Nicky Phillips | Schools Week

Peacemakers get Diana Award

A Nottingham academy’s playground peacemakers have been honoured with a Diana Award. The award was set up in memory of the late Princess of Wales who believed that young people have the power to change the world for the better. All the peacemakers received the award for being a Diana anti-bullying champion in their local […]

A hole lot of trouble in Essex

Children arriving at Cooks Spinney primary school in Harlow, Essex, were shocked recently to find a giant hole in their school hall. A warning sign said recent adverse weather had caused the natural disaster. But the “hole” was part of the school’s latest Wow day, aimed to capture the imagination of students at the start […]

Edition 17: Peter Wanless, Ian Armitage and Chris Potter

Peter Wanless has stepped down from The Kemnal Academies Trust (TKAT) board of directors after three years. “I enjoyed TKAT a lot. It was an exciting time with the emphasis on academies. I think we developed a strong strategy for growth but at a reasonable pace. “There are some talented people there who have a […]

Royal visits inspire academies’ students

Two schools in England had royal visitors last week. In London, the Duchess of Cambridge was guest of honour at the official opening of Kensington Aldridge Academy last Monday. Building at the £28 million academy began two years ago on land gifted by the Royal borough of Kensington, the academy’s co-sponsor. It also contributed £10.4 […]

Morgan hesitates on A-level science practicals

Science educators are dealing with “prolonged uncertainty” about the role of practical assessment in their subject – and comments by the education secretary aren’t improving things, says a subject leader. In a speech at the Politea ThinkTank on Tuesday, Nicky Morgan said that while she “fully understood the concerns Ofqual has in ensuring that assessment […]

EFA boss warns Durand Academy over financial ‘conflict’

Durand Academy in south London will face limits on its spending powers if a “clear conflict of interest” is not managed within the next two months, school funding boss Peter Lauener has said. Mr Lauener’s comments came after MPs grilled Durand headteacher Sir Greg Martin over the school’s relationship with GMG Educational Support (UK) Ltd, […]

Second review clears Norfolk academies of tip-offs

Three academies have again been cleared of allegations that they received tip-offs about Ofsted inspections – but the investigator says that he was hindered by missing documents. Lawyer Julian Gizzi carried out an independent review of alleged inspection irregularities at three schools in Norfolk, linked to the chief executive of the Inspiration Trust, Dame Rachel […]

We’ve won the battle on MATs, says Stuart

Ofsted now has the same powers to inspect multi-academy trusts (MATs) as it does to inspect local authorities, chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw has confirmed. The change comes after what has been described as a “war of words” between Sir Michael and Education Secretary Nicky Morgan, which culminated in the publication last week of a […]

DfE report praised damned free school

A free school faced with closure after Ofsted called its pupils “racist” has released a confidential Department for Education (DfE) monitoring report which just five months earlier stated that pupils were “respectful” and behaviour was of a “high order”. The school was placed into special measures last Monday; later that day education secretary Nicky Morgan […]