sprinklers for all schools, unions urge Williamson

The government has been told its “shameful” record on fire safety must end by unions who have demanded that sprinklers be fitted in all schools. Four education unions have written to education secretary Gavin Williamson today amid the fall-out after a huge blaze at student accommodation in Bolton. A Schools Week investigation in September found […]

CEO: My trust ‘pays the price’ for being inclusive

An academy trust boss has said there is a “price to pay” in performance tables for having low exclusion rates, adding it’s much easier to turn around schools by just “kicking a load of kids out”. Wayne Norrie, chief executive of the Greenwood Academy Trust, was critical of those turning to off-rolling to boosts their […]

Revealed: DfE in £3m bailout of government-approved ICT supplier

The Department for Education paid £3 million to stop a cash-strapped ICT supplier to schools collapsing after it entered administration. In August, Gaia Technologies entered administration amid “severe cashflow issues”. The Welsh firm was listed among the DfE’s approved ICT service suppliers and described itself as a “leading provider” with 500 education customers. However it […]

4 key proposals from the Headteachers’ Roundtable election manifesto

The Headteachers’ Roundtable has today published its general election 2019 manifesto. The focus is on obtaining sufficient funding and delivering great teachers, protecting vulnerable pupils and securing high levels of professional trust and ethical leadership. Here’s a trusty Schools Week speed read. (If you want to read the full manifesto you can do so here) […]

Ofsted flags Inspiration’s ‘flimsy’ response to ‘steep’ home education rise

Inspiration Trust has admitted the number of pupils moving to home education from one of its schools was “too high” after an Ofsted investigation into potential off-rolling found their response was “flimsy”. Inspectors visited East Point Academy in Lowesoft, Suffolk, last month after issues were raised with Ofsted about high levels of pupil movement at […]

Unions publish school funding constituency league table to sway voters

A new league table that allows voters to see how their constituency has been affected by real-terms funding cuts has been published today by the National Education Union. It’s the latest attempt by the union to put school funding at the centre of the general election campaign. A tool previously set up by a coalition […]

Failing academies ‘left in limbo’ as lack of sponsors causes ‘bottleneck’

A bottleneck caused by a lack of sponsors means nearly two-thirds of ‘inadequate’ academies have failed to be transferred to a new trust. Figures obtained by Schools Week show just 181 of the 476 academies rated ‘inadequate’ in the past five years (38 per cent) have been rebrokered. It has become increasingly clear that a […]

Williamson repeats dodgy stat 24 hours after warning

The education secretary repeated misleading claims while lauding the Conservatives’ record on schools – a day after the statistics watchdog issued a pre-election warning against “misusing” figures. Gavin Williamson, writing for The Times on Tuesday, claimed his party’s “revolution in school standards” meant 1.9 million more children were taught in ‘good’ and ‘outstanding’ schools, a […]