Author: Sophie Scott

The new chair of the National College of Teaching and Leadership (NCTL) has been announced. Roger Pope, principal of Kingsbridge Community College in Devon, and CEO of Academies South West, takes up the position today. He replaces Charlie Taylor who left the organisation in August. Mr Taylor now works in the Ministry of Justice, under […]

An inadequate free school is facing a forced takeover by a new sponsor in a bid by the Department for Education to bring about “swift improvements”. Grindon Hall Christian School (GHCS) was put into special measures by Ofsted in November, with the inspectorate stating at the time that the curriculum was not adequately preparing pupils […]

The Department for Education (DfE) has released the names of the 41 people who will make up three working groups aimed at reducing teachers’ workload. Education secretary Nicky Morgan announced in July that three groups would focus on marking, planning and resources, and data management. She said the areas were highlighted in the DfE’s Workload […]

A free school support organisation has accused the “top 500” state schools of entering A-level pupils into subjects purely to inflate overall results. The New Schools Network (NSN), a government contracted organisation supporting free school founders, has today produced research claiming that the top-performing state schools in the country accounted for 90 per cent of […]

The government has today announced it will increase tax-free bursaries to encourage the “best and brightest” graduates into teacher training – with core Ebacc subjects getting the biggest boost. Physics graduates with a first class degree will be offered £30,000 tax-free to take a teacher training course next year. That equates to nearly the same […]

Hundreds of thousands of children may have been unlawfully denied a place at faith schools after “widespread violations” of the admissions code were found in nearly 50 religiously selective schools. A new report, published today by the British Humanist Association (BHA) and Fair Admissions Campaign, claims there has been a “near-universal non-compliance” from faith schools […]

The success of London schools is down to improvements in school quality rather than schemes such as the London Challenge, a new report suggests. Research published today contradicts previous findings which attributed the London Challenge as a major factor in the successful turnaround of schools in the capital. The work, by researchers at the Centre […]

This morning the Department for Education (DfE) put out the results of the latest phonics screening check. We have gone through the mass of data to pick out these six key points.   1. The DfE likes to put out the top 10 tables, but, no surprise, they predominantly feature London boroughs.   So, here […]