Pippa Allen-Kinross | Schools Week

Hold schools ‘responsible’ for excluded pupils who join gangs, says children’s commissioner

Schools should be “held responsible” for the pupils they exclude, the children’s commissioner for England has warned, as figures show gang members are five times more likely to have been thrown out of school. A new report from Anne Longfield, the children’s commissioner for England, warns there is “extensive evidence linking school exclusions with gang […]

NFER warns of ‘clear need’ to improve working conditions of teachers

The working conditions of teachers must improve if the government is to tackle the recruitment and retention crisis, the National Foundation for Education Research has warned. The organisation has published its first annual report on the teaching labour market in England, which rounds up official statistics and paints a worrying picture of the state of […]

Star Academies Trust warned it could lose ‘inadequate’ academy

An academy trust lauded by ministers as an “expert schools sponsor” has been warned one of its schools could be rebrokered to another sponsor unless improvements are made. Star Academies has been ordered to set out how it will turn around Highfield Leadership Academy in Blackpool after the school was placed in placed in special measures by […]

Government urged to ‘rethink’ academy conversion approach after another U-turn

The government is facing calls to “rethink its whole approach” to converting schools into academies after making another U-turn on plans to force a school to make the change. William Torbitt Primary School in Redbridge was issued with an academy order in June last year, after it was rated ‘inadequate’ in an Ofsted report in […]

Ofsted refuses to name 300 ‘off-rolling’ schools

Ofsted will not name the 300 schools that could be off-rolling pupils in case it alerts them to upcoming inspections. The inspectorate’s annual report in December said the schools were identified as having particularly high levels of pupil movement in years 10 and 11. However, Sean Harford, Ofsted’s national director of education, told Schools Week […]

Kerching! The academy trusts raising millions through fundraising

Academy trusts are raising millions of pounds through fundraising, with one trust posting “record” levels of parental donations. Sector leaders say the findings, based on annual accounts for some of the country’s biggest trusts, show there is a “deepening social divide” as government funding is squeezed. Ormiston Academies Trust has received £2.7 million since April […]

Academy trust criticised for taking on debt-ridden schools

An academy trust urged to expand by its regional schools commissioner was later rapped by the government for taking on schools that were struggling with debt. Board minutes from September 2017 to September 2018 for the Nova Education Trust show that it was encouraged to expand by John Edwards, the RSC for East Midlands and […]

DfE shells out £27m to prop up struggling academies

The government handed out nearly £4.5 million to prop up cash-strapped academies run by the failed Schools Company Trust during the year it announced closure. A Schools Week investigation has also uncovered that the new trusts brought in to take over the Schools Company academies will now be saddled with repaying most of the debt. […]

Nearly a third of academy transfers down to government intervention over failures

Almost a third of all academies that were transferred to new trusts last year were moved because of direct government intervention following failures. Data released for the first time today reveals that the Department for Education stepped in 80 times in 2017-18 to directly enforce re-brokerage, either through transferring schools or closing sponsors. This is […]