Nicky Phillips | Schools Week

What the ——— are they hiding?

Last week the Department for Education voluntarily released the application forms submitted by free school founders to secure the opening of their schools – despite former education secretary Michael Gove saying he would do “everything possible” to stop their release. First asked for in 2012 by SchoolsWeek editor, Laura McInerney, the forms show the original […]

Free infant meals unsustainable at flagship school

A small school hailed as proof that free lunches could be delivered to all infants without draining school resources has now applied for a government hand-out as delivering the policy is ‘unsustainable’. Last September the government introduced universal infant free schools (UIFSM) which sees all pupils from reception to Year 2 given free school meals. […]

Gone in 60 minutes – the full story of Durham Free School

13:48 – School told it has two weeks to appeal funding cut 14:45 – Nicky Morgan announces school will close A free school was left stunned when Education Secretary Nicky Morgan announced its closure only an hour after being told it would be given two weeks to appeal against a “notice of intention” to terminate […]

Lynn Greenwold, chief executive, Patoss

Lynn Greenwold’s home is a testament to her rich and varied life and career. We are in her kitchen in Stow-on-the-Wold, an Atlantis of sorts where plants grow across the rafters and around a huge marble table that she rescued from neglect – a link to her spell in the antiques business. Awarded an OBE […]

Atlantic crossing to prestigious US universities

Thirty-eight British students from low and middle-income homes will soon pack their bags and travel to the US to take up places at leading US universities. They were selected as part of a Sutton Trust US programme, offered with the Fulbright Commission. The 38 have been given approximately $8.5 million (£5.5 million) of financial aid […]

Students help develop 3D app

Students at Ormiston Shelfield community academy in the west Midlands are helping to share the experience of life in the First World War trenches after working with a software firm to design a new educational computer resource. The Gaia 3D Virtual Trench app, a simulation of life in the trenches, was created by software development […]

Edition 15: Dr Stephen Tommis, Dominique Gobbi, Harry Fletcher-Wood

Dr Stephen Tommis is the new chief executive of the Montessori St Nicholas charity. He was the founding executive director of the Hong Kong Academy for Gifted Education (HKAGE), from 2008 to 2014, but decided to return to the UK to be closer to his three adult children. “They are at the heart of life. […]

Bishops mark start of building work

Two bishops picked up their pitch forks and donned their gardening gloves to preside over a turf cutting ceremony to mark the start of building work at an academy in Derriford, Plymouth. The Bishop of Exeter, the Rt Revd Robert Atwell, and the Bishop of Plymouth, the Rt Revd Nick McKinnel, turned the soil at […]

Character Education Awards process lacks rigour

The Department for Education has now confirmed that information submitted by schools, as part of their application to receive a prize fund drawn from a £5 million Department for Education scheme (DfE), will be verified before awards are made. Schools Week today published an investigation challenging the rigour of the DfE-led Character Education Award process […]