• The DfE's repeated misuse of statistics is embarrassing

    The Department for Education needs to start using statistics properly, or much of its evidence will simply be dismissed as untrustworthy, says Hetan Shah “I am writing to raise with you serious concerns about the DfE’s presentation and use of statistics”, starts the letter from Sir David Norgrove, chair of the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA), to…

    14.13 Oct. 8th, 2018 | Opinion

  • 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 ‘minded to terminate’ funding of ‘inadequate’ primary academy in Wiltshire

    A Wiltshire primary school that is part of the Diocese of Salisbury Academy Trust faces having its funding stopped and being rebrokered to a new sponsor after receiving an ‘inadequate’ grade from Ofsted in July. Marden Vale CofE Academy was judged ‘inadequate’ in every category except its early years provision, which ‘requires improvement,’ following its…

    13.40 Aug. 24th, 2018 | News

  • Schools need to boost staff and governors' data literacy, research finds

    Schools must focus on boosting the data literacy of newly or recently qualified teachers and governors in order to improve their practice, new research has found. The report on ‘School cultures and practices: supporting the attainment of disadvantaged pupils’, released today, compared schools in London with those outside of the capital, and found that lower-performing primary…

    12.58 Aug. 8th, 2018 | News

  • Baker clause update: DfE gears up to start ‘direct intervention’ in schools

    Schools could face “direct intervention” from the Department for Education from September if they have failed to allow further education providers to promote vocational education to their pupils. The move is a part of a crackdown on non-compliance with the controversial ‘Baker clause’, an amendment to the 2017 Technical and Further Education Act, which came…

    17.00 Aug. 7th, 2018 | News

  • Hinds calls on tech companies to create new solutions to support teaching

    Education secretary Damian Hinds is calling on technology companies to help improve teaching and cut teacher workload, ahead of plans to develop new online resources for schools in the autumn. From September, the Department for Education (DfE) will work with the Chartered College of Teaching, the British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA) and other organisations to develop…

    0.01 Aug. 7th, 2018 | News

  • Heads concerned after 'lifeline' school improvement funding cut

    A “lifeline” government scheme that issued school improvement grants has closed, with £85 million from its coffers left unspent. The National Association of Head Teachers has expressed concerns after the Department for Education announced this week that no further routine grants will be awarded from the strategic school improvement fund, though emergency funding will still…

    12.38 Aug. 2nd, 2018 | News

  • MPs’ stern warning over ‘incoherent’ system and costly, ‘risky’ academisation

    A powerful committee of MPs has warned that the government failed to properly scrutinise the early stages of the academies programme and has not learned from its high-profile failures. A report by the parliamentary public accounts committee into the government’s record on converting schools into academies found the Department for Education “did not pay enough attention”…

    0.01 Jul. 11th, 2018 | News

  • Still no sign of the delayed 'healthy schools' rating scheme

    The government still doesn’t know when proposals for a ‘healthy schools’ rating scheme will come to fruition, 10 months after it was supposed to start in primary schools. The plan was first mooted in the government’s child obesity action plan in 2016, and it was supposed to be up and running in schools by last…

    11.17 Jun. 25th, 2018 | News

  • No teaching resources provided for National Democracy Week

    Ministers have refused to discuss upcoming new resources to help secondary schools teach pupils about democracy – even though schools imminently need the information. The idea was first mooted by the government last December and it has been mentioned at least twice since by the minister taking the lead on it. But with the July…

    7.00 Jun. 23rd, 2018 | News

  • Troubled UCAT trust to shed four schools after finances warning

    Four schools run by the troubled University of Chester Academies Trust (UCAT) will be rebrokered to new sponsors following the intervention of a government schools commissioner. Christine Quinn, the regional schools commissioner for the West Midlands, has “agreed with the trust to initially rebroker four schools” in order to “release capacity”, according to a parliamentary written…

    12.07 May. 25th, 2018 | News