Author: Pippa Allen-Kinross

The former regional schools commissioner Janet Renou has become a trustee at one of the country’s largest academy chains. Renou, who had been RSC for the north of England since the post was created in 2014, left her government role in July. Records at Companies House show she joined Ormiston Academies Trust – which has […]

The head of two failed free schools who was secretly blacklisted by the government is working with schools again after setting up a supply teacher firm. Schools Week can reveal the government wrote to Raja Miah, the former head of two collapsed Manchester free school trusts, “strongly discouraging” him from “future involvement in schools”. This […]

The government will spend £79 million funding music education hubs for another year, despite concerns that access to the hubs are a postcode lottery for young people. The Department for Education has agreed to funding music hubs for 2020-21. The hubs were set up in 2012 with a £300 million funding package, but the cash […]

The government has launched a review into making modern foreign language GCSEs more accessible after Ofqual admitted it was significantly harder to score top grades in the subjects. The Department for Education review will be led by Ian Bauckham, chief executive of the Tenax Schools Trust, who oversaw a review into MFL pedagogy that was […]

The exams regulator will make it easier for pupils to achieve top grades in GCSE French and German from this summer amid fears that “severe” grading is putting pupils off taking the subjects. From the 2020 exam series, exam boards will be expected to align the grading standards in French and German with GCSE Spanish, […]

The Department for Education failed to attract a single bid to run its proposed national computing SCITT, but has insisted plans will be relaunched this year. The appointment of a computer science “champion” to help upskill teachers has also been delayed. The DfE would do much better in investing resources in supporting existing ITE providers […]

Schools with challenging intakes are still disadvantaged under Ofsted’s new framework, suggests an analysis of the first inspections. Although the sample size is small – it looks at the first 36 inspections – the findings seem to challenge assurances from Ofsted that its new framework would level the playing field. This grading of schools nonsense […]

The government has U-turned on plans to make pupils count to 10 – rather than beyond 20 – under its early learning goals shake-up. The government’s proposals for the developmental goals for reception pupils were tested in 23 pilot schools before a public consultation launched last week. Initial proposals said children should show a better […]

A free school that has failed to get planning permission for a permanent site over the last three years will be closed by the government this summer. Leaders of the International Academy of Greenwich said they are “absolutely devastated” by the decision to close the school, which has been based in an office building in […]