Nicky Phillips | Schools Week

How does being a charity affect a school?

The Education Secretary wants private schools to earn their right be considered a charity. But many state schools are also charities, which provides tax benefits in return for regulatory restrictions Each state-funded academy is formed as an exempt charitable company, which means although it is a charity, it is not registered with the Charity Commission. […]

Students learn to support peers

A group of 32 Nottingham Girls’ High School students will now be better able to support their peers after a coaching session with educational psychologist Dr Val Besag. Parents and staff also sat in on the seminar led by Dr Besag to understand problems that their children may be having, what they should be looking […]

Hampshire team head for life in the pit lane

Next time it’ll be champagne, but for now a St George flag and punches in the air marked success for a team of five students from Robert May’s School, Hampshire, in the FI in Schools world championship 2014. Team Colossus set a new world record when they represented England in the Abu Dhabi finals of […]

Duke keeps an eye on lessons

Crown Wood primary in Bracknell got a royal seal of approval last week when the Duke of Gloucester officially opened new facilities. The duke toured the new building before unveiling a plaque to mark the occasion and signing the visitors’ book. He also visited three lessons, including a year 5 computing class, a year 6 […]

DfE seeks refund on £30,000 iPhone pilot

The Department for Education (DfE) has spent more than £30,000 on iPhones this year as part of a discontinued pilot – and is trying to get its money back. The figure makes the DfE the second highest Whitehall spender on Apple phones. In response to a parliamentary question, Schools Reform Minister Nick Gibb said the […]

Edu select committee launches crowdsourcing for 2015 agenda

The education select committee has started to receive responses after kicking off a new way of crowdsourcing public views on the evidence behind education policy. Comments have been invited on nine policy areas, and will inform the committee’s choice for a number of one-off hearings next year. Views are solicited via a web forum, with […]

DfE volunteers begin Workload Challenge analysis

Teams of Department for Education (DfE) “volunteers” have started logging teacher responses to the Workload Challenge. The challenge, launched last month by education secretary Nicky Morgan and deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, sought “experiences, ideas and solutions” on how to manage teacher workload. In a tweet from its official account this week (pictured), the DfE […]

Hunt private school partnership plan falls short of widening admissions

The shadow education secretary announced that a Labour government would make the sector’s business tax relief dependent on their working with state schools as part of a “schools partnership standard”. Speaking at east London’s Walthamstow Academy on Tuesday, Tristram Hunt said private schools currently benefited from £700 million in business tax relief over a five year […]

Want to know why teachers are banned? Dig deep . . .

It’s not easy to find out how many teachers were banned last year for sexual offences against children. It’s possible – but you have to be prepared to read through more than 100 documents. Last week, an Schools Week analysis of more than 200 published National College of Teaching and Leadership (NCTL) hearing outcomes from […]