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DfE spent £111m on offices it won’t inhabit

The Department for Education has spent £111 million to refurbish new offices it has no plans to move into. Schools Week revealed in 2017 that the department’s planned move to the Old Admiralty Buildings in Whitehall, from its current base in Sanctuary Buildings, had been shelved indefinitely. The move, first proposed in 2014, was to […]

Union ordered to reinstate sacked employee after whistleblowing row

England’s second largest teaching union has been ordered to reinstate a sacked employee after an employment tribunal found it was “likely” he was dismissed for whistleblowing. The NASUWT fired Richard Harris last October after he accused Chris Keates, the union’s general secretary, of lying, wasting police time and “acting like a despot”, a tribunal ruling […]

James Toop to leave Ambition School Leadership and Institute for Teaching

The chief executive of education charity Ambition School Leadership is to step down after eight years in the job, the organisation has announced. James Toop will leave on March 1 to take up a job with a charity set up to fight childhood obesity. His departure comes at a time of significant change for Ambition, […]

Unconditional offers could be illegal, regulator warns

Universities that use controversial unconditional offers to “put pressure” on school pupils could be breaking the law, the higher education regulator has warned. The intervention from the Office for Students comes after the body revealed that a massive 117,000 offers with an unconditional element were made to almost 90,000 pupils in the UK last year, […]

Steiner free school vows to fight ‘inadequate’ Ofsted rating in court

Governors of a Steiner free school branded ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted have vowed to fight the rating in the High Court. Steiner Academy Bristol, one of two Steiner schools placed in special measures following unannounced inspections in November, was warned by inspectors over ineffective safeguarding policies, weak teaching and low expectations. Now its governors are raising […]

School league tables: The best and worst-performing MATs, and other findings

New figures published by the government today reveal how well the country’s multi-academy trusts are performing. The Department for Education’s MAT league tables rank chains based on their progress scores and other metrics recorded in last summer’s GCSEs. The data covers 85 trusts with three or more schools that have been with them for at […]

School league tables: 346 secondaries below floor standards in 2018

The number of secondary schools falling below the government’s “floor standard” fell last year, but only after the results of some schools were excluded from the data. In 2018, 346 schools were below the floor standard, equivalent to 11.6 per cent of state-funded mainstream schools, down from 365 schools, or 12 per cent, in 2017. […]

‘Don’t answer emails outside office hours’, education secretary tells teachers

The government will spend £10 million supporting the use of education technology in schools, Damian Hinds will announce today, as he urges teachers not to respond to emails outside office hours. Speaking at the Bett Show in London, the education secretary will urge schools to “make smarter use of technology” to ensure it doesn’t add […]

Government to review counter-terrorism Prevent duty

The government has announced an independent review of its anti-extremism programme “Prevent”, which has received thousands of referrals of school pupils since its inception. Launched in July 2015, Prevent requires teachers to identify pupils at risk of radicalisation and report incidents they believe are linked to extremism or terrorism. The programme has proved controversial in […]