John Dickens | Schools Week

Scaled-up literacy scheme fails to produce positive results

A scaled-up scheme to train teaching assistants to deliver literacy interventions to struggling pupils has not produced the positive results of an earlier pilot. Switch-on, a 10-week programme which saw TAs trained to deliver intensive reading interventions, had a “promising” initial trial in 2014, achieving an extra three months of progress to year 7 pupils. […]

Hackers steal Edmodo users’ details

Personal details belonging to millions of teachers, pupils and parents who use Edmodo, the ‘Facebook for schools’ application, are reportedly on sale on the dark web. A hacker reportedly stole millions of account details from the education platform, which has more than 77 million users – more than 2 million of them in the UK […]

Think tanks reveal true costs of election manifesto pledges

The education manifesto pledges of political parties have come under the microscope by two thinks tanks today. The Education Policy Institute has published a study analysing each party’s schools spending pledges, the impact of slashing free school lunches and the use of grammar statistics. Meanwhile the Institute for Fiscal Studies has also analysed school spends, […]

Investigation: DfE ‘hid’ damaging Lord Nash academy cost emails

The Department for Education has attempted to hide internal emails showing Lord Nash’s intention to massage the presentation of figures that reveal the spiralling costs of rebrokering academies. The investigation reveals potentially damaging revelations about the academies minister – a well-known Conservative party donor – that the government tried to “suppress”, just weeks before the […]

IPPR report calls for UTC changes

Ailing university technical colleges should be converted into 16-19 colleges, with all studio schools joining multi-academy trusts to stave off closure, says a new report. A major study by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) has uncovered fresh concerns over the 14-19 schools. The report found that while UTCs attracted a comprehensive year 10 […]

DRET appoints new CEO, with sponsor David Ross installed as chair

The David Ross Education Trust (DRET) has appointed a new chief executive, with the trust’s sponsor taking on the vacant chair role following high-profile resignations. The trust announced today that Rowena Hackwood, a trustee of academy chain Reach2 and former education director at Capita, has been appointed chief executive. She takes over from Wendy Marshall, […]

UKIP pledges to open new grammar school ‘in every town’

UKIP has pledged to open a grammar school “in every town” after launching its general election 2017 manifesto today. The manifesto stated grammar schools boosted social mobility by giving “children from poorer backgrounds access to career paths they might have previously thought out of their reach”. To back this up, the party highlighted a statistic […]

Teach First criticised for PwC job deferral partnership

Ministers have been called on to allow school teacher training providers access to the same pool of graduates targeted by Teach First after a new row over the charity’s trainees leaving for the private sector. Teach First was criticised over the weekend after a job advert emerged showing accountancy giant PwC had started recruitment on […]

Investigation: How apprenticeship levy costs are affecting supply teachers

One of the country’s leading umbrella companies for supply teachers denies it is passing on the costs of the government’s new apprenticeship levy to employees. But Schools Week understands that some supply teachers employed by the RACs Group raised concerns after their pay slips included a percentage deduction attributed to the “apprenticeship levy”. Since April […]