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The number of investigations into maladministration of primary school tests increased to almost 600 in 2017, new data out today reveals. A report shows the Standards and Testing Agency investigated 599 cases of maladministration of key stage 1 and 2 tests in 2017, up from 524 in 2016. The agency conducted 73 investigations into KS1 […]

More than half of older teenagers think schools should spend more time on relationships and sex education and cover more topics, a new poll has revealed. The survey of 1,001 16 and 17-year-olds by the Sex Education Forum and National Education Union found 52 per cent said the subject needed more teaching time, while 34 […]

A struggling academy trust relied on a government bailout to ensure it could pay pension contributions, it has been revealed. TBAP multi-academy trust, which runs 12 alternative provision academies, was issued with a financial notice to improve by the Education and Skills Funding Agency in August, after leaders requested almost £1 million in additional funding […]

The government has begun to lift the lid on decisions made by its secretive headteacher boards, but officials want to go further to ensure there are “no mysteries” about how academies are passed around the system. The first set of beefed-up minutes were published earlier this month for south east England and south London, the […]

The government has been warned its preference for smaller-scale hub projects instead of larger injections of revenue funding is creating a “postcode lottery” of provision. The warning comes as new Schools Week analysis reveals huge regional variations in the coverage of the government’s music hubs programme. The Department for Education claimed last month that “record […]

The teacher-training charity Teach First has launched a substantial shake-up of its operations, amid doubts over the future of its government funding. The organisation this week announced new initiatives to get more career-changers, returner teachers and teaching assistants into the classroom. It comes after Teach First ditched several of its non-teaching-related programmes, putting a number […]

One in eight school-age children had an identified mental disorder last year, the first new data on the subject in 14 years has revealed. The NHS has finally released long-awaited statistics from a major survey of the mental health of children and young people carried out in 2017. It is the first time since 2004 […]

The government has announced that a new testing approach to measure the attainment of pupils with complex disabilities will replace “P-scales” from 2020. Ministers say the new “aspects of engagement” approach, which will replace P-scales 1 to 4, will address problems over the old system’s focus on “linear progress”. P-scales are currently used to measure […]

The country’s regional schools commissioners will become “more transparent and more consistent”, the new national schools commissioner has pledged. Dominic Herrington, who took over as interim NSC in September, told school leaders today that he wants a “tigher” relationship with trusts, as he pledged to sing the praises of the “unsung heroes” of the academies system […]