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18 April 2026

Author: Nicky Phillips

Pupils go wild with new playground

Pupils at a central London primary had a big say in the design of their new playground, opened recently by newscaster Jon Snow. Christopher Hatton School welcomed the Channel 4 news anchor to mark the completion of months of renovation work in the lower playground. The new jungle-themed space was co-designed by pupils from the […]

Soap star heads acting masterclass

Aspiring actors at an Essex academy were last week treated to a day’s masterclass by EastEnders actress Gillian Wright. The actress, who plays Jean Slater in the BBC soap, ran workshops for students in Years 8, 9 and 10 at Burnt Mill Academy. She gave feedback on the students’ performances, helped them to develop their […]

Let’s give young carers the pupil premium

The UK’s 160,000 young carers do not do as well as their peers at school. Giving them the pupil premium is one way to lower their barriers to learning At the most recent party conference events, politicians were asked about the addition of young carers to the pupil premium. Minister for schools David Laws said […]

New sponsors, new uniforms – for £70,000

The failure of one academy trust has left the taxpayer paying up to £70,000 for new school uniforms, exclusive research by Schools Week can now reveal. Nine schools across the country were taken over by new academy sponsors after their original academy trust, E-ACT, was told by the Department for Education that it needed to […]

Storytelling becomes a core skill

A Wellingborough primary is one of the first to be awarded accreditation as a storytelling school. In an attempt to increase progress in writing, Warwick Primary vice-principals Sandra Appleby and Claire Head did storytelling training at The Storytelling School in Oxford last year. All teaching staff were then trained on how to deliver the storytelling […]

Ofsted ditches inspector who copied reports

Ofsted have acted swiftly to remove a lead inspector after Schools Week presented damning evidence of whole report sections being identical or near identical. The inspection reports shown to Ofsted were all written by David Marshall, an inspector working for the private contractor, Tribal. Ofsted chief operating officer Matthew Coffey said they had raised concerns […]

School led nurseries at “heart” of government plans

Childcare Minister Sam Gyimah (pictured) wants more schools to “step up to the plate” and offer nursery provision. In a speech at an event held by right-wing think-tank Policy Exchange in London on Tuesday, he said: “Joined-up nursery provision means parents may well be able to go back to work and children can access the […]

Morgan leaves out the word ‘academies’

In a change of tone to her predecessor, Michael Gove, education secretary Nicky Morgan (pictured) this week announced that she was not looking to academise all schools and was categorically against for-profit schools. In Wednesday’s final education select committee session on academies and free school, Ms Morgan was asked by chair Graham Stuart to describe […]

Morgan and Clegg in ‘train of bureaucracy’ spat

A row has broken out between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats about whose idea it is to launch an initiative to reduce teacher workload. On Wednesday, deputy prime minister Nick Clegg spoke at Belleville Primary school in Clapham, south London, to launch a workload challenge for teachers. The scheme – which Mr Clegg said he […]