Author: Pippa Allen-Kinross

Academy trust leaders need to find their voice and seize control of the narrative from pressure groups such as the Anti-Academies Alliance, a lobby group for chains has said. In a new paper, the Confederation of School Trusts, which represents academy trusts, claimed the sector has allowed the narrative to be “dominated” by “those who […]

An academy trust unknowingly ran up a £1 million deficit while its now-ousted boss was paid a £25,000 bonus, new documents reveal. Financial accounts for the Holy Family Catholic Multi-Academy Trust have shed further light on the details surrounding the departure of former chief executive Tom Quinn. In April, Schools Week revealed that Quinn, who […]

Pupils still get higher marks in reformed BTECs than in A-levels – but the gap has closed, new analysis shows. But research from FFT Education Datalab shows many schools and colleges are still delivering the old BTEC qualifications, even though they are no longer included in performance tables. The blogpost, published today, reveals that just […]

An academy boss who has been absent from his own trust since April after threatening to “deal with” a whistleblower received full pay last year as the trust’s investigation drags on. Schools Week revealed in April that Andrew Morrish, chief executive of the Victoria Academies Trust, had boasted of “flicking away” safeguarding concerns raised by […]

A struggling academy trust that cannot “accurately” identify its members and trustees has been told it must improve its finances or face its schools being moved to another sponsor. Learning Link Multi Academy Trust, which runs four primary schools in Dudley, has been issued with a financial notice to improve that warns the trust over […]

Academy trust bosses have taken five-figure pay cuts, with others agreeing to a salary freeze, after government attempts to crack down on chief executive pay. The details are revealed in newly published accounts for 2018-19, with experts claiming that “attitudes in the sector [towards pay] have changed”. It follows hundreds of trusts being told by […]

Schools can now bid to deliver T-levels in the third year of their roll-out, the Department for Education has announced. Expressions of interest have been invited from “high performing” schools who want to deliver the new technical qualifications for 16 to 18-year-olds in 2022-23. Eight new T-levels, in sectors including legal, accounting and manufacturing, will […]

Ofsted’s national director for education has insisted the inspectorate has “no preferred length” of key stage three, claiming “it’s not the years … it’s the mileage” that inspectors will look at. However, reports published this week appear to show a negative view of the two-year KS3. In a blog published on the Ofsted website today, […]

One of the best paid academy chiefs in the country has received yet another pay rise and is now paid at least £270,000 to run just one school. Holland Park School in Kensington, west London, has twice been asked to justify its high salaries by the government, which ruled earlier this year the single-academy trust […]