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13 April 2026

Tag: DfE

£2bn fund revealed for DfE free school property company

A company set up by the Department for Education (DfE) to buy new free school sites will be given a £2 billion warchest to ensure it delivers 500 new schools by 2020. Schools Week revealed last month that the department has set up a company, called LocatED, to take over responsibility for finding and purchasing new […]

Flagship free school trio found guilty of defrauding Department for Education

The principal, financial director and teacher at a flagship free school have been found guilty of defrauding the Department for Education (DfE) out of around £150,000. A jury today convicted Sajid Husain Raza, 43, Daud Khan, 44, and Shabana Hussain, 40, of fraudulently obtaining the cash from government grants to set up Kings Science Academy, […]

Teacher top-ups: a solution to under-performance in Northern schools?

Ofsted’s annual report for 2014/15 highlighted an educational gap, not only between primary and secondary, but also between the north and south of England. Duncan Sim offers some concrete proposals to address the discrepancies in both funding and attainment. The north-south divide starts young. This is, at any rate, what the statistics about the relative performance of secondary […]

Delayed free school cancelled over site issues

A free school plagued by delays has now been scrapped without teaching a single pupil after problems finding a site – raising questions about the feasibility of delivering David Cameron’s pledge to open 500 new schools by 2020. Gladstone School was due to open in September 2014, but was forced to delay its opening two years running after the Department […]

What to make of ‘British values’ in the aftermath of Brexit?

More than 37 headteachers and representatives of professional associations have signed an open letter to Justine Greening calling for a renewed commitment to the teaching of PSHE, Citizenship and Religion in post-Brexit Britain. The letter to the Secretary of State for Education, dated Wednesday 27th July, points out that values education such as PSHE, Citizenship and Religion […]

The Progress 8 measure explained

If you are not changing your exam entry policy, and results are the same, it is likely your EBacc3 score will drop, explains David Blow June 2016 will be the first year that Progress 8 takes effect for school accountability, along with other headline measures. This is a major step forward as it means that the […]

Department for Education reshuffle: Meet the ministers

You would be forgiven for thinking the new ministerial line-up at the Department for Education looks familiar. Justine Greening, who replaced Nicky Morgan as education secretary last week, will proceed with most of her predecessor’s team intact, but confirmation of who is doing what is likely to come later this week. Here’s what we know… Nick Gibb […]