Nick Linford | Schools Week

Grade 5 will be the new, harder, GCSE pass rate

A 5 will be the new ‘pass’ grade when GCSEs switch to numbered grading, education secretary Nicky Morgan is today set to announce. This level will be harder for pupils to achieve than the current ‘C’ pass mark and is instead comparable to a high C grade or low B grade. Ms Morgan has repeatedly […]

Guide to the New Ofsted Reforms: Shorter inspections, ‘exceptional leaders’ and complaints scrutiny

Michael Wilshaw has announced a series of changes to Ofsted practices from September this year. It was already known that inspections would be ‘frequent but shorter‘ and would amalgamate frameworks from the early years through to further education. But a few more details have also been announced: 1. Good schools will be inspected once every […]

Pupil wanted after teacher stabbed at Bradford school

A teacher was stabbed with a knife at Dixons Kings Academy in Bradford this morning and police are hunting a 14-year-old pupil after the incident. The male teacher, 50, has been taken to hospital where he is described as being in a “stable” condition. The school confirmed this afternoon that he is not suffering from […]

All pupils to take EBacc subjects to age 16, says schools minister

Secondary school pupils will be expected to take all subjects in the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) up to the age of 16, schools minister Nick Gibb will re-affirm today. The five subjects of the EBacc – English, maths, science, a modern foreign language, and either history or geography – were first introduced as a non-compulsory school […]

Ministers to review University Technical Colleges in wake of Black Country closure

The University Technical Colleges (UTCs) programme is to be reviewed by ministers after questions from an MP over the closure of the Black Country UTC. A Commons debate on UTCS took place yesterday after it was tabled by Walsall North MP David Winnick, to raise concerns about Black Country UTC, which will close in August […]

Only 2 in 5 uni admissions officers think A levels develop ‘independent inquiry’ skills

Only two in five university admissions officers think A levels prepare students for the level of independent inquiry needed for higher education study, a survey has revealed. The latest annual university admissions officers report revealed that just 37 per cent of admissions officers felt that A levels developed the independent inquiry skills demanded by universities […]

DfE non-schools budget faces in-year cut of £450m, Treasury announces

The Department for Education’s (DfE) non-schools budget faces a cut of £450m this year, the Treasury has announced. The department claims it will find the savings, part of £3bn of in-year cuts announced by Chancellor George Osborne today through “expected underspends”, efficiencies and “some small budgetary reductions”. But an exact breakdown of how the savings […]

Coasting schools to get improvement notices under new legislation

Coasting schools will be handed notices to improve under plans due to be unveiled in the government’s new education and adoption bill today. The Department for Education has announced that under the new legislation, which it claims will “transform” up to 1,000 failing schools, schools considered to be coasting will be told to improve even if […]

‘Coasting’ school definition left out of Nicky Morgan education bill

Education secretary Nicky Morgan will have to present her definition of “coasting” schools to Parliament later this year after it was left out of the new education and adoption bill. The bill, tabled in the House of Commons by Ms Morgan this afternoon, seeks to amend the 2006 education and inspections act by creating another category […]