Sophie Scott | Schools Week

Law firm deletes tweets criticical of SEND parents

A law firm representing local authorities at court cases over children with special needs has removed a series of tweets posted at the weekend which criticised parents. Baker Small, a Milton Keynes-based firm, used the social media site to joke about parents who “thought they had won” at a tribunal. Tribunals are held when parents, […]

Morgan cancels controversial free school 3 months before opening

Nicky Morgan has withdrawn permission for a Suffolk free school after the county council launched a legal challenge, leading to a government source admitting the free school approval process still needs “kinks working out”. The Department for Education (DfE) gave approval in March for Bury St Edmunds All-Through Trust (BSEATT) to open a middle free […]

Government has ‘no plan’ for teacher shortage, cross-party MPs reveal

The Department for Education (DfE) has been slammed by a group of MPs for its lack of “leadership or urgency” in dealing with teacher supply issues — with a scathing new report stating the department “does not understand or show curiosity about shortages”. The “Training New Teachers” report published by the public accounts committee (PAC) […]

SPEED READ: 9 key points from the PAC report into ‘incoherent’ teacher training

The Department for Education’s (DfE) approach to tackling teacher training “lacks coherence”, its plans are “experimental and unevaluated” and the department shows “no sense of leadership or urgency” – the first page of the public accounts committee’s (PAC) report on “Training New Teachers” has revealed. To save you time in wading through the report, Schools […]

ITT providers to find out new allocation system in “coming weeks”

The government’s new approach to allocating teacher training places – where the “best” providers will be awarded long-term allocations – is set to be revealed “in the coming weeks”. The National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL) told all providers today that the government’s “new methodology” for the 2017-18 academic year is close to being […]

Treat new university data with caution, UCAS tells schools

Schools have been warned to treat with caution an in-depth tranche of equality data for more than 130 large universities published by UCAS today, following a call for greater transparency in the admissions process. The university admissions service has published a report which shows how likely UK students are to be offered and take a […]

Scaled scores for key stage 1 tests announced

Note: This story is about the 2016 scaled scores. Here are the 2017 key stage 1 scaled scores. The Department for Education has today released the marks pupils needed in last month’s key stage 1 tests to achieve the government’s “expected” score. Scaled scores this year replace “levels” for the first time. To meet government […]

Superhead and former Morgan adviser banned from teaching over £1m contract to friend

The former superhead of a Hackney schools federation and former advisor to Nicky Morgan has been banned from teaching after he was found to have awarded a £1 million IT contract to a “close friend”. Greg Wallace, executive principal at the Best Start Federation in East London, admitted to various allegations, including that he failed […]

Speed-read: What impact has EU immigration had on England’s schools?

As the EU referendum debate continues to rage on, a new report published today hopes to shed some light on the impact of immigration from European countries on England’s schools. Concerns over the impact on schools of a Brexit vote has taken a number of forms in the last few months – from loss of […]