primary schools | Schools Week

The good, the bad and the teacher recruitment stats

There are reasons to be cheerful; teacher numbers are up, for starters. But the School Workforce Census for last year shows that recruiting and retaining a top quality workforce is still a major challenge The School Workforce Census (SWF) is the main source of information on school staffing in England. It provides detailed statistics, such […]

Like it or not: Reception assessments are looming

There are valid reasons for concerns about reception baseline assessment. But don’t be intimidated: it’s a chance to pick a good option that works for your school Primary schools in England are about to be presented with a choice of commercial schemes to act as a baseline for the new primary accountability policy. As I […]

The advantages of scale

Having co-authored a new report suggesting performance would improve if the government let every primary school spin out from its local authority and join an academy chain, Annaliese Briggs explains the thinking behind her idea There is something of a perfect storm ahead for primary schools. Pupils’ performance has steadily improved, but a combination of […]