Nicky Phillips | Schools Week

Taking the rap to learn how to spell

Ideas for memorable science resources and a spelling project in which students become DJs won the day for two teachers in the Let Teachers SHINE competition. Michelle Lockwood of St Bernard’s Catholic high school in Rotherham, and Peter Scutt of Isambard community school in Swindon, were two of ten teachers recognised at the Capita SIMS […]

Chicago beckons for primary staff

Eight teachers from primary schools across the UK will fly to Chicago this summer after being recognised for their work as “digital pioneers” in the classroom. The teachers — from schools in the Midlands, Hertfordshire, London and Devon — will attend the Discovery Education summer institute, a week-long professional development and networking event this July. […]

Sport week gets off the starting blocks

Double Paralympic champion Hannah Cockroft and former Pussycat Doll Kimberly Wyatt kicked off National School Sport Week last Monday by leading a sport and dance session for Chobham academy pupils at London’s Olympic Park. The pair, both Youth Sport Trust ambassadors, the charity that runs the week, joined the year 9 east London students for […]

Pupils take on TeenTech challenge

Pupils from four south London schools came together earlier this month to build a city from recyclable materials. More than 70 nine to eleven-year-olds took part in the TeenTech’s City of Tomorrow project at the University of Roehampton to get them thinking about careers in science, technology and engineering. The students – from Tolworth girls […]

Katrina Axford, Lyndsey Prewett & Nick Short

Katrina Axford is moving across the world to lead the Admiralty school in Dorset, one of three “schools within schools” at the Isle of Portland Aldridge community academy. She was previously coordinator of project-based learning at Mark Oliphant college in South Australia. The “schools within schools” model at Admirality splits a large academy into three, […]

Sixth-form colleges warned not to rush into multi-academy trusts

Sixth-form colleges should not rush into partnerships with schools to create all-through academy trusts, a sector leader has warned. Schools Week revealed last week how 60 of the 93 sixth-form colleges in England had told the government they were interested in becoming academies. Their interest follows a rule change that allowed the institutions to avoid paying VAT […]

EXCLUSIVE: Resignations leave AET board ‘struggling’

The boss of the country’s largest multi-academy trust has admitted it will struggle to run key committees after the chair stood down and six trustees quit. According to Academies Enterprise Trust (AET), former chair Jude Chin (pictured) has taken over as the new vice-chair following the resignations in late May of former vice chair Ian […]

DfE silent on pupil catch-up premium for 2016-17

Schools will continue to receive extra money to help pupils who fall behind in reading and maths, but criteria for deciding who will receive the cash — and how much — is still unknown. The Department for Education confirmed the catch-up premium will continue to be paid to secondary schools in 2016-17, but is still […]

Science lab in £8m primary building

Geneticist Dame Kay Davies officially opened the UK’s first Earth Charter school earlier this month when she cut the ribbon to a new £8 million Avonwood primary school building in Bournemouth that includes a purpose-built science laboratory. As an Earth Charter school, the primary will follow the principles of the Rio-based organisation that promotes tolerance […]