Pippa Allen-Kinross | Schools Week

New campaign would make school libraries a statutory requirement

Library associations across the country are joining together in a campaign to make school libraries statutory and Ofsted-inspected. The three-year campaign will also ask for evidence on the current state of school libraries, and for ring-fenced budgets for library improvements. It is being run by a collection of organisations including library and information association CILIP, […]

Heads launch legal tool to beat supply agency fees

Schools are being encouraged to team up and use a special legal mechanism to avoid “exorbitant” supply teacher agency costs. The Headteachers’ Roundtable think-tank has published a legal template that schools can use to get supply agencies to waive costly “transfer fees”, which are charged when they hire ex-supply teachers. Results of a headteachers’ survey […]

National schools commissioner Sir David Carter to step down

The national schools commissioner will retire from the civil service at the end of this academic year, he has announced. Sir David Carter, who has served in the role since February 2016, will step down at the end of August. In a video message recorded to announce his retirement, Carter described “the most amazing, brilliant […]

Struggling to afford CPD? Charge parents £1 a week, says leading head

A government teacher-training tsar says schools that struggle to pay for teachers’ CPD should ask parents for £1 a week. Sir Andrew Carter, head of the South Farnham School Educational Trust and chair of the government’s independent review into teacher training, said schools need to take a “radical approach” to deal with underfunding, and reach […]

Sir David Carter: Attainment gap is the ‘civil rights challenge’ of our time

The attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers is the “big civil rights challenge” facing schools, a senior government official has said. Sir David Carter, the national schools commissioner, warned of a “stark” difference in achievement between better-off pupils and their poorer peers, who were shown to be on average 18 months behind in […]

Northumberland Council abandons plan to close 14 schools

Northumberland Council has abandoned plans to close as many as 14 schools. Instead, the local authority’s cabinet will be asked to rubber-stamp proposals for a council-backed multi-academy trust and the closure of just one school, Bellingham Middle School. The council is also proposing a £1.54 million funding deal for the crisis-hit Haydon Bridge High School, which […]

New teachers in shortage subjects ‘should be first in line’ for pay rises

Extra funding for pay rises should be targeted at teachers who are early in their careers and working in shortage subjects, the Education Policy Institute has said. This extra money in subjects like physics is needed to encourage them to remain in the profession, researchers claim. The EPI’s report, ‘The teacher labour market: a perilous […]

Northants council plunders £9m from school improvement fund

A bankrupt county council siphoned off £9 million meant for school improvements in a desperate bid to prop up its depleted reserves, it has been revealed. Northamptonshire county council hit the headlines in February after its bank balance plummeted so low that it was forced to bring in what’s called a Section 114 notice, banning […]

Charity Commission steps up safeguarding scrutiny at private schools

The Charity Commission has played down rumours it is taking a stronger stance on safeguarding at private and unregistered schools after opening more investigations in the past four months than in the last two years combined. The regulator, which is responsible for ensuring charity law is followed by private schools and unregistered settings with charitable […]