Samantha Booth | Schools Week

From ‘world’s finest’ to ‘inadequate’: Teacher trainers fail new Ofsted test

Concerns watchdog out to ‘discredit’ sector as 8 providers rated less than ‘good’

Chair of governors at ‘toxic’ Holland Park school resigns

Ex-charity CEO stands down from role at west London state school dubbed the ‘socialist Eton’

Tutoring stand-off set to end as providers sign contracts

Three week contract dispute with Randstad comes to a close

NTP was a rough ride (and January didn’t help), says Francis

Running the government’s flagship National Tutoring Programme (NTP) for its inaugural year was “a bit bumpier” than expected, but there are no regrets, says Professor Becky Francis. The chief executive of the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) said “serious disruption” caused by Covid impacted the scheme. Although the programme met its 250,000-pupil enrolment target, just 205,538 […]

Ofqual won’t be able to explain private school grades boost

No private school pupil sat national reference tests this year, which means they are unlikely to show why the sector had the biggest jump in top GCSE and A-level grades. The finding casts doubt on the usefulness of the NRT, which is run every year to monitor over time how well cohorts of pupils are […]

NTP row: Randstad can ‘confiscate a tuition business at will’

National Tutoring Programme contracts could allow new lead provider Randstad to remove its partners and take their business and staff “without compensation”, the Tutors’ Association has warned. Nine leading tutoring organisations are still to sign up to the government’s flagship NTP scheme – a week after it launched – as a contract dispute drags on. […]

All state schools to receive carbon dioxide monitors to help ventilation

The government is going to hand out around 300,000 carbon dioxide monitors to state schools in a £25 million scheme to help improve ventilation from September. All schools and colleges are expected to receive “at least partial allocations” during the autumn term. Where inadequate ventilation is identified, this needs to be addressed without delay, and […]

National Tutoring Programme: Almost 1 in 5 enrolled pupils haven’t started tuition

Almost one in five pupils enrolled in the first year of the government’s flagship National Tutoring Programme are still yet to receive any tuition, with leaders blaming Covid disruption for the backlog. Figures seen by Schools Week show that although the tuition partners arm of the NTP, currently run by the Education Endowment Foundation, has […]

ASCL wants next year’s grades pegged to pre-Covid standards

School leaders’ union ASCL wants next year’s grades to be pegged back to pre-Covid standards, warning it is “difficult to justify… baking in” higher results. General secretary Geoff Barton told members there is no “easy answer” but the union “felt that returning to the grade distribution of 2019 represented the fairest approach for past, present […]