Author: Philip Nye

A petition calling for teachers to be given free access to research journals continues to attract new supporters. On Friday, Schools Week reported that the petition, set up by English teacher Vincent Lien had been gathering momentum as part of the #teacher5aday push on Twitter to get teachers thinking about their well-being. The petition has now […]

Labour’s school policies could cost more than £1.8bn to implement should the party win the general election, the government has claimed. The figures were released by the government in a raft of opposition party policy costings – one of the opening shots in the general election campaign. On Labour’s policy to introduce Directors of School […]

Teachers should be given free access to research journals to help drive improvement in education, according to a petition addressed to Education Secretary Nicky Morgan. The petition, which hopes to gather 500 signatures, says that free access to journals is “absolutely fundamental” to moving towards a position where teaching practice is more informed by research. […]

The number of school and colleges issued with penalties for exam malpractice increased sharply this summer, newly released figures show. In total, 217 schools were hit with penalties for issues identified during GCSEs and A-levels this summer, up on the 140 penalties issued a year before. The increase coincided with the end of modular study […]

Education ministers have committed to greater transparency around regional schools commissioners, following criticism of them as “unaccountable and opaque”. Responding to a parliamentary question, Children’s Minister Edward Timpson said the Department for Education would start to publish a register of interests for the regional schools commissioners (RSCs) from the new year. Details of meetings held by […]

Children could be taught how to calculate change in house prices, or the value of mortgages, as part of new vocational maths qualifications announced today. Six new post-16 qualifications have been announced by the government, as part of a drive to boost practical maths skills. The level three qualifications will count towards new performance tables […]

A slew of financial notices to improve for academy trusts have been published this afternoon by the Education Funding Agency (EFA), in the sector’s own ‘Black Friday’. Four academy trusts have been hit with the notices to improve after a number of financial management and governance concerns were identified. The trusts are: Theale Green Academy […]

Concerns have been raised about efforts to train sufficient numbers of teachers after figures were released showing that the number of new trainees has dropped for a third consecutive year. In total, 32,779 people started Initial Teacher Training (ITT) courses in September, according to a first release of training census figures, down on 32,543 last […]

A Church of England secondary school has been rated inadequate – down from outstanding – after Ofsted found that not enough was done to ensure its students understood the risks of extremism. The inspectorate has recommended that the school be put into special measures immediately. Sir John Cass school in Tower Hamlets, east London, has […]