Nicky Phillips | Schools Week

Fall in GCSE and A level late entries cuts exam bill by £3.5m

Schools have continued to save money on exams, despite an increase in the number of late entrants, Schools Week estimates. Ofqual’s latest figures show in 2014/15, 633,000 students, or about 3 per cent of candidates for GCSEs or A-levels with exam boards OCR, Pearson and AQA, were entered late. This compares with 625,600 the previous […]

Ofsted starts talks over more anti-extremism teacher training

Ofsted has started talks with teacher trainers to incorporate anti-radicalisation training into their courses amid concerns that teachers are underprepared to deal with pupils showing a vulnerability to terrorism. Geraint Evans, a lead HMI and national lead for extremism at Ofsted, has met with initial teacher training (ITT) providers in eight regions about incorporating training […]

Bring back ICT as we know it, say teachers

Thousands of teachers have signed petitions to try to force education ministers to rethink scrapping GCSE and A-level ICT. Last week Schools Week revealed that the government would not redevelop information communications technology qualifications. The decision – buried on the eleventh page of a wider consultation document – is estimated to affect up to 14,000 […]

Heads and governors conflict over who should influence schools policy

Governors and school leaders both believe they, and not the other, should be the biggest influence on school policy, a survey has revealed. Almost 9 in 10 of 1,300 governors surveyed by The Key, which provides leadership and management support to schools, placed themselves top of the list of people who should influence policies in […]

The EBacc Effect: How different ability pupils are pushed to study different school subjects

In 2010 the government added a measure to school league tables. It signalled how many children studied a set of subjects called the ‘EBacc’. How did schools respond, and who did it actually help? Sophie Scott investigates Schools are changing access to English Baccalaureate (EBacc) subjects, but not all pupils are equally affected, new figures […]

Leeds University tells pupils visit day attendance could affect place

A university’s request that pupils attend a visit day during term time or perhaps lessen their chances of a place has angered an academy trust. Schools Week has seen an email sent by the University of Leeds to sixth-formers telling them their presence on an applicant visit day could influence decisions made after A-level results […]

Special schools ‘invisible’ in teacher recruitment adverts – despite serious shortages

The government’s latest teacher recruitment advertisement could be independently investigated after more than 60 people made complaints. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has received 65 complaints about the television and online advert, which cost £3million to develop and air, and will decide whether to investigate it “in the next few days”. It is understood most […]

The academy trusts paid £850,000 to open schools – but never did

At least 17 academy trusts handed a slice of £7.2 million to take over struggling schools have yet to do so — more than a year later. A freedom of information request by Schools Week has revealed the government handed out one-off payments of up to £100,000 to 144 organisations in the 2013-14 financial year […]

£850k on academy trusts with no schools? It’s a problem. But let’s not start a mass hysteria

On Wednesday, more than 40 pupils were treated for sickness and feeling faint at a school in Ripon, North Yorkshire. Around 11.30am a call went in to the ambulance service to despatch to the school. In the following hours, increasing numbers of pupils were treated. In the office we watched anxiously. Searches were immediately done […]