Nicky Phillips | Schools Week

Free school blames EFA for early closure

More than 20 pupils face moving schools halfway through their GCSE studies after a free school in Stockport announced its closure is moving forward by a year. Stockport Technical School, a 14 to 19 free school sponsored by Stockport College that opened in an office block in September 2013, announced in March that it would […]

DfE lets us look at register of board members’ interest

The Department for Education’s register of board members’ interests is not available on its website and is more than a year out of date. During an investigation regarding donations to the election campaigns of education ministers, Schools Week asked to see the register of interests the DfE is legally required to hold that describe any […]

How we should combat teacher cyberbullying

School professionals need to work together to combat cyberbullying of teachers, say two academics who have examined YouTube videos from across the globe, including England. A paper by Dr Chris Kyriacou and Dr Antonio Zuin shows how students can use social media to challenge and undermine teacher authority. It concludes that whole-school anti-cyberbullying policies are […]

Aspirations Academies Trust ‘can’t cope’ with high pupil numbers

Aspirations Academies Trust is planning to reduce pupil numbers in two of its secondary schools, despite concerns from local about a lack of school places. The trust runs three secondary schools – Banbury Academy in Oxfordshire, Rivers Academy in west London, and Magna Academy in Poole – and has applied for its planned admissions numbers […]

The day that one in six schools fell silent

– Education disrupted in up to 3,800 schools across the country as ballot boxes moved in – Many forced to close over safeguarding concerns as strangers enter schools to vote Schools across the country were turned into makeshift polling stations yesterday as the nation cast its votes to decide the closest election in decades. Figures […]

NAHT gets its priorities in order

National free school meal data sharing, real-terms increases in education funding, money for mental health support and reviews of “excessive” testing will all be campaign issues for the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) in the coming months. The union’s annual conference in Liverpool last weekend passed 30 motions that will shape policy over the […]

‘If I were education secretary (again)…’

I would secure all-party support to launch a ten-year programme to spread technical education throughout the whole education system. One of the biggest challenges for the next government is to fill the skills gap: by 2020 we will need 830,000 STEM graduates and 450,000 technicians and engineers at levels 3 and 4. The institutions in […]

Data backs up head’s Ofsted fury

When executive headteacher Geoff Barton was told by an Ofsted inspector that his school’s behaviour grading was limited by its low attainment grade, he complained to the inspectorate. Exclusive analysis by Schools Week suggests he was right to do so. Writing in the TES Mr Barton last week revealed that an Ofsted inspector said Hardwick Middle […]

‘If I were education secretary (again)…’

Money is not the sole salvation in achieving quality education for all children. However, cutting the money available can have a devastating impact on those schools that have been making the most progress, reaching out and engaging with families and for whom the pupil premium was a lifeline at a time of retrenchment. That is […]