Nicky Phillips | Schools Week

‘Can inspectors rate a school in 20 minutes?’

Teachers and school leaders deserve more than a quick judgment from Ofsted teams. Inspectors should instead make positive and self-aware efforts to challenge and look beyond those instant impressions, says Gerald Haigh. Can HMI tell almost as soon as they arrive at a school just how good (or, presumably, bad) it is? That’s certainly the […]

3,500 more language teachers needed for EBacc to work

Nearly 3,500 extra language teachers must be found to meet the government’s demand that modern foreign languages are included in the English Baccalaureate (EBacc), an almost 40 per cent increase on the number first announced by data experts. Every pupil who started year 7 last September is now expected to study English, maths, science, history […]

Heavy metal rules

Pupils challenged to design an aluminium product for the future were celebrated at this year’s Alu D&T Challenge prizegiving at the Thinktank Science Museum in Birmingham. They were set tasks based on real-life briefs faced by designers, engineers and manufacturers in three categories — transport, building and packaging. A winning individual and team was selected […]

Get a feel for snow

Pupils across the country are being urged to swap their school playgrounds for nearby artificial ski slopes to mark an inaugural National Schools Snowsport Week next month. The initiative, backed by Winter Olympians Aimee Fuller and Graham Bell, is to encourage more schools to introduce their pupils to snowsports. It will offer a range of […]

Featured: Education pack aims to ease shortage of organ donors

Teachers are being asked to introduce lessons on organ donation to prompt students into sparking family conversations about the subject. NHS Blood and Transplant has highlighted today’s teenagers as “change makers” who can help to tackle the shortage of organ donors. The organisation has worked with teachers, clinicians, donor families and transplant patients to create […]

Nikki Gibb, Stephen Gabriel and Jon Valentine

Nikki Gibb, the current head of academy at Grangefield Academy in Cleveland, will take over as the school’s principal from April 11. Ms Gibb says it will be a “double whammy” as it marks her first day as head as well as the date the school moves into its new building. She says she is […]

Academy chains defend ‘golden handshakes’ of up to £50k for staff dismissals

Academy chains have defended paying out £1.6 million on “golden handshakes” to staff after taking over struggling schools, writes John Dickens. A Schools Week investigation can reveal the country’s 12 largest academy chains have shelled out the seven-figure sum in 2014/15 alone. Costs for the previous year touched nearly £1.9 million. But it isn’t just […]

£19m spent on failed vocational schools for 14 year olds

The government spent at least £19 million opening university technical colleges and studio schools that closed within four years, new figures reveal. Updated capital spending data shows that £18,855,333 was spent on construction and land acquisition for two university technical colleges (UTCs) and six studio schools that have since either closed or will close this […]

Royal visit strikes the right chord

The Queen recently visited London’s Lister Community School to watch pupils perform a music rehearsal led by musicians from the National Youth Orchestra (NYO) as part of a special event to celebrate the Queen’s Trust . The young instrumentalists from the Lister School Orchestra demonstrated their skills before performing a specially arranged excerpt of Britten’s […]