Author: John Dickens

At least four teachers were banned from the profession for being caught with cocaine during Michael Gove’s tenure as education secretary. The Conservative party leadership contender was criticised this weekend after it emerged he had taken cocaine while working as a journalist 20 years ago. Analysis of teacher misconduct hearings by Schools Week found during […]

New research has suggested that school reforms in the past two decades have failed to bridge the gap in pupil attainment. The Better Schools For All? report, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, examined the role schools play in pupils’ education. Researchers from UCL and the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) looked at […]

Ofsted’s chief inspector has told schools to put “less faith” in predicted grades – warning they can do “more harm than good”. Amanda Spielman said it is time for schools to move away from focusing on how targets will be achieved and should instead focus on the “substance of education”. Speaking at the National Governance […]

The body that regulates qualifications in England has added its voice to fears about the government’s plans for scrapping applied general qualifications including BTECs. Ofqual believes there is a “risk” that a barrier to student progress may be created if alternative choices to T-levels and A-levels are “unduly restricted”. It is particularly concerned about this […]

A firm run by a phonics expert championed by Nick Gibb will lead a new training centre to develop literacy specialists – as two more English hubs are announced. Ruth Miskin Training will run the centre to provide training for up to 34 English hubs leaders and 180 literacy specialists. The firm is run by […]

Ofsted’s national director for education has said there are some “real issues” over how the inspectorate checks pupil behaviour – suggesting it is worse than national figures suggest. Sean Harford was speaking at the CurriculummEd2019 event at Lichfield Cathedral School today, on the topic of Ofsted’s new education inspection framework, which is due to take […]

New hubs responsible for improving up to 300 failing schools will be piloted in nine areas under a £2 million government scheme. The teaching school hubs will be run by “high-performing schools” and launch this autumn, ahead of a proposed national roll-out in 2020-21. The funding works out at just over £220,000 per hub. The […]

The academies minister says governance is “at the top of the hierarchy of running schools” as he made a plea for talented governors to take on roles at other institutions. Lord Agnew was speaking at the 2019 Awards for Outstanding Governance at the House of Commons on Tuesday (see full list of winners below). What […]