Nicky Phillips | Schools Week

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 classed as coasting under the government’s newly revealed definitions. Analysis by Education Datalab has found that nearly one in five secondary schools (18 per cent) in local authorities that also have grammar schools would be defined […]

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 week’s work experience and is making year 10 pupils take on additional GCSEs half-way through their courses to make sure they are “Progress 8 compliant”, Schools Week can reveal. Ely College principal Evelyn Forde wrote to […]

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 A*to C including English and Maths. This is an arbitrary benchmark defining the school. The policy which spawned the concept is directed not at the school’s pupils but at the school itself. Since the underlying principle […]

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 by Ofsted just two years after opening as a free school. St Anthony’s School, a smaller-than-average primary in Gloucestershire, was found to be inadequate in three of five categories with inspectors raising concerns over weak teaching […]

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 systems The lunchtime break is many children’s favourite time of the school day – and, in a moment of honesty, some teaching staff may admit to feeling the same! During this precious hour children eat, let […]

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 ready for implementation on September 1 Heads and senior management have only so many hours in the day and we want them to spend a good proportion of those hours educating pupils. Regulations are essential, but […]

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 a critical condition, educationally as well as financially. Its credibility is at risk. The measures introduced last week are a generally commendable, but somewhat desperate, attempt to shore up a problematic and contestable inspection system. Currently […]

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 proposals for a 14-19 curriculum Most developed countries have graduation at 18. Few tests are taken at 16-plus and if they are, they are restricted to core subjects. The OECD found in 2011 that just 15 […]

‘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. But schools are in an excellent position to deliver qualifications that at last will prepare students to succeed in a demanding economy In September, schools will begin teaching the new maths and English GCSEs to year […]