Nicky Phillips | Schools Week

Largest academy chain offloads eight schools

The largest academy chain in the country has transferred eight schools from its control, blaming their “geographic isolation”. The Academies Enterprise Trust (AET) has been handing over the schools to local sponsors since December. The relinquished schools are East Point Academy in Lowestoft; Childwall Sports & Science Academy in Liverpool; Oaks, Tree Tops and Molehill […]

Teachers undecided on who will be best for education

More than half of school leaders are undecided about which political party is best equipped to improve the education system, a new survey has revealed. The annual State of Education report, from school leadership providers The Key, found 58.2 per cent of headteachers, deputy headteachers and school business managers were undecided about which party could […]

Europe’s biggest arms firm BAE takes on failing academy

– Furness Academy in special measures since March 2012 – Campaigners uneasy about curriculum changes ’to suit needs’ The government has chosen an arms manufacturer as its preferred sponsor to turn around a failing academy in the north of England. BAE Systems – Europe’s biggest arms company, turning over £15.4bn last year – is set […]

Purdah stops school visit

Maintained schools hosting visits from politicians in the run-up to elections could be breaking the law, but academies have a freer hand, a legal expert has said after shadow education secretary Tristram Hunt was turned away from an east London school. Jade Kent (pictured), a solicitor at Michelmores, told Schools Week that maintained schools, as public […]

Peter Campling, education consultant, playwright and former head

Former secondary head Peter Campling has been watching the first rehearsal for his latest play. It concerns a vexing series of events leading up to an Ofsted inspection at the fictional Ardley Green School. There will be swearing, he says – and not just by any teachers in the audience. But there’ll be laughs as […]

Free schools: what to ask

Labour’s views are based on a reality that has long dissolved; free schools are no longer for white middle-class parents in areas where they are not wanted It’s nearing the end of the general election campaign and time to get down to the detail in education policies. But there’s one thing we know for certain: […]

‘If I were education secretary…’

Secondary education is too exam-focused. There is also too much specialisation too early (after GCSE), too little variety between schools and within curricula, too many reforms with every change of government, too little practical preparation for life after education, and too great a jump between school and university. If I were secretary of state, I […]

‘If I were education secretary…’

Differences between children’s performance at school are not just due to differences in parenting and home life or differences in teachers and school life — to an even greater extent, they are due to DNA differences between children. These differences account for more than half of the differences in performance from reception through to GCSE. […]

Build a better baccalaureate

To download click here The Conservative party this week said it would make the subjects in the English Baccalaureate compulsory up to GCSE. The Labour party want to make English and maths compulsory to age 18. Both signal a political will for pupils to have a “broad entitlement” to certain subjects. For schools, this can […]