Kathryn Snowdon | Schools Week

Oasis chosen to run country’s first ‘secure school’

The Oasis charity has been selected to run the country’s first ‘secure school’. The Oasis Charitable Trust – sponsor of the 52-school Oasis Community Learning trust – has been awarded the contract to turn the Medway Secure Training Centre in Kent into a school for young offenders. It is due to open late in 2020. The […]

DfE in ‘listening mode’ over non-grad teaching apprenticeships – but costs are ‘astronomical’

The government is still “in listening mode” over plans for an undergraduate teaching apprenticeship, but ministers have been warned schools could be put off by the “astronomical” potential cost. Attempts to develop an undergraduate degree apprenticeship route, which surfaced in 2016, have stalled over concerns it would mean teaching was no longer a graduate-only profession. […]

Trust fears £800k reserves will be ‘raided’ under merger

A large academy trust is preparing to fire the trustees of an affiliated standalone academy after they snubbed merger plans because their £800,000 reserves would be “raided”. The boardroom tussle exposes problems that can be caused by trusts pooling their schools’ funding. The Ormiston Bolingbroke Academy in Runcorn has been part of Ormiston Bolingbroke Academy […]

NASUWT former president excluded after speaking out

A teaching union has removed an executive member after she questioned the lengthy suspensions of senior officials and the timetable for the general secretary’s re-election. Susan Parlour, the former president in Northern Ireland for the NASUWT, has been excluded from the union’s national executive. Documents show the union began action against the teacher last October, […]

Trust seeks legal advice after council claims parents are ‘fearful’ of ‘tough love’ approach

An academy trust is seeking legal advice after an “extremely misinformed” letter from Dorset Council urged the education secretary to halt a conversion because parents are “fearful” of its “tough love” approach. In an extraordinary letter to Damian Hinds, Sarah Parker, the council’s executive director for children, flagged a host of concerns about the proposed […]

New academy handbook beefs-up rules on pay, whistleblowing and banning trustees

Ministers have toughened up the academies rulebook today with new guidance to make sure pay is reasonable, ensure trusts have adequate whistleblowing policies, and make clear that the government can ban misbehaving trustees. Academy trusts will also now be required to submit an annual report to the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) to show […]

Ofqual’s new price guide will show ‘real cost’ of the exam system

Ofqual has promised to publish an exams price guide that will include increased qualification costs. The exams regulator announced in its corporate plan published last month that it will release a qualifications price index next year, “measuring changes over time in the published price of a representative sample of qualifications”. It will track the prices […]

4 things we learned from the Social Mobility Commission’s education committee hearing

The chair of the Social Mobility Commission faced a grilling at the education select committee today. Dame Martina Milburn pledged last year to “change things” at the commission, but she faced a tough time from MPs this morning and was accused of failing to act to tackle social mobility. Here are the four key takeaways: […]