Nicky Phillips | Schools Week

Thoughts from after the election

The Conservatives have a clear majority. So what is the reality for school leaders, governors and teachers? Many of us will remember the 1997 election and the glow of Tony Blair’s campaign mantra: education, education, education! We recall, too, the excellent, school-sympathetic secretaries of state for education under Labour – Blunkett, Morris, Johnson, even Balls […]

It’s a chance to hit the accelerator

There are the challenges of securing sufficient places, teachers and funding, but with a majority government and an experienced secretary of state, the government has an extraordinary opportunity to push through bold education reforms The election has given David Cameron and his government an enormous boost. Not only have they managed to secure a majority, […]

The system could be given the freedoms to be great

It looks like a busy five years for Nicky Morgan: 500 new free schools, an extra 17,500 maths and physics teachers needed, new headteachers for schools “requiring improvement”, and the academisation of failing and coasting secondary schools. The education secretary has a lot to do after wielding her “stick” during the election campaign: primary heads […]

ASCL runs seminars on radicalism in schools

The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) will run a series of seminars this summer to help school leaders wanting to learn how to protect students from being radicalised. The sessions, which will offer support and guidance to leadership teams in response to new legislation and concern over the “impact of extremist propaganda” on […]

Alfie’s school raises money for hospital

A school in Essex has raised £300 for the hospital that helped to save the life of one of its pupils. Year 1 student Alfie Hunt, 6, from Freshwaters Primary Academy, was found to have an enlarged heart and liver when he was just two weeks old. He was diagnosed with critical aortic value stenosis […]

Licensed to repair . . . in a UTC

A group of computer science students at Watford University Technical College (UTC) have turned into tech wizards who can do their own laptop and tablet repairs. The learners completed the Toshiba self-maintainer programme, which means they can now work out technological faults, select the spare parts required, and carry out warranty repairs in-house. The school […]

Go online to test your pupils’ fitness

A free online portal allowing schools and parents to test a child’s fitness levels has been set up. The Activity Challenge, created by charity Fit For Sport, allows adults to log on, submit fitness scores after children have taken part in activities such as jumping and running, and compare results with recommended levels. Its launch […]

Girls shun ‘geeky’ computing AS-levels

New figures have revealed stark gender divides in certain AS and A-level subjects. But while the well-publicised gaps in physics and maths feature prominently, computing has the biggest divide between boys and girls. Ofsted figures, published on Tuesday, show that only one in ten pupils who took the subject at AS-level last year were girls, […]

Westminster’s newest schools sector MPs

Former teachers, a schools inspector and the chair of governors at a free school are among the new MPs welcomed into Westminster this week. Just 24 of all 650 MPs in 2010 were former teachers, according to the National Foundation of Educational Research. This time a handful of the new intake will bring education experience […]