Nicky Phillips | Schools Week

Year in review: A school business manager’s perspective on 2015

The pace of change has made it a tough year for schools, academies and their business managers. But it is also the year that school business management came of age Policy changes in the wake of the general election, cost pressures from increased national insurance and pension costs, and the fragmented landscape of academy, maintained, multi-academy […]

State school debts rise to £103m – but rich schools get even richer

A “wealth gap” appears to be emerging between schools rich in cash and those struggling to pay their bills. Total budget deficits for local authority (LA) maintained schools rose from £76 million in 2013/14 to £103 million last year. But the percentage of schools running a deficit has remained largely the same – meaning the […]

Schools wait months for Ofsted visits

Schools have been waiting months for Ofsted visits as former inspectors claim job losses have cut the number of inspections that can be carried out. Analysis shows there have been just 585 full Ofsted inspections this term. This compares with 1,642 in the same period last year. At the end of the last academic year, […]

EXCLUSIVE: Elite private schools named in damning inspection file

A damning dossier of previously unpublished improvement notices has revealed substantial failings at some of the country’s most prestigious independent schools. Since July last year, 110 private schools have been handed statutory improvement notices by the Department for Education (DfE). Ofsted guidance states the notices are issued when there has been a “substantial number of […]

EXCLUSIVE: National curriculum test plans ‘contravene’ rights of SEN pupils, expert complains

Complaints about new proposals for assessing pupils with lower attainment have been passed to the Children’s Commissioner after a special needs expert spotted they could contravene children’s rights. The Department for Education (DfE) released interim recommendations last week, advising on arrangements for lower ability pupils sitting the new national curriculum tests due to begin in […]

£80m cash pot for ‘high quality’ teacher training programme opens for bids

An £80 million cash pot to run a “high quality” initial teacher training (ITT) programme is up for grabs, after the government issued an open tender for funds currently given to Teach First. The successful bidder will be funded to support 4,200 highly qualified graduates and career changers to become teachers in schools with low […]

Pupils given questionnaire to determine ‘energy group’ – is this the new learning styles?

Some schools are using personality tests to target pupils who struggle to learn by traditional “written” methods of teaching. But psychology experts say such tests don’t provide “meaningful or useful” information. Education consulting firm, Bright Field, use an online psychometric questionnaire, developed by Insights Learning and Development Ltd, that determines what “energy” group a student […]

‘Communication’ not ‘consultation’ over forced academies Lord Nash tells Education Bill debate

Consulting parents and teachers on plans to forcibly convert failing schools into academies would be “overly formal and inflexible”, says junior schools minister Lord Nash. Changes to the government’s education and adoption bill, which aims to make it easier for the government to convert failing and “coasting” schools into academies, were debated and voted on […]

Beware of the cloud: how pupil data privacy got problematic

Security is rarely a top motivation when schools purchase software. So who is responsible for making sure that pupil information stays safe? And what happens if there are breaches? In the fifth of her six-part series on technology in schools, Jess Staufenberg finds a “curiously closed” system of self assessment The personal data of children […]