• DfE threatens to reclaim £110k loan unless school joins a multi-academy trust

    The government has threatened to forcibly claim back a £110,000 loan issued to a single-academy trust unless it joins a MAT. The threat comes as a school leaders’ union issues a warning over the “serious implications” of conditions attached to such emergency loans. A financial notice to improve issued to Hinckley Academy and John Cleveland…

    7.00 Feb. 1st, 2019 | News

  • National supply teacher agency database now available for schools

    Schools can now access a national supply teacher agency database that reveals the mark-up each company charges, under a new government drive to help school leaders avoid rip-off fees. Developed by the Department for Education and the Crown Commercial Service (CCS), all schools have been emailed the new national list of recommended suppliers to use…

    9.58 Aug. 31st, 2018 | News

  • DfE rubber-stamps closure of troubled studio school

    The troubled Isle of Wight Studio School will close next summer, the Department for Education has confirmed. Closure was proposed in April, when Inspire Academy Trust, which runs the school, announced that ministers had approved the plans to wind it up in 2019 “in principle”. This was followed by a four-week consultation. The school will shut…

    9.00 Jun. 26th, 2018 | News

  • DfE spent more than £23m on failed studio schools

    The government has spent more than £23 million on studio schools that have either closed or never opened but the price tag total won’t be known until the much-delayed publication of its final costs. Twenty-six studio schools have closed or announced plans to close since the scheme was introduced in 2010. In the past week…

    5.00 Jun. 15th, 2018 | News

  • Secretive private school warning notices published for the first time

    The Department for Education has finally published the warning notices it issued to underperforming private schools, over two years after a Schools Week campaign first pressed to make the information public. Nine notices issued in September and October 2017 were published today. They reveal how each school failed to meet national standards for education, safeguarding, governance and…

    15.21 Feb. 22nd, 2018 | News

  • Now Teach charity gets £350,000 DfE funding to expand into Hastings

    Now Teach, the organisation founded by former Financial Times journalist Lucy Kellaway to encourage professionals to become teachers later in life, is to receive £350,000 in government funding. Nick Gibb, the schools minister, has today announced that the money will allow the charity to expand out of London and start work in Hastings, one of…

    0.01 Jan. 5th, 2018 | News

  • Government faces legal action on pupil nationality data

    A campaign group is raising money to take the Department for Education to the High Court over its decision to collect data on school pupils’ nationality and country of birth. The human rights charity Liberty will represent Against Borders for Children, which will focus on whether the policy infringes the rights of pupils. The groups also…

    11.52 Nov. 20th, 2017 | News

  • Mental health green paper will tackle risks of social media

    A government green paper on children and young people’s mental health, tackling internet safety and the impact of social media, will be published before Christmas. In a response to a joint report on education and mental health from the education and health committees, the government today said it was “committed to the publication of a…

    16.09 Oct. 24th, 2017 | News

  • We won't know if opportunity areas have worked until at least 2021

    The government won’t be able to gauge the impact of a £72 million project to boost social mobility in 12 “opportunity areas” until after 2020, its own research has found. John Rodger, a partner with York Consulting hired by the government to evaluate the success of the  programme, has warned that expectations “may be set…

    13.03 Aug. 16th, 2017 | News