• DfE won't issue guidance on 'exceptional circumstances' for sex education withdrawal

    Headteachers will be left in the “invidious position” of deciding whether they have grounds to refuse parents’ requests to withdraw their children from new sex education lessons. School leaders’ unions have called for clarity after the new guidance confirmed that schools will be allowed to turn down such requests in “exceptional circumstances”. But the Department…

    5.00 Mar. 1st, 2019 | News

  • DfE shells out £27m to prop up struggling academies

    The government handed out nearly £4.5 million to prop up cash-strapped academies run by the failed Schools Company Trust during the year it announced closure. A Schools Week investigation has also uncovered that the new trusts brought in to take over the Schools Company academies will now be saddled with repaying most of the debt.…

    5.00 Feb. 15th, 2019 | News

  • Schools shut out from DfE music curriculum panel

    The government has come under fire for choosing just three serving school leaders for its 14-strong panel that will develop its new “model” music curriculum. Nick Gibb, the schools minister, announced the panel members on Friday, saying that they would develop a non-compulsory “sequenced and structured template” in music for key stages 1, 2 and…

    5.00 Jan. 19th, 2019 | News

  • Ofsted and DfE staff nabbed for Brexit planning

    Civil servants from Ofsted have been redeployed to help prepare for a no-deal Brexit, with more staff set to follow, Schools Week understands. It follows concerns that civil servants from the Department for Education could be transferred from as early as next week. Schools Week understands the department has been looking at what schools will do if…

    5.00 Jan. 18th, 2019 | News

  • DfE plans new funding 'centre of excellence' team

    The government is preparing to launch a funding “centre of excellence” that will be led by its first overall director of funding. The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) is expected to announce who has been given the coveted position soon. The successful candidate will be responsible for the “development, implementation and maintenance of a…

    5.00 Jan. 12th, 2019 | News

  • DfE to test and 'quality-mark' education apps

    The Department for Education plans to assess and “quality-mark” smartphone and tablet education apps for younger pupils. Officials will also consider extending the assessment to apps for older children if the process is a success. But experts in educational technology say that the scheme’s success will hinge on whether teachers with experience of learning with…

    7.00 Jan. 11th, 2019 | News

  • Update us annually on school mental health plan progress, MPs tell ministers

    MPs want annual updates from the government on its plan to introduce new mental health support teams to work with schools. The recommendation, from the parliamentary public accounts committee, follows an admission from the government that the new teams of clinicians may not reach every school in England for a decade. Proposals for the new…

    0.01 Jan. 11th, 2019 | News

  • WCAT broke funding rules a year before its collapse, DfE review finds

    The doomed Wakefield City Academy Trust broke government funding rules 16 times in 2016, according to a review of the chain’s finances. A review of financial management and governance at WCAT details a string of failures at the ailing trust, which announced last year it was walking away from all of its schools. The report…

    15.55 Nov. 15th, 2018 | News

  • Data helps us intervene early, says academy trust

    Trusts are concerned that a new government diktat to pull back from data collection will stop them making rapid interventions for struggling pupils. The Department for Education this week pledged to cut out unnecessary workload so teachers could “devote their energies to teaching”. It followed several recommendations in a Workload Advisory Group report, which were…

    5.00 Nov. 10th, 2018 | News

  • DfE releases guide to partnerships with universities and private schools

    The Department for Education has published guidance and case studies aimed at encouraging more partnerships between state schools, universities and the independent school sector. The documents include a guide to setting up partnerships and how to write a “memorandum of understanding” outlining the terms of a common plan of action. They also feature examples of…

    17.53 Nov. 6th, 2018 | News

  • DfE to shell out £10m for 200 ‘external experts’

    The Department for Education will spend £10 million on 200 “external experts” to advise it on policy areas including safeguarding, free schools and the curriculum. A tender document published this week reveals that the department is searching for organisations to run a “register of external experts” made up of “individuals who have expertise and experience…

    5.00 Nov. 2nd, 2018 | News