Nicky Phillips | Schools Week

EXCLUSIVE: DfE £65k teacher salary advert ruled ‘not misleading’ by advert authority

The Department for Education (DfE) has been cleared of allegations that its £3 million recruitment advert was misleading for claiming teachers could earn up to £65,000, Schools Week can reveal. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) launched an investigation in November into the department’s “Get into teaching” advert after nearly 100 complaints. The complainants said the […]

Harperbury Free School cancelled despite £1.9m spend

A proposed free school has been cancelled three years after it was given the go-ahead because the planned site was too small – with £1.9 million already spent on it. The Harperbury Free School was given approval by the Department for Education (DfE) in May 2013 to open the following September in Hertfordshire. A former […]

Da Vinci studio schools to close

Two studio schools will pass on responsibility for post-16 provision to North Hertfordshire College (NHC) when they close next summer. The decision to close the Da Vinci Studio School of Science and Engineering in Stevenage and the Da Vinci Studio School of Creative Enterprise in Letchworth (pictured), opened in 2012 and 2013 respectively, was taken […]

Fiona Ritson, English teacher, King Edward VII Academy

English teacher Fiona Ritson is the sort of person you can rely on in an emergency. The batteries on my recorder have run out. She finds replacements in her beautiful, quiet (admittedly it’s half term) well-ordered classroom and hands them over. Crisis averted. Maybe this is why students at King Edward VII Academy (KES) in […]

EXCLUSIVE: DfE directors not following own rules on governor’s interests

Schools with Department for Education (DfE) directors on their governing bodies are not following the government’s requirement to publish their register of interests online, Schools Week has found. The DfE issued statutory guidance in September stating that governors of local authority-maintained schools should publish a list of relevant interests on their school’s website – including […]

U-turn on South Bucks free school

In an unusual volte-face the government is once again overruling a planning inspectorate’s decision regarding a free school near Slough, which has already previously been taken to the high court. Greg Clark, the secretary of state for communities and local government (pictured), last week granted Khalsa Secondary Academy permission to remain permanently at its site […]

Schools warned on emergency bomb threat plans

Schools have been urged to update their emergency procedures after a spate of bomb scares, with new reports claiming a bomb threat can be bought on the “dark web” for less than £5. At least 18 schools have been targeted by bomb threats – including 14 in the West Midlands – in the past few […]

Regional schools commissioner budgets ‘going through the roof’

Fears that regional schools commissioners’ (RSCs) budgets could spiral out of control have been raised after the government revealed staff and administration costs rose to more than £650,000 per region this year. Schools minister Lord Nash confirmed that each of the eight commissioners now gets £520,000 a year to spend on salaries and expenses for […]

£1,000 to combat cancer raised by Bristol girl

A caring 12-year-old pupil from Bristol has raised more than £1,000 for Cancer UK. Lola Humphries, who attends John Cabot Academy, organised the event in the village of Hanham, Bristol after years of seeing family and friends being affected by cancer. The year 8 pupil generated the money by making cakes, holding a raffle, a […]