Nicky Phillips | Schools Week

How can we get young people eating healthy food at lunchtime?

What’s your research about? The factors that underpin young people’s food and drink purchases in and around schools. The study, which was funded by Food Standards Scotland, looked at seven state secondary schools in Scotland, where pupils were allowed to leave the grounds at lunchtime. The schools were in five local education authority areas with […]

Baseline test sign-up plummets

The baseline assessment provider chosen by more than half of England’s primary schools last year is expecting its numbers to plummet following the government’s decision to abandon the tests as a progress measure. Jan Dubiel, Early Excellence’s national development manager, told Schools Week that schools were still signing up to his company’s assessment, but he […]

Co-location allows free schools to open

New schools are being forced to share buildings next year as the government runs into yet more site problems under its free schools policy, writes John Dickens. The Ramsgate free school, in Kent, will spend its second year housed temporarily on the site of Chilton primary school. Pupils joining Ramsgate this September will be taught […]

Team keeps control to take top prize

A team of young engineers from the Royal Grammar School, Worcester, will now compete in a world final after they scooped the top prize of a national STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) competition. In the final of the Land Rover 4×4 in Schools Technology Challenge, Team Ascent, a team of 16-year-olds from Royal Grammar, […]

Be functional, not faddish, and keep it simple

New school buildings are a difficult brief: they must be flexible, functional, welcoming and poised for change. Educators can meet that challenge if they start with a checklist of do’s and don’ts, says Craig Smailes Schools are, by their nature, subject to changing needs. Populations change, educational methods evolve and technology continues to alter the […]

Rushden pupils reach new heights

A group of Rushden Academy students in Northamptonshire recently scaled the tallest permanent abseil tower in the world in memory of a fellow pupil’s uncle and for charity. The five year 11 adrenaline junkies tackled the 418ft Northampton Lift Tower last month and raised more than £5,000 for Cancer Research and Melanoma UK in memory […]

Richard Gill, Katie Scarnell and Dr Hilary Macaulay

Richard Gill, the current headteacher of the Arthur Terry secondary school, Birmingham, will step up to chief executive of the Arthur Terry Learning Partnership from September. He will run the multi-academy trust’s seven schools in Birmingham and north Warwickshire, taking over from interim chief executive Sally Taylor. Gill says one of his main priorities is […]

Delays threaten to disrupt refugees’ schooling

Pressure is mounting on the government to allow hundreds of unaccompanied refugee children into the country before September, after it was revealed in parliament that they could arrive as late as December and so disrupt schools part-way through the academic year. The government has started discussions with local councils over the relocation of children currently […]

The real challenge awaits for Cameron and Morgan

The government may have made a u-turn on forced academisation, says Lucy Powell, but its misguided fixation with school structures remains David Cameron and Nicky Morgan have been forced into a humiliating climbdown. However they try to spin it, they have made a major concession by dropping their target to force all schools to become […]