John Dickens | Schools Week

Williamson thanks teachers for hard work on A-level results days

New education secretary Gavin Williamson has said teachers should feel “proud of their achievements” as over 200,000 students prepare to find out their A-level results this morning. In one of his first comments since becoming education secretary three weeks ago, Williamson thanked teachers and schools for their hard work. “Everyone receiving results today should feel […]

Labour pledges to ditch predicted grades from university admissions

Labour has pledged to scrap university offers based on predicted grades under a major admissions overhaul. Instead, if the party wins power, pupils would apply for university after getting their results under a new post-qualification admissions (PQA) system. Labour said using predicted grades to dish out university offers is unreliable and unfairly penalises disadvantaged pupils […]

Brexit could give schools space to get on with the job – we mustn’t waste this opportunity

Whoever is lucky enough to be education secretary under the new prime minister is going to have to perform a tricky balancing act. The B word will dominate everything about the (effectively) new government. And if that doesn’t work, we may be talking a lot about the E word. It’s possible that the new inhabitants […]

More trusts in deficit, plus 4 more academy sector accounts findings

The DfE has published its annual accounts for spending in the academies sector during the 2017-18 year. The previous report was published in November last year, but the government had promised to make publication of the report more timely. Here’s what we found. 1. More academy bosses on £150k+ despite Agnew’s crackdown Despite academies […]

Investigation: Fair access? Hundreds of pupils shut out

Hundreds of pupils are failing to secure school places after being turned away by schools during in-year admissions – with others having to wait up to ten and a half months for a place. An investigation by Schools Week into Fair Access Protocols (FAPs) has revealed a stark postcode lottery in access to school places […]

The Herrington Q&A: ‘Let’s reframe how we talk about academies’

After more than a year of waiting, Schools Week was finally given an interview with Dominic Herrington. Here, the not-so-new national schools commissioner discusses the future of the RSC programme, the way we talk about academy leaders and the parent voice. Has the door been closed to school leaders to become regional schools commissioners? […]

Profile: Rachel Wolf

Rachel Wolf was backpacking around Mexico in 2006 when a job as a researcher for then-shadow higher education minister Boris Johnson popped into her email inbox. The application included writing two essays: one on universities, and one on “my trip in a spaceship, on a country ramble or to the Taj Mahal”. Wolf, who had […]

Summer review: Research of the year 2018-19

To mark the end of the school year, this column highlights some of the most interesting studies published in 2018-19. Improving engagement and attainment in maths and English courses This report, from the Behavioural Insights Team, reviews three years of testing ways to improve student engagement and attainment in English and maths courses. The […]

Books for teachers and school leaders – summer 2019

Are you wondering which books to read on your summer break? We asked six people in the education field to recommend two books (one ‘work’ and one ‘play’) that they’ve particularly enjoyed over the past 12 months. Reviewer: Damian Hinds, education secretary Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, Penguin Books Jane Eyre was my […]