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27 April 2026

Tag: coronavirus

Gibb rejects call for 11-plus results to be linked to national pupil database

The schools minister has rejected calls to collect 11-plus data and link it to the national pupil database. His decision comes as new figures show that fewer poorer pupils passed the test in two of the country’s most selective areas. We do not intend to ask schools and local authorities to collect the data you […]

Ditch ideology and ‘knowledge-rich mantras’ to fix education, union leader tells ministers

Ministers must ditch “ideology, politicking and knowledge-rich mantras” and acknowledge a “relatively small number of changes” are needed to make education “world class”, a trade union leader will say this week. Could we now move beyond the ideology, the politicking, the knowledge-rich mantras Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, […]

Government asks Capita for cash back over cancelled SATs

The government is in talks over its £109 million contract with outsourcing firm Capita to manage primary school tests to see if it can get a reduction following the cancellation of SATs this year. Under a six-year contract worth just over £18 million a year, Capita manages the administration, processing and support for all primary […]

Inside the government’s plan to take tutoring mainstream

As ministers start the hunt for an organisation to run the National Tutoring Programme for its second year, Schools Week takes a look at what schools can expect from the expansion of government’s flagship catch-up scheme. Launched last year, the NTP provides heavily subsidised tutoring for disadvantaged students aged 5 to 16. The tuition arm […]

School claimed furlough cash then gave £64k payout to head

A junior school that claimed nearly £100,000 of furlough cash because of the “dramatic and potentially catastrophic” financial impact of Covid made a £64,000 redundancy payment to its executive headteacher. Accounts for St Stephen’s Junior School, a single-academy trust in Canterbury, Kent, show that executive headteacher Stuart Pywell was made redundant in August, and sent […]

Reopening schools: DfE’s ‘illogical’ Covid testing policy puts pupils in isolation

The government’s “nonsensical” Covid testing policy that pupils tested on-site must self-isolate without taking confirmatory lab tests has seen youngsters needlessly kept off school after being sent home within hours of returning. Parents warn they will no longer consent to their children being tested due to the disruption, which they blame squarely on the government. […]