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22 May 2026

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Opinion

How to understand your academy’s finances

It can be daunting, but academy trustees are legally bound to understand the financial position of their school. Read on . . . Academy trust finances continue to be a hot topic and one of concern to many of those responsible for them. The board of trustees, or governors, shoulder this crucial obligation and must ensure academy […]

If you REALLY want to find ‘coasting schools’, HERE is the definition you need

The government want to tackle ‘coasting schools’. Nicky Morgan has described them as schools that may be in “leafy areas” but nevertheless fail to realise the “full potential” of their pupils. This week the government released the definition they will use to find this sort of school. Under the proposed law, coasting schools are defined […]

Coasting concept is ‘fatally flawed’ for comprehensive and grammar schools

A school will be deemed to be coasting if 60% of its pupils fail to achieve 5 GCSE grades A*to C including English and Maths. This is an arbitrary benchmark defining the school. The policy which spawned the concept is directed not at the school’s pupils but at the school itself. Since the underlying principle […]

“Our primary goal should be to make exams better, not harder”

Last week, Schools Week put schools minister Nick Gibb and OCR chief executive Mark Dawe head-to-head to answer: “Should we make the GCSE pass rate harder?” Here, Pearson’s UK president Rod Bristow puts his thoughts forward. I’d like to congratulate Schools Week for providing a platform for this very important debate. It’s one that’s sure […]

“The government has signalled it no longer trusts the validity of Ofsted”

The Government’s announcement on coasting schools has far reaching consequences. The government should be very concerned (but won’t be) that this will further discourage (if such a thing were possible) headteachers taking on schools with socially disadvantaged intakes. For the first three years, at least, threshold targets for secondary schools (60 per cent of pupils […]

5 things bothering me about the ‘coasting schools’ definition

Today was the first day of the Education Bill committee stage. To celebrate the ‘coasting schools’ definition was revealed. The definition matters because it will decide which schools could be forced to change management unless the regional schools commissioner decides they are worthy of being saved. A detailed look at the definition is here. In […]

2,833 or 1,179 – how many schools will fall under the new coasting definition?

Yesterday, Schools Week reported on analysis by Education Datalab which showed almost 1,200 schools would be defined as “coasting”, as a definition for the term was finally put forward by education secretary Nicky Morgan. Henry Stewart, co-founder of Local Schools Network, believes that figure would be more than double. Here he puts forward his case. […]

Lunchtime: the most important break of the day

Ofsted regularly focuses on lunchtime behaviour. To get the precious hour right needs creative thinking and carefully planned whole-school systems The lunchtime break is many children’s favourite time of the school day – and, in a moment of honesty, some teaching staff may admit to feeling the same! During this precious hour children eat, let […]