Nick Linford | Schools Week

Ofsted drops local authority ‘effective’ and ‘ineffective’ judgements

Local authorities will no longer be given an overall judgement of their school improvement functions, Ofsted has said in a framework released this morning. Instead, a narrative judgement will be published for local authorities, describing Ofsted’s findings after an inspection. Ofsted said that the removal of the effective/ineffective assessment was because “configurations of school improvement functions are […]

School-based teacher training of more benefit than university route find researchers

Schools think they benefit more overall from school-based teacher training than university-based routes, a new survey by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has found. The IFS survey into the net cost of the different training courses was based on responses from 291 primary schools and 196 secondary schools. Click here to download the report. It […]

Ofsted appoints lawyer for second investigation into Norfolk ‘tip-off’ allegations

Ofsted has today announced it is to appoint a senior law professional to carry out an independent review into allegations that three schools received prior notice of inspections. The inspectorate said last week the review followed “the emergence … of a number of new emails” that were not available during an earlier investigation led by an […]

Academies given permission to borrow from DfE capital funds

Academies and colleges will be allowed to borrow money from government capital funds for the first time, it has been announced. The Department for Education (DfE) will loan academies funding at low rates of interest through its condition improvement fund (CIF) and paid back through a reduction in revenue grant funding. Academies, unlike colleges, will still not be […]

Teen sentenced to life after he admits teacher’s murder

A 16-year-old boy has been jailed for life today for the murder of his teacher Ann Maguire. Will Cornick (pictured), who was 15 at the time, stabbed his Spanish teacher in a lesson at Corpus Christi Catholic College in Leeds. A judge at Leeds Crown Court lifted an order preventing the naming of Cornick after […]

Government invests a further £150m in primary school PE and sport

Primary schools in England have been given more than £150 million this year to improve PE lessons. The money will come from the PE and Sports Premium budget, set up by the Department for Education (DfE) in 2013 to help primary schools boost school sports. The scheme will give more than £450 million until the […]

Nye on Impossible

The 13 most critical points in the NAO’s Academies and Schools Oversight report

Today the National Audit Office (NAO) released a document scrutinising the way schools are overseen and intervened on if under-performing. Reading it is illuminating. Academies have been complicated to keep abreast of over the last few years, and it does a good job of explaining who is responsible for what (so far as there actually […]

England’s largest academies chain issued with notice of financial concern

The largest academy chain in England has been slapped with a notice of financial concern by the Education Funding Agency (EFA). In a letter to the Academies Enterprise Trust (AET), EFA director for academies and maintained schools Sue Baldwin said she had “significant concerns about the volatility shown in the series of financial projections” provided […]