Nick Linford | Schools Week

Independent schools to boost promotion of partnerships after bid to force facilities-sharing fails

Independent schools will step-up promotion of partnerships with state-maintained schools after a bid by Labour to force them to share facilities failed in Parliament. Barnaby Lenon, the former Harrow School headteacher who now chairs the Independent Schools Council (ISC), told Schools Week his organisation would increase efforts to inform state schools of the benefits of partnering […]

Children’s Commissioner: Exams could be delayed by Ramadan

Exams could be delayed to fit around the Ramadan period this year, children’s commissioner Anne Longfield has said. Ms Longfield told the education select committee that discussions were taking place around “delaying the exam timetable” to fit with the Muslim tradition. Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, and falls at a different […]

Summer exams will clash with Ramadan for next four years, exams chief warns

Summer exams in schools and colleges will be affected by the timing of Ramadan for the next four years, warns a senior exams officer. Andrew Harland, chief executive of the Exam Officers’ Association, told Schools Week that the summer GCSE and A-level exam period was expected to clash every year between now and 2019 with […]

Government scraps ‘prescriptive’ home school agreements in bid to cut ‘red tape’

Schools no longer have to draw up blueprints for pupil and parental engagement after the government scrapped a requirement for “prescriptive” home school agreements. The Department for Education has amended statutory guidance so that, from this month, schools no longer have an obligation to put the agreements in place. First introduced in 1999 for governing […]

Open super-selective schools to extend elite education into state sector, says former Gove adviser

A system of super-selective schools in English cities could extend “elite academic education” to the state sector, a former government adviser has said. James Frayne, the former Department for Education head of communications who now serves as policy and strategy director at the right-leaning think tank Policy Exchange, has called for education secretary Nicky Morgan to […]

Hundreds of pupils at Blackpool school skip first day over gun massacre threat

A Blackpool school which was the target of social media gun massacre threats has sought to reassure parents after three quarters of pupils stayed away on the first day of term. Montgomery High School principal Tony Nicholson has confirmed a “significant reduction” in pupil numbers today after threats were posted on Facebook over the weekend. Police officers […]

‘The Stories What Won It’ : Schools Week’s Top 4 Award-Worthy Stories in 2015

It was a cheery night when the Schools Week team took home a series of gongs from the CIPR Education Journalism Awards. But what were the stories that won it? And how many do you already know? 1. Gove and Prime Minister’s forbidden donation request – received Outstanding Newcomer Award Learning that a […]

Nicky Morgan: Times tables tests for 11-year-olds will pilot in primary schools this summer

Computer-based multiplication tests for 11-year-olds will be trialled in schools later this year, Nicky Morgan has confirmed. The announcement by the education secretary today comes after schools minister Nick Gibb revealed plans for on-screen times tables tests in an exclusive interview with Schools Week last October. Under the proposals, pupils will be tested at the […]

Ofqual chief and academy trust heads among knights and dames in new year honours

Ofqual’s chief regulator Glenys Stacey and academy trust bosses Steve Lancashire and Susan Jowett have topped the list of those recognised for services to education in the new year honours. Ms Stacey (above) and Ms Jowett, the chief executive of the Spencer Academies Trust, will receive damehoods, while Reach2 boss Mr Lancashire will be knighted, as […]