Sophie Scott | Schools Week

“Dare we hope the new post-16 maths course will change pupils’ minds about the subject?”

The Channel 4 series Educating Cardiff is a brilliant portrait of school life and, along with its predecessors set in Essex and Yorkshire, it is doing much to shine a light on secondary education in modern Britain. In one particularly telling moment in the current series, a pupil sums up the mood of generations of […]

More children offered chance to leave school at 14 to go to college

Schools will face more competition for learners from general further education (FE) colleges after it was revealed another six such institutions intend to recruit 14-year-olds. The Education Funding Agency (EFA) yesterday published an updated list of FE colleges intending to start “direct recruitment” of full-time younger learners for this academic year, on top of the […]

Investigation: New teachers face unaffordable rents in London and the south east

Teachers living in London and the South East of England are facing unaffordable accommodation costs, a Schools Week investigation has found. Analysis of the latest average rent prices show new teachers in the South East are paying up to 64 per cent of their monthly salary for housing. In outer London, average rent costs are […]

Natasha Devon appointed first mental health champion for schools

The first mental health champion for schools has been appointed today amid a government drive to destigmatise mental health in classrooms. Natasha Devon MBE was chosen for the role after launching two organisations giving young people, parents and teachers tips on dealing with mental health and body image concerns. The announcements comes as part of a […]

Government under pressure over free school delays

The government is being called on to inform parents of free school delays before national offer day so “valuable school places can be freed up”. The Local Government Association – which represents more than 370 councils across England – says parents and schools should know in mid-April, rather than August, whether free schools will open […]

How exam boards make sure GCSE and A level results are on a ‘level playing field’

Once again this year there has been outcries that “grade boundaries” have been moved so that it is “harder” to get a grade C. Below, Pearson’s Lesley Davies explains the boundary setting process. And, here, Ofqual goes through comparable outcomes and how it affects grade. The process of setting grade boundaries can seem complicated and […]

Free school advocate given peerage by David Cameron

A leading free school advocate has been appointed a peer by Prime Minister David Cameron today. James O’Shaughnessy is one of 45 new arrivals into the upper house in the dissolution peerage announced earlier. He was the Conservative Party’s special advisor for education from 2001 to 2003 before moving to education think tank Policy Exchange […]

Comparable outcomes: How Ofqual makes them work in practice

Once again this year there has been outcries that “grade boundaries” have been moved so that it is “harder” to get a grade C. Below, Ofqual goes through comparable outcomes and how it affects grade. And, here Pearson’s Lesley Davies explains the boundary setting process. Our priority during summer awarding is to align standards between […]

Primary School KS2 Results 2015: The Key Points

The Department for Education has this morning released the provisional results of the primary school key stage 2 tests. Here’s the key points from the data. 1. The percentage of pupils achieving level 4 or above in their KS2 tests has increased in most subjects – however Reading has remained the same as last year. […]