Sophie Scott | Schools Week

The recruitment crisis won’t be solved by an ad campaign

The ongoing teacher recruitment crisis took a new turn earlier this week with the government launching an ad campaign to draw more people into the profession. This was widely criticised by the National Union of Teachers (NUT) who suggest the advert not only creates false expectations of teachers’ salaries but will do little to reduce […]

Department for Education ‘unable to find’ independent reports on Kids Company

The Department for Education (DfE) “lost” independent reports assessing the performance of collapsed charity Kids Company, the National Audit Office (NAO) has said. The NAO today released a 39-page investigation into the government funding of the children’s charity, which closed in August. The NAO found Kids Company received £46 million of public money over 13 […]

Coasting school definition out for consultation

The government has today launched a consultation on the proposed definition of “coasting” schools. The Education and Adoption Bill, currently passing through Parliament, would make it mandatory for maintained schools rated as inadequate to be taken over by an academy sponsor. The bill also seeks to make it easier to force takeovers of “coasting” schools […]

Institute of Physics recommends ‘gender champions’ to break down stereotypes in schools

Schools should appoint “gender champions” in the senior leadership team to tackle gender stereotyping, new guidance released today claims. The Institute of Physics (IOP) today released recommendations for initiatives that can be implemented in schools to counter gender bias, including in subject choice. It will be presented at a conference later this morning. The report, […]

Critical thinking to critical learning: Generation Y as a case study

Since the 1980s the importance of critical thinking and its taxonomy have been the focus of vigorous debate. The ability to progress in any realm using cognition necessitates questioning and analysing, making subtle distinctions between conclusions and hypotheses. Lipman defines this as “thinking that is conducive to good judgment because it is sensitive to context, […]

‘In teaching there’s rarely a flower growing in a field of weeds’

A wonderful teacher made a true difference in my life. My maths lecturer, Dr Peter Neumann at Oxford University, was so intelligent, but could make what he was teaching accessible to those in his classes, taking pleasure in explaining complicated things in simple ways. There is an art to explanation – he really had it […]

GCSEs 2015: Local Authority Analysis – Who did well? (And who did badly?)

The Department for Education today released provisional results for this summer’s GCSE results. It is the first time the provisional results by school have been released this early, with schools minister Nick Gibb saying in July this would help parents make a more “informed” choice when choosing secondary schools, ahead of the school admissions deadline […]

Derby City Council publishes information on 700 school posts amid pay review saga

Details that could reveal the salaries of hundreds of school staff caught up in a controversial equal pay review have been published online, leading to concerns over a data protection breach. Derby City Council has published information on more than 700 school posts on its website, leading to claims the disclosure makes it possible to […]

Ofsted consults on plans for SEND local area reviews

Ofsted will join up with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to evaluate how well children and young people with special educational needs are cared for in local areas across a range of services, including schools. Beginning next May, the two watchdogs will inspect all local areas at least once over the next five years. Schools […]