Author: Pippa Allen-Kinross

Schools have been warned not to use Capita’s file transfer systems until further notice after a glitch hit its latest update. Capita is believed to be investigating an “incident” with its common transfer file mechanism, which allows schools to share pupil data. It affects schools that have installed the firm’s spring update to the Schools […]

The government plans to launch a compulsory register for all children not education in school to help identify youngsters in illegal settings who are “vulnerable to dangerous influences”. The proposal will also help authorities intervene where youngsters receive a solely religious education, or do not receive any education at all. The register will also cover […]

The new times table tests for nine-year-olds can now be accessed by schools ahead of the pilot this summer. The new multiplication check is designed to ensure primary school pupils know their times tables up to 12 and will be rolled out nationally in 2020. The check consists of 25 on-screen questions and will be […]

Teachers could be “held accountable” for preventing and tackling knife crime and serious violence under new proposals from the Home Office. A consultation, due to be launched today by home secretary Sajid Javid, will propose a multi-agency ‘public health duty’, which will ensure that public bodies including schools, social services and hospitals raise concerns about […]

The head of Ofsted has called on campaigners to halt protests outside the gates of schools that teach pupils about LGBT issues, claiming it “serves no one well to intimidate teachers”. Chief inspector Amanda Spielman used her speech at the Muslim Teachers’ Association’s  40th anniversary yesterday to say the protests make a “difficult situation worse, […]

Pupils without 100 per cent attendance or a clean behaviour record are allegedly being forced to the back of the queue for lunch at a secondary school. Immanuel College in Bradford, run by the Bradford Diocesan Academy Trust, introduced a new behaviour system in the summer term of last year, in which pupils begin each […]

The affluent Holland Park School has been stuck on a short-term lease for over five years as it disputes who should pay significant costs to repair its new building, it has emerged. The case exposes the government’s lax control over who actually owns academy land, and the potential complications that can ensue. In 2016, Schools […]

MPs have backed changes to relationships and sex education, as protests from parents against teaching primary pupils about LGBT relationships spread. The reforms backed by Parliament on Wednesday will mean that, from 2020, relationships and health education will be compulsory in all schools and sex education will be mandatory in all secondaries. The reforms still […]

A private school that charges over £45,000 a year has been warned it could be closed down by the government unless it provides an updated improvement plan to address “serious regulatory failings”. The National Mathematics and Science College, which opened in Coventry in 2016, has been accused of failing to respond to repeated attempts to […]