John Dickens | Schools Week

Head received death threats over claims he pushed ‘anti-Brexit’ agenda

A secondary headteacher received death threats after two sixth-formers reportedly told a national newspaper he pushed “anti-Brexit propaganda”. Ciran Stapleton, the head of St Joseph’s Catholic High School in Slough, said after the story’s publication last month his own children asked him “why do these people want you to die?” We’re stuck in the middle […]

DfE’s testing agency pays £3m to settle mystery legal dispute

The Department for Education’s Standards and Testing Agency paid out £3 million to settle a legal dispute to a mystery supplier. New annual accounts reveal the payment was made during the last financial year to a “third party” – but the document contains no further information. Earlier accounts state the third party is a supplier. […]

4 interesting findings from the EPI’s free schools analysis

The Education Policy Institute has published a new report on free schools today. Schools Week has the key findings from the ‘Free schools in England 2019′ study. 1. Secondary free schools aren’t in the areas that need them Free schools have been contributing places to areas in the greatest basic need – but […]

DfE: New ITT framework viewed as ‘short-term pain for long-term gain’

The government’s new initial teacher training core content framework won’t be published until spring – leaving providers just months to implement the changes. Department for Education policy advisor Rachel Hayward also confirmed they expect Ofsted to be inspecting providers based on the new framework from next September. But, when tasked about the timeframe being “massively […]

‘Unexplained exits’ stats have potential to be problematic, misleading and damaging

Last week, the Education Policy Institute published new research examining unexplained pupil exits from English schools. While the EPI was very careful in the language used, it is clear from the media and social media that many people have seen the phrase “unexplained exits” as ultimately being the terminology to raise the debate about “off-rolling”. […]

DfE’s £14bn schools budget claim ‘could mislead’, while NEU deletes incorrect funding claim

The government has been warned its repeated claim that school budgets are being boosted by £14 billion “could mislead” – while a teaching union has deleted an incorrect funding claim from its website. The disclosures come amid the latest intervention from the statistics watchdog which has already previously slapped down both the Department for Education […]

Ofsted: Schools have to justify decisions to shorten KS3 (and show EBacc ‘ambition’)

Schools must justify decisions to shorten key stage 3 and show “ambition” to meet the English Baccalaureate target in the new Ofsted era. Schools Week analysis of the first wave of new inspection reports published by the watchdog reveal schools have been criticised for running three-year GCSEs and having “too few” pupils studying the government’s […]

DfE to offer builders £22m loans for new schools in housing estates

Housing developers will be handed loans of up to £22 million from the Department for Education to build new schools under a pilot scheme to speed up delivery of new places. The move follows several Schools Week investigations into how the government’s flagship free schools programme has been thwarted over failed and delayed projects due […]

Ofsted: Curriculum ‘deep dives’ won’t penalise small schools

Smaller schools won’t be penalised by the demands of curriculum “deep dives” under the new inspection framework, Ofsted has said. However the watchdog has confirmed it won’t be publishing the findings of pilot inspections into 35 smaller schools. The deep dive is not about catching you out or making things difficult As part of the […]