Author: Nicky Phillips

Free schools have substantially fewer free school meals pupils and significantly more able children than other schools in their neighbourhoods. Analysis of school census data for all free schools opened between 2011 and 2014 by Francis Green, Rebecca Allen and Andrew Jenkins from the Institute of Education (IoE) points to distinct differences in admissions between […]

The two most extreme Ofsted grades of “inadequate” and “outstanding” are being dished out on the whims of inspectors, suggests analysis by data experts. Specialists from Arbor Education compared more than 5,000 Ofsted grades awarded last year with grades predicted by a “robo-inspector” designed by the firm. Schools Week previously revealed Arbor, a data and […]

The allocation of teacher training places could be subject to new metrics that have been described by an advocate for universities as “undoubtedly biased” in favour of school-based routes. Only the “best” training providers will be given guaranteed place allocations based on their performance in three metrics, understood to be course completion rates, employability and […]

Figures released by the Independent Schools Council (ISC) in its latest annual report reveal that private schools have almost as many swimming pools between them as the whole of the state school, higher education and further education sectors combined. For the first time, the ISC asked its members to record the number of hours pupils […]

The academy conversion process is likely to slow as pre-election purdah rules restrain civil servants from signing new funding agreements. Although there are differing views on when the purdah period ahead of May’s council and mayoral elections started, the Department for Education (DfE) has been clear that, as during the final weeks of last year’s […]

The national schools commissioner will visit each of his regions for a “two-day residency” over the next year as part of a push for greater transparency – but criteria for intervention in underperforming academies remain a mystery. At the launch of the Teaching Leaders annual report on Tuesday, Sir David Carter revealed several ambitions for […]

Key recommendations made by cross-party MPs about the role of England’s regional schools commissioners have been rejected by the government. In January, the education committee reported on its six-month inquiry into the commissioners, the eight civil servants who oversee academies in England. The report recommended that the areas they oversee should be brought in line […]