DfE | Schools Week

Bailed-out academy boss set for £150k payout, despite £1.1m budget hole

A single academy trust facing closure has set aside a £150,000 payout for its chief executive, despite reporting a £1.1 million budget black hole last year and needing two taxpayer bailouts. The Castle Trust is set to be wound up after it was stripped of Delce Academy in Kent last year following an “inadequate” rating. […]

MPs tell government to ‘shake up status quo’ on home education

MPs have slammed an “astonishing” lack of data on the number of children educated at home, and called for more powers for councils to check on their progress and welfare. School leaders backed calls for the government to introduce a national register of children educated at home, and to investigate a recent rise amid concerns […]

Treasury marks DfE’s 11,500-word homework laying out its vision

The Department for Education has published an 11,590-word “outcome delivery plan,” detailing the wide-ranging goals and performance metrics it agreed with the Treasury last year to justify its funding. Sector leaders welcomed the move to greater transparency and accountability. But they said the DfE’s plan lacked detail overall and lacked metrics in significant areas, including […]

London secondaries offer fewest initial teacher training placements

London secondary schools are the least likely in the country to offer at least one initial teacher training placement, a new survey suggests. Analysis of a poll of school leaders by the National Foundation for Educational Research reveals significant divides between schools in how many placements they provide. The think tank also warns schools can […]

DfE seeks public ownership of Oak as budget set to halve next term

The Department for Education wants to take Oak National Academy into public ownership, according to the group behind the project, and its budget will be halved next term. The Reach Foundation has announced Oak will “stay open and free to use for at least the next two terms” after the DfE approved another grant worth […]

School repairs derailed by ‘inexplicable’ CIF delays and material shortages

Schools have been forced to delay building repairs by up to a year after the government awarded condition improvement funding almost two months later than usual. Some of the 1,199 schools which received CIF awards last month face an anxious wait to hear if contractors and the DfE will agree to defer projects no longer […]

National funding formula: Extra cash for 1,300 remote schools

The government has more than doubled a funding pot for small schools in remote areas, with up to 1,300 more schools eligible for the cash next year. The Department for Education outlined on Monday how NFF cash will be allocated in 2022-23, including what individual schools would receive if every council adopted the “hard” NFF. […]

DfE boss won’t say if SEND review will be out by next April

The Department for Education’s top civil servant has refused to confirm when the government’s long-delayed SEND review will be published, even declining to say if it will be out by the end of the financial year during a grilling by MPs. Permanent secretary Susan Acland-Hood was questioned by the commons public accounts committee this morning […]

New chair appointed to teachers’ pay body as controversial pay freeze looms

A new chair will take over the School Teachers’ Review Body from September, amid controversy over the upcoming public sector pay freeze. The STRB advises the prime minister and education secretary on teachers’ pay and responsibilities in England, but unions have recently accused the government of undermining its independence. Dr Patricia Rice, a senior research […]