Samantha Booth | Schools Week

DfE knew scale of result downgrades before 2020 exams fiasco

The Department for Education knew the full scale of downgraded results before the 2020 exams fiasco, a Schools Week investigation has established. Emails from officials also show the department knew of – and was pressing Ofqual – about the “outlier” grades issue a week before results day. It was a mistake not to hold a […]

‘Accelerate’ £30k teacher starting salary pledge, says government’s recovery tsar

Ministers must “accelerate” their pledge to introduce a £30,000 teachers’ starting salary, the government’s own education recovery commissioner has said. Sir Kevan Collins told a Chartered College of Teaching event today that the country must “turbo charge” efforts to increase the quality of teaching. The Conservatives pledged in their 2019 election manifesto to raise teachers’ […]

GCSE and A-levels: Ofqual reveals quality assurance evidence requirements

Schools will have to provide samples of student work within two days of being asked under the quality assurance process for teacher assessed grades this year. It is the latest Ofqual update to the grading process this year – with just under eight weeks to go until the submission deadline on June 18. In a […]

Everyone’s Invited ‘considering’ publishing tally of school sex abuse cases

The Everyone’s Invited campaign is “considering” whether to publish a tally of school sex abuse cases – including a list of how many times individual institutions have been mentioned. It comes as the campaign today released a list of 86 UK universities that were mentioned in anonymous rape culture allegations. Nearly 15,000 allegations of harassment […]

Chartered College ‘blueprint’ proposes national CPD quality badge

CPD should be quality assured under a national badge scheme to help schools and teachers choose the best provision, according to a new “blueprint” published by the Chartered College of Teaching (CCT). The report, published by the college today alongside a wider research group, would see providers assessed against nine criteria. Those who met the […]

Regional schools commissioners: 6 key findings from the education select committee

MPs quizzed regional schools commissioners this morning on their roles and support to schools during the coronavirus pandemic. National schools commissioner Dominic Herrington was questioned alongside regional school commissioners Vicky Beer, Sue Baldwin and Andrew Warren. Here’s what we learned… 1. No need for Ofsted MAT inspections because ESFA in control … Ofsted has […]

Ministers accused of dragging feet over school sex abuse

Ministers have been accused of ignoring repeated warnings over sex abuse in schools before being “shamed” into action this week. The Department for Education has ordered Ofsted to investigate safeguarding in state and independent schools after thousands of sexual abuse and harassment allegations were posted on a ‘rape culture’ website. But ministers now stand accused […]

DfE leans on MATs to boost teacher job vacancies website take-up

The government plans to boost take-up of its free teacher job vacancies website by leaning on the big academy trusts to ditch “expensive” commercial deals. Contracts seen by Schools Week reveal a three-stage plan to create a “behaviour change” and persuade schools and job seekers to use the government-run teaching vacancies website, launched two years […]

School attendance rates fall again as more pupils self-isolate

School attendance rates fell again last week as more pupils were forced to self-isolate due to potential Covid contact in school. Data published by the Department for Education shows 87,600 secondary school pupils were self-isolating due to a potential contact in school last Thursday, up from 58,400 the week before. At primary level, 83,600 pupils […]