Author: Nicky Phillips

An academy trust under fire from Ofsted for poor performance has emerged as the highest ranked schools group on a list comparing the growth of social enterprises in youth and education. The Kemnal Academies Trust (TKAT) was ranked as number 16 for growth in the youth and education sector of the RBS SE100, a list designed […]

The Conservative party’s intention to double free childcare for three and four-year-olds will have a negative impact on the capacity, quality and diversity of early years’ settings, including those based in schools, says one provider. Sue Cowley, who runs a voluntary pre-school, believes that David Cameron’s pledge of £350m this week to extend free childcare […]

When David Cameron launched his party’s manifesto at Swindon’s University Technical College (UTC) on Tuesday, he claimed that he wanted to see similar institutions opening in “every city”. That evening, governors of a flagship UTC announced their decision to close it. Facing low student numbers, financial challenges and a “disappointing Ofsted”, the Black Country UTC, […]

The government has refused to publish a list of decaying schools that missed out on priority building funds. Calder Valley MP Craig Whittaker called for the listing to be made public so that the robustness of the schools’ property data survey could be scrutinised. It followed two schools in his area, Calder High and Todmorden […]

A parent of two deaf children is angry about Ofsted’s refusal to tell him if two inspection teams who separately assessed a Berkshire school for deaf children in January and October last year had specialist training. Mary Hare School in Newbury was deemed to be outstanding by Ofsted in January 2014, but a second inspection […]

The National Union of Teachers has criticised a school for its “sham” consultation on making several staff redundant. Nicholas Breakspear Catholic School in St Albans (pictured), Hertfordshire, wrote to staff days before they broke for the Easter holidays informing them of its plan to make compulsory redundancies to help to balance the books. It is […]

In the first of a series of spreads on the election campaign, Freddie Whittaker reports from the manifesto launches of Labour, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. See schoolsweek.co.uk for full lists of the parties’ education policies, and stay tuned for our general election supplement, out with edition 26 next week Childcare, careers advice, work experience […]

John Dickens joins a group of 52 pupils from Ormiston academies on a visit to the battlefields of the Somme More than 72,000 names are etched across the giant columns of the Thiepval Memorial in northern France. Each remembers a Commonwealth soldier who lost his life during the Battle of the Somme. But Leonie Hunt […]