Pippa Allen-Kinross | Schools Week

School leaders join forces to launch staff absence insurance

A group of school leaders has joined forces to offer an alternative staff absence insurance, with talks ongoing to roll the scheme out even further. Education Mutual, a group of 20 school leaders based largely in the north east of England, wants to find a collaborative way for schools to pay lower insurance fees and […]

Salford Academy Trust minutes reveal boardroom rift

Board minutes from a doomed academy trust reveal a boardroom rift between trustees who accused one of their sponsors of not “believing” in them, with another partner not “visible”. Salford Academy Trust (SAT) was founded by the Salford Trust – a partnership between Salford City College, Salford City Council and the University of Salford – […]

‘Focus on sharing resources’, academy trusts told

Multi-academy trusts should be entrepreneurial and willing to take calculated risks to remain sustainable “in an age of austerity”, according to a new report. Forum Strategy, which represents a group of 80 MATs across the country, has said trusts should place a greater importance on chief operating officers, rather than finance offers, so they could […]

National Reference Test results: Maths scores rise but no change for English language

The second annual National Reference Test has shown improvement in maths scores, but no real change for English language. Ofqual introduced the National Reference Test last year to provide more information about the awarding of GCSEs. According to Ofqual, the results –which are reported at grade 7, grade 5 and grade 4 – suggest teachers have become […]

Exam malpractice: Drop in penalties for staff as mobile phone breaches soar

The number of teachers facing penalties for exam malpractice fell this year, but the number of pupils rapped for bringing banned items like mobile phones into exams rose by more than a fifth. Figures from Ofqual show the number of penalties issued to staff for helping pupils cheat or for maladministration of exams has fallen by […]

Inspectors will spend more time in schools during short inspections, Spielman tells MPs

The head of Ofsted has sought to reassure MPs that inspectors will soon spend more time on site during short inspections of schools. In September, the powerful parliamentary public accounts committee warned that short, one-day inspections of ‘good’-rated schools do not allow enough time to make a “meaningful assessment of a school’s performance on to help […]

Domed: The free school facing funding axe

A free school stuck in temporary accommodation – including running its canteen from an inflatable dome – for the past three years could have its funding terminated after Ofsted placed it in special measures. King Solomon International Business School, an all-through Christian ethos school set up by a community group in Birmingham, moved into its […]

Top-rated schools and grammars pocket the most in parental donations

‘Outstanding’-rated schools raise almost twice as much money through parental donations as those rated ‘inadequate’, while grammar schools pick up five times more than their non-selective neighbours, it has been revealed. New figures lay bare the stark discrepancies between how much state schools can raise from parent donations to pay for essentials, including new equipment […]

Coursework reforms prevent pupils from getting exams ‘special consideration’

Reforms to GCSEs and A-levels could be preventing pupils from being eligible to receive special consideration when they miss exams, according to a new report from Ofqual. Data released today shows that the number of approved qualification award requests – for pupils who were absent from exams for good reason – dropped by a third, […]