Sophie Scott | Schools Week

Ofqual: Exam boards on track to meet marking deadlines

Ofqual chief Glenys Stacey has reassured schools that exam boards are on course to meet their publishing deadlines – avoiding last year’s scramble when last-minute contingency measures were put in place amid fears one exam board was falling behind with marking papers. Last year OCR came close to missing its marking deadlines, which led to Ofqual […]

Surge in entry to ‘traditional subjects’ as schools sign up to Ebacc

More pupils are being entered into ‘traditional’ subjects such as maths and science in response to the Ebacc, Ofqual boss Glenys Stacey has claimed. Ms Stacey, who is chief executive and chief regulator of the watchdog, told journalists this morning that there had been a rise in the entries to subjects, also known as ‘facilitating subjects’, at […]

Inspiration Trust agrees to land restrictions as part of Hewett School takeover

The Inspiration Trust has been named as the new sponsor of Hewett School, with a legal agreement preventing it from evicting community users from its land. The decision comes despite vocal opposition from parents and community leaders in Norwich against the transfer of the school, which was placed in special measures last year, to the trust. Just […]

Lord Nash’s former investment firm closes in on £18.4m takeover of teacher recruitment agency Synarbor

An investment firm set up by education minister Lord Nash is close to securing the £18.4m takeover of a recruitment company which supplies thousands of teachers to schools. Lord Nash set up private equity company Sovereign Capital Partners in 2001 to buy companies before building them up and selling them on for a profit. He […]

Exclusive: Secondary sponsored academies four times more likely to remain Ofsted inadequate

New figures have cast further doubt on the government’s assertion that becoming an academy improves schools – revealing inadequate schools have more chance of improving by staying under local authority control. Internal government figures, released after a freedom of information request, show more than one in four inadequate secondary schools that became sponsored academies were […]

Funding for school dinner schemes scrapped just months after hundreds of schools sign up

Hundreds of schools that signed up to schemes aimed at transforming their school dinners are having their support axed after the government pulled its funding just months later. Two projects aimed at boosting the number of pupils eating good school meals were launched last year with more than 400 schools recruited – the majority in […]

Thousands more primary school pupils excluded after surge in classroom attacks

Thousands more primary school pupils are being temporarily excluded for attacking teachers and pupils, new figures have revealed today. Seven thousand more primary school pupils were excluded last year than in 2012/13. The figure for fixed-period exclusion rose from 37,870 to 45,010, government figures show. The rate also increased from 0.88 to 1.02, which the […]

Institute of Education director to leave post for new university role

Institute of Education director Professor Chris Husbands has been thanked for his “impressive leadership” after announcing he will leave the post at the end of the year. Prof Husbands will take up the role of vice-chancellor at Sheffield Hallam University in January, it was announced yesterday. He said it has been an “immense privilege” to serve as director […]

DfE accuses exam board chief of “making excuses for lamentable failure” in marker shortage row

A war of words has broken out between an exam board chief and the Department for Education over claims of an examiner staffing shortage. Mark Dawe, chief executive of exam board OCR, raised concerns earlier this week that his board may have to find another 5,000 examiners to meet a rise in demand, which he […]