Author: Pippa Allen-Kinross

The parliamentary education committee has launched an inquiry into school and sixth-form funding, to consider whether a 10-year plan is needed to preserve “high quality” education. The inquiry, which launched today, is inviting written submissions on the resources needed to properly support schools. MPs also want to hear about the effectiveness of targeted funding for […]

Ofqual will not limit the number of teacher-examiners at private schools, despite a wave of cheating allegations at some of the country’s most prestigious schools last summer. The regulator has also decided not to introduce a “red alert” system to try and catch erroneous marks before they are released to students, and says it has no […]

Chief executives at multi-academy trusts must stop and make changes as they develop or risk undermining their ability to improve schools sustainably, according to new research. A report from education charity Ambition School Leadership has identified nine “breakpoints” for small and medium-sized trusts, related to issues including expansion and school improvement. These are moments when […]

Ofsted has spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on meals in restaurants, nights in hotels, overseas travel and in bars, according to its credit card bill. The watchdog has today published data on the £1,127,859.92 it spent between January 2015 and February 2017 using the ePurchasing Card Solution process, which allows public sector bodies to […]

The government is under mounting pressure to reveal detailed plans for its new teacher vacancy website and explain how exactly it will help schools save money. Ministers promised to create a “single jobs portal for schools to advertise vacancies in order to reduce costs and help them find the best teachers” in their 2016 education […]

One in four participants in the government’s doomed ‘Troops to Teachers’ course quit before earning their teaching qualification, Schools Week has learned, raising questions over the decision to replace the programme with £40,000 bursaries for former military personnel. The Department for Education said reasons for trainees withdrawing included “deciding teaching wasn’t for them”, being offered […]

The first application round for the £140 million strategic school improvement fund was neither fair nor transparent according to an independent evaluation of the process. An evaluation conducted by Aldaba has criticised the government’s approach to supporting and assessing applications to the fund, which was designed to target resources at schools in need of improvement. The […]

Funding cuts mean schools are struggling to provide proper support for children with special educational needs and disabilities, the National Education Union has warned. In a survey of 901 staff working in schools in England by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers section of the NEU, half of respondents said their school had cut support for […]

The government must “bear some responsibility” for the rise in the number of pupils with mental ill-health, the National Education Union has said. According to the union, growing pressures at school and difficulties in accessing crucial support services are harming pupils. The NEU has condemned the government’s proposals in the mental health green paper as “too […]