funding | Schools Week

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 […]

Government plans a review of children’s physical activity at school

Schools’ efforts to engage their least active pupils in physical activities will be reviewed by the government as it embarks on the second phase of its childhood obesity plan. The first phase, published in 2016, promised a ‘healthy schools’ rating scheme for primaries, and a new interactive online tool to help schools plan at least 30 minutes of […]

Schools have ‘strong legal case to make councils fully fund SEND provision’

Schools are forking out millions of pounds for special educational needs provision even though there is often a strong legal case for obliging their local authority to fully fund it. The majority of councils provide schools with up to £6,000 of funding for pupils who have a special education need. The cost of delivering all […]

Hinds challenged over ‘dangerously inadequate’ SEND funding

A coalition of trade unions and 39 local authorities have written to the education secretary to warn of “dangerously inadequate funding” for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). The School Cuts Coalition was first formed in November 2016 and now includes NEU, NAHT, ASCL, Unison, GMB and Unite. In a letter to Damian Hinds, the […]

Dorset school told to improve or have funding withdrawn

A Dorset multi academy trust has been warned that one of its schools will have its funding agreement terminated if it does not improve on a damning Ofsted inspection. Lisa Mannall, the regional schools commissioner for the south-west, has written to the Twynham Learning multi-academy trust, after The Grange School in Christchurch was rated ‘inadequate’ with […]

No school should be forced to rely on Amazon wishlists

Most schools are now too poor to buy all the necessary learning resources, which Patrick Hayes believes is a shocking state of affairs Schools are increasingly being forced to use Amazon wishlists to persuade parents to stump up the cash for much-needed classroom resources, as was reported in last week’s Schools Week. The news comes […]

Sabrina Hobbs, principal, Severndale specialist academy

A nine-year-old boy in a wheelchair is delightedly pressing the large button on a battery-powered speaker that calls Betsy the dog by name. Every time he does, a chocolate sprocker spaniel comes bounding across to a small circle of children. This all happens under the watchful eye of Sabrina Hobbs, the executive principal of Shropshire’s only […]

A NEU dawn: NUT and ATL hold final conferences

The National Union of Teachers and Association of Teachers and Lecturers held their last conferences as separate unions over the Easter break. The two sections will meet as one amalgamated National Education Union next year. Schools Week’s political editor Freddie Whittaker attended so you didn’t have to. 1. Ofsted ‘overstepped the mark’ during hijab row […]

Nine in 10 heads are headed for an ‘unmanageable’ budget deficit

More than 90 per cent of headteachers expect their schools to rack up an unmanageable budget deficit in the near future, a poll has revealed. Twenty-one per cent of the 589 heads who responded to a survey by the school leaders’ union NAHT said their school was already in deficit this year, an increase of […]