Author: Pippa Allen-Kinross

Two more secondary schools have been accused of off-rolling by Ofsted, as the inspectorate insists it has the ability to root out the controversial practice. Falmouth School in Cornwall has been rated ‘inadequate’ after inspectors found it sometimes removed pupils against the advice of other agencies. The Sutton Academy, in Merseyside, was rated ‘requires improvement’ […]

Ofsted is alerting local authorities and academy trusts to schools which could be off-rolling pupils, despite refusing to publicly release the information. The inspectorate told Schools Week it “cannot solve the problem of off-rolling on our own” and is working with councils and academy trusts to highlight schools with “unusually high” pupil movement. Ofsted’s annual […]

A free school run from mobile classrooms on a rugby field for five years has been ordered to join a new academy trust just months before it is set to move into a permanent home. The Department for Education published a financial warning on Friday to the Paxton Academy in south London, dubbed “Portakabin Academy” […]

An academy trust that runs seven Hindu schools has been chosen to take over three of the country’s four Steiner state schools. The three Steiner academies in Bristol (pictured), Exeter and Frome will all join the Avanti Schools Trust after a turbulent year that has seen all three placed in special measures after damning reports […]

A deputy headteacher who questioned the Conservative leadership hopefuls during their television debate on the BBC last night has been suspended from his primary school after offensive social media posts came to light. Imam Abdullah Patel, who is deputy head at the independent Al-Ashraf Primary School in Gloucester, appeared during the leadership debate last night […]

Pupils with English as an additional language outperform native speakers if they join English schools at a young age, according to government data. A new report, released today, shows that last year EAL pupils who joined an English school in reception were slightly more likely to reach the expected standard in reading, writing and maths […]

The government has committed to ensuring academy trusts uphold the “ethos” of the university technical colleges they take on, including paying a licence fee for running them. In a memorandum of understanding with the Baker Dearing Educational Trust, which supports UTCs, the Department for Education has formally agreed that it will expect academy trusts to […]