DfE | Schools Week

“Post-truth” politics & the grammar debate: How schools will be dragged into the fray

Official statistics show there are more than 14 million parents with dependent children in the UK. About 12 million of those have school-aged children. If you were a politician, and your main aim was to get votes, aiming to impress the 12 million parents, as opposed to half a million teachers, is more likely to […]

Justine Greening holds up findings of the Teachers Working Longer Review

A group of educationists scrutinising the consequences of teachers working until their late 60s expect their interim findings to be published this month, seven months after they were sent to government. Under new government policy, teachers born after April 6, 1979, are required to work until 68 before claiming a full state pension. For older […]

Landmark judicial review over school commissioner sixth form decision settled out of court

A landmark judicial review that was set to shine a light on decisions made behind closed doors by regional schools commissioners has been settled out of court. The Association of Colleges (AoC) joined with Havering Sixth Form College to launch a high court challenge against the DfE’s decision to fund a new sixth form at […]

DfE refuses to release pupil nationality data agreement

The government has refused to release a new agreement that prevents the Department for Education from passing pupil nationality and country of birth data to the Home Office. The Department for Education (DfE) told Schools Week that an old agreement that allowed the Home Office to access certain information from the national pupil database had […]

Academics petition education secretary over 48-hour research publication rule

Academics and journalists are mobilising to fight a government diktat which means they must now send any research based on the national pupil database to civil servants two days before publication. Several have joined forces with unions and teachers to campaign against the change – including writing to education secretary Justine Greening, Schools Week can […]

Academics must show research to government two days before publishing, say new DfE rules

Academics and journalists have been ordered to give civil servants two days to look over any research they plan to publish from the national pupil database in a move that some fear will shut down rapid scrutiny of government policy. Researchers were informed yesterday that any analysis produced using statistics from the national pupil database […]

DfE ‘drags its feet’ on academies report

Ministers have been accused of dragging their feet over the publication of a key academies document that will reveal how schools commissioners are judged. Education secretary Justine Greening is bound by law to produce an annual report on the performance of academies, which must also be laid before parliament. The government has published the document, […]

DfE faces legal battle over RSC’s decision

The government has been warned that it is vulnerable to further legal action over a lack of “structure and consistency” in decisions by schools commissioners. The Department for Education (DfE) is facing a landmark judicial review after claims that one of its regional schools commissioners (RSCs) granted approval for a new sixth form that flouted […]

How selection could – and probably will – seep back in

“There is no way they will get this grammar school thing through.” That’s what former shadow education secretary Lucy Powell said at a debate on Sunday. It’s a comforting thought, but I’m not buying. Governments tend to do what they want, regardless of the administrative hurdles placed in their way. Michael Gove used the Terrorism […]