Author: Nick Linford

England’s largest multi-academy trust is failing too many pupils, with “mediocre” secondary academies, unacceptably low attendance and poor children doing particularly badly, Ofsted has warned. Following a focused inspection of some of Academies Enterprise Trust’s 67 schools last November, the inspectorate has published a highly critical letter describing the trust’s performance and progress. The AET’s […]

Children in years 3 to 6 should be reading “at least one book a week”, schools minister Nick Gibb has said. Mr Gibb made the comments yesterday during a speech at St Andrew’s Primary School in Soham, Cambridgeshire. He said the second objective of the government’s English curriculum was practice, encouraging children to “improve the fluency […]

A war of words has broken out between the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge and a key charitable partner after it called their admissions processes “confusing and complex” and warned they could deter poorer students from applying. The Sutton Trust, which has over the years worked closely with the Oxbridge universities on access issues, has […]

The proportion of 18-year-olds applying to university has reached a record high while applications from 20 to 24-year-olds have declined, new figures have revealed. According to data on applications received by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas) by its January deadline, 37 per cent of English 18-year-olds have applied for higher education courses starting in […]

Almost a third of pupils believe it’s not safe to be openly gay, lesbian or bisexual at their school while almost two thirds are aware of homophobic bullying, a survey of over 1,000 pupils has revealed. The campaign organisation Diversity Role Models has called for a “whole-school approach” to tackling issues like homophobia, including workshops […]

Social mobility problems are blighting England’s coastal and rural areas and wealthier regions too, a new report has found. The Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission yesterday published the first ever ranking of English council areas by social mobility, with the results showing that some of the worst areas for improving the prospects of poor children […]

New ambitions for higher attainment in Hull have been “embraced” by council leaders but GCSE results remain “stubbornly low”, Ofsted has warned. Although the watchdog’s report on Kingston-on-Hull City Council’s school improvement service shows an improving picture across several areas of concern, Ofsted has highlighted others where further progress is needed. The report, issued today following […]

MPs will probe the financial management at the Department for Education after it used legislation to delay the publication of its accounts. The DfE has used a statutory instrument, a minor piece of legislation which can be passed without debate among MPs, to extend the deadline for laying its financial accounts before Parliament to April […]

More than one in four schools lost their good ratings following new short inspections last term, Ofsted has revealed. Data published by the watchdog shows that, of 318 one-day inspections of schools previously rated good and carried out between September and December, 88 dropped to requires improvement or inadequate after full inspections were ordered. Under the new regime, […]