News

Secondary moderns hit hard by coasting school definition

Secondary schools in areas where the brightest pupils are selected for grammar schools will be more likely to be...

Nicky Phillips
Nicky Phillips
News

School changes pupils’ GCSEs mid-course and blames Progress 8 compliance

Work experience cut and pupils’ GCSEs changed mid-course to be league table ‘compliant’ A Cambridgeshire school has cancelled a...

Nicky Phillips
Nicky Phillips
Opinion

Coasting concept is ‘fatally flawed’ for comprehensive and grammar schools

A school will be deemed to be coasting if 60% of its pupils fail to achieve 5 GCSE grades...

Nicky Phillips
Nicky Phillips
News

Former £4K private school now rated ‘inadequate’ as a free school

A private school that used to charge admission fees of up to £4,000 a year has been rated inadequate...

Nicky Phillips
Nicky Phillips
Opinion

Lunchtime: the most important break of the day

Ofsted regularly focuses on lunchtime behaviour. To get the precious hour right needs creative thinking and carefully planned whole-school...

Nicky Phillips
Nicky Phillips
Opinion

Mayday, mayday. Too many changes, too often

Independent schools want new regulations to be introduced just once a year – let’s say published on May 1...

Nicky Phillips
Nicky Phillips
Opinion

High noon in the Ofsted corral

Many of the “desperate” reforms are welcome, but on their own do not re-establish the watchdog’s credibility Ofsted is in...

Nicky Phillips
Nicky Phillips
Opinion

Let’s move towards graduation at 18

Tristram Hunt is right to suggest a move away from exams at 16-plus. But there’s a danger in his...

Nicky Phillips
Nicky Phillips
Opinion

‘We were not prepared to accept the status quo’

Should we make the GCSE pass rate harder? In response to Mark Dawes The new GCSEs will be challenging....

Nicky Phillips
Nicky Phillips