education leadership | Schools Week

New redundancy tactics for schools faced with tough decisions

Staff are going through interviews and graded assessments to decide who to make redundant, Schools Week has learnt. James Lynas, a partner at law firm Winckworth Sherwood, said a handful of schools are taking the new redundancy route to ensure that they keep the best-performing teachers. Teaching unions, however, say schools could be using the […]

Ministers urged to clamp down on all-powerful academy CEOs

Ministers have been urged to clamp down on over-powerful academy bosses after an investigation found one chief executive sacked the trust chair who suspended him. Ian Cleland, chief executive and founding member of the Academies Transformation Trust (ATT), was put on temporary leave by chair Stephen Tilsley last year over finance concerns. Forecasts showed the […]

What does high challenge teaching look like?

To define “high challenge” is almost impossible, says Heather Fearn. Teachers must use their expertise to ask themselves what actions will best move their class forward “further, faster” at any time What does high challenge teaching look like?” “Easy: make the work harder.” “OK, another question – what is harder work?” “Er . . . […]

The Clouds that can Surround a School: Responding to and managing a critical incident

In September 2015 the worst thing imaginable happened in my school. One of our students was playing football with his friends when he started to feel short of breath and collapsed. Two members of staff started CPR until local GPs arrived. Then the first-response paramedic. The air ambulance followed. Luke’s mother arrived and howled, caught […]

How did schools come to talk like business?

Headteachers and leaders of academy trusts should be paid well, says Anita Kerwin-Nye. Just don’t justify their high salaries with the language of the corporate boardroom I have written before for Schools Week about the importance of language influencing practice, particularly in inclusion. Perhaps it is now time to consider how easily we have adopted […]

Academy CEO pay: Salaries soar, but who comes out on top?

Our annual analysis of chief executive pay in the largest academy chains once again reveals a huge disparity in the salary of chief executives and the size of their organisations. For the first time we analysed the pay per pupil, as well as the pay per good or outstanding school. Sir Dan Moynihan, chief executive […]

Delayed review of older teachers requests extra evidence

A government review on the implications of teachers working until their late 60s wants to gather more evidence – despite being published a year late. The Department for Education finally released the interim report from its Teachers Working Longer review last Friday. The review was set up in October 2014 to make sure pension age […]

Meet the £200k-per-year academy chiefs who look after just a handful of schools

Growing numbers of academy leaders, many of them responsible for only a handful of schools, now earn more than £200,000 a year. In one case a headteacher at a single academy trust is now paid £220,000, while an associate head at the same trust is on £145,000. A Schools Week investigation also revealed two chief […]

We need an education system that works for the whole of society

Attainment is important for young people, but exams have to be seen in a wider context as part of an education that allows young people to flourish, says John Sentamu. Up and down the country, there are great examples of schools achieving fantastic results for some of the most disadvantaged pupils – results that give […]