Nicky Phillips | Schools Week

EXCLUSIVE: Future of PGCE in jeopardy as providers ‘unable to plan’ for numbers

Four in five university teacher training providers are questioning their future viability after changes have left them “unable to plan” their future. A survey of 42 universities by the Universities Council for the Education of Teachers (UCET) shows the extent to which new recruitment rules have affected institutions. Since September, higher education institutions (HEIs) have […]

EXCLUSIVE: Academies given £8m over 3 years to make staff redundant – despite teacher shortage

A Schools Week investigation reveals the hidden costs behind transforming failing schools The government has granted nearly £8 million to academies so they can dismiss staff – as many schools buckle under a recruitment crisis. Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show the Department for Education (DfE) has given out £7.9 million during […]

EXCLUSIVE: Grammar schools given ‘tick box’ application form to open new sites

Grammar schools that want to expand to a satellite site can now tick a box to submit their proposals. The Department for Education has released an updated form this month for academies to apply for significant changes, which includes a specific tick-box for selective schools looking to expand. It follows the government’s controversial decision to […]

Schools may be forced to pay conversion costs

Schools could have to dig into their own pockets to pay the legal costs of conversion after Chancellor George Osborne announced in his Budget speech on Wednesday that every school must become an academy by 2022. The chancellor said schools will be expected to either become an academy by 2020, or have an academy order […]

Sugar tax will give schools £260,000 for longer hours

Secondary schools will be able to pocket an extra £265,000 if they commit to providing at least five hours of extra-curricular activities a week. Chancellor George Osborne says funds raised through a new “sugar tax” – a levy on soft drink providers – would be invested in out-of-hours school activities. The Treasury expects to raise […]

Sharon Hodgson, shadow children’s minister

Sitting in her parliamentary office more than ten years after first becoming an MP, what would Sharon Hodgson tell her 15-year-old self? She becomes emotional as she considers those earlier times. Her mother Joan and her father separated when she was 7, divorcing three years later. “When my father ran off with another woman, my […]

A former minister’s view: thoughts on the school-led system

Five areas need to be given priority if schools-led system is to become a reality English schools have a large measure of autonomy compared with many other countries. But this is qualified by some of the most important determinants of what happens in schools sitting with the Department for Education. The control of the curriculum, […]

DfE needs to spend £20m to resolve academy land confusion

Department for Education chiefs have no idea how many academy sites belong to the government and have said it might be too expensive to find out. The department currently makes an assumption that land and buildings used by academies belong to the government and records this figure in its annual accounts. But in 2014, the […]

Putting UTCs into academy chains is ‘troubling’ claims union chief

Plans to encourage university technical colleges (UTCs) to join multi-academy trusts (MATs) risk giving academy chains a loophole in new GCSE requirements, says a headteachers’ leader. Russell Hobby, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, has questioned the government’s desire to see UTCs function within MATs, given they will be exempt from the […]