Nicky Phillips | Schools Week

Technical woes hinder Oxbridge entry tests

Pupils’ hopes of studying at Oxford and Cambridge may be in jeopardy as admission exams, switched to an online format in the wake of Covid, have been beset with technical difficulties. Last week, year 13 pupils across England sat a variety of admission exams for the two universities, such as the BioMedical Admissions Test (BMAT) […]

£500k to boost flexible working and drive staff retention

The government is looking for eight schools to share almost £500,000 as part of a programme to boost flexible working and improve staff retention. Each flexible working ambassador school (FWAS) will receive £60,000. The scheme, which runs from April next year until December 2022, is part of the Department for Education’s recruitment and retention […]

DfE closes covid attendance loophole 6 weeks into term

The government has closed an attendance reporting loophole six weeks into term that left officials “unable to get a grip” on the true scale of the pandemic’s disruption in schools. Thousands of absences may have been missed. Since Monday, all schools have been asked to provide data on Covid-19-related absences, using the Department for Education’s […]

School budgets ‘on a knife edge’ due to soaring supply staff costs

Schools are “on a knife edge” as the mounting costs of supply staff parachuted in to replace isolating teachers could leave them out of cash “by Christmas”. A survey from the NAHT school leaders’ union, based on more than 2,000 responses, has found schools are spending on average £2,454 more on supply staff than they […]

Cyber attacks, hacks and legal threats: Academy data breaches revealed

An academy trust was left facing legal action after sending student assessment reports to the wrong parents. The incident at Aspire Schools in Buckinghamshire last year is one of dozens of examples of data breaches uncovered by a Schools Week investigation. Documents released under the Freedom of Information Act show how academies were subjected to […]

Green: ‘Messing’ with school structures not priority

“Messing around” with school structures should not be a Labour priority, the shadow education secretary has said. Speaking at an online event at Labour’s “Connected” party conference, Kate Green said she would not be “scrambling successful schools for the sake of having perfect structures”, indicating the party would not move to bring all academies back […]

Grenfell rules forced us to dip into revenue, says trust

An academy trust says it had no choice but to break finance rules and use £530,000 of revenue funds to save its multi-million pound sports centre after regulation changes threatened to derail the project. Herts and Essex Multi Academy Trust (HEMAT), which operates two schools, was issued a financial warning to improve after breaching the […]

Government ‘flying blind’ over Covid tests for pupils

Schools have been placed in an “impossibly difficult position” as the government restricts Covid tests to those with “classic symptoms”, despite research indicating children are more likely to show other signs. Government guidance states the main symptoms of coronavirus are a high temperature, a new, continuous cough and a loss or change to your smell […]

Council encourages schools to contact test and trace teams first rather than DfE hotline

A council is urging schools to ignore new protocols for contacting the government’s national coronavirus helpline to report positive cases after it issued incorrect advice. The Department for Education seized control of handling calls about school Covid-19 cases last week after some were left in “limbo” waiting three days to get health advice from local […]