Schools Week

'Practical guidance, sustained professional development and opportunities to learn from schools already doing this well must be part of implementation. Schools should not be left to bridge the gap between national ambition and everyday practice alone' schoolsweek.co.uk/oracy-skills...

'The challenge for boards is not deciding whether AI is good or bad. The challenge is ensuring that its use is safe, ethical, accountable and aligned with the trust’s educational purpose. That is fundamentally a governance question' schoolsweek.co.uk/ai-is-not-pr...

New: Government should "expand" its counter-terrorism Prevent scheme to tackle the rise in violence-fixated individuals without ideology, a senior civil servant has said. Kate Dixon from the DfE admitted the current system is "not working for schools" schoolsweek.co.uk/expanded-pre...

Schools and academy trusts can’t control how every pupil, parent or member of the public behaves, but they now have a clear obligation to take considerable positive steps to try to prevent harassment of their staff by these third parties schoolsweek.co.uk/codes-of-con...

'Training in technique can only take us so far. The more difficult question is whether the systems surrounding those strategies recognise neurodivergent pupils as successful on their own terms' schoolsweek.co.uk/inclusion-wh...

'A country is not held together by agreeing on everything. It is held together by the relationships we build, the generosity we show and the willingness to make room for one another,' writes @brendancox.bsky.social, co-founder of The Together Coalition schoolsweek.co.uk/mince-pies-t...

The government should expand its counter-terrorism scheme to tackle the rise in the number of children fixated with extreme violence but without ideology, a top civil servant has said schoolsweek.co.uk/expanded-pre...

Breaking: A programme aimed at boosting teacher retention by improving flexible working in schools has been delayed by a year, the Department for Education has announced schoolsweek.co.uk/teacher-rete...

After Lucy Powell was criticised for a "lack of public support" for Martyn Oliver in a TV interview, a spokesperson has said was "very clear" she backs the Ofsted boss. We've included a full transcript of the interview below, so you can make up your own mind... schoolsweek.co.uk/lucy-powell-...

Following this week’s Bell review, education minister Josh MacAlister argues that adopting the IHRA definition will help schools and colleges tackle antisemitism while protecting debate on Israel schoolsweek.co.uk/defining-ant...

Ministers should consider renaming their flagship free breakfast club scheme to capture all benefits for families, an evaluation recommended schoolsweek.co.uk/rename-free-...

Early years is 'where it's at' says Neerasha Singh, MBE, head of Northfleet Nursery School in Kent. schoolsweek.co.uk/weve-got-to-...

Schools that make pupils feel like they belong do not see it as a 'distraction', but it can create a 'tension' with other pressures such as exam results, a government-commissioned report has found schoolsweek.co.uk/belonging-es...

A controversial academy trust has been given a notice to improve (NTI) amid concerns over exclusions and inclusion arrangements. schoolsweek.co.uk/send-concern...

👥 Exclusive: Long-serving regional director Kate Dethridge is set to leave after seven years in post, representing the fourth departure from the team in two years schoolsweek.co.uk/fourth-dfe-r...

Ministers have been told to 'seriously consider' stronger intervention in Slough’s SEND delivery, which could lead to the service being handed to another council schoolsweek.co.uk/sloughs-send...

Exclusive: Part-time teacher training courses could run at a loss or be forced to close following government reforms to student finance, providers warn schoolsweek.co.uk/funding-chan...

Teacher training leaders warn the profession is at risk of becoming “elitist” with students from poorer backgrounds becoming “priced out” as the cost of living soars schoolsweek.co.uk/is-teaching-...

🧱 Exclusive: Work is yet to begin at nearly all of the RAAC-riddled schools promised rebuilds, sparking concerns that children will spend key parts of their education in temporary classrooms schoolsweek.co.uk/in-delivery-...

Unions have criticised the remit laid out by the education secretary for this year’s review of teacher pay and conditions as "disappointingly unambitious" schoolsweek.co.uk/unions-criti...

The government has said it is “on track” to meet its target of 75 per cent of children being “school ready” by 2028, as new data reveals the largest year-on-year rise since the reformed assessment began. schoolsweek.co.uk/eyfs-dfe-on-...

Ministers have vowed to roll out new antisemitism training for school leaders, and Ofsted will examine how trusts oversee schools’ handling of discriminatory incidents, following David Bell's landmark review of antisemitism in schools schoolsweek.co.uk/antisemitism...

Breaking: Susan Acland-Hood, The Department for Education’s top civil servant, will be replaced next month after six years in post schoolsweek.co.uk/acland-hood-...

Scrapping spelling, punctuation, and grammar (SPaG) tests, replacing scaled scores and ending the publication of school-level results are among changes that should be made to primary school tests, a new report says schoolsweek.co.uk/scrap-spag-t...

Supporting children with SEND is the biggest financial challenge schools are facing, governors have warned, overtaking staff pay pressures for the first time schoolsweek.co.uk/send-costs-o...

The new teacher pay scales for 2026-27 have been confirmed by the Department for Education schoolsweek.co.uk/pay-scales-f...

Strategic authorities should be given a new legal duty to improve attendance under the government’s vision for devolution, the children’s commissioner has said schoolsweek.co.uk/de-souza-giv...

Exclusive: More than a third of secondary schools in England used a new government app to deliver GCSE results after it was rolled out nationally this year. But only half the students at participating schools chose the app over paper results. schoolsweek.co.uk/a-third-of-s...

'The fact we are taking this step to increase independent oversight has been broadly welcomed in the discussions we’ve had so far with education unions, but I want the whole sector to have trust in our processes' schoolsweek.co.uk/our-new-comp...

Exclusive: No changes will be made to misconduct rules following a review triggered by the decision not to ban a teacher who called the 7 October attack on Israel 'justified' and Hamas 'defenders of humanity' schoolsweek.co.uk/tras-miscond...

Agency costs have ballooned in an academy trust held up by the government as a success story for its supply staff reforms, laying bare the limitations of such money-saving schemes schoolsweek.co.uk/supply-costs...

📈 Academy trusts have been buoyed this year, with the Labour government declaring in February it wanted all schools in such groups 🤔 Despite this, debates continue to rage over the academy programme’s impact Schools Week investigates 🔽 schoolsweek.co.uk/academies-ge...

New Ofsted inspections of multi-academy trusts are not likely to begin until 2028, the inspectorate has revealed schoolsweek.co.uk/academy-trus...

School staff have called for 'urgent support' in teaching new relationships and sex education, after promised training grants did not materialise before the new guidance was enforced schoolsweek.co.uk/new-rshe-cur...

Ofsted’s new independent complaints review service will be able to recommend reopening inspections when it finds the watchdog’s handling of a complaint was not 'fair and reasonable' schoolsweek.co.uk/new-ofsted-c...

The government has criticised teachers’ pensions administrator Capita for failing to meet targets for payments to bereaved beneficiaries schoolsweek.co.uk/capita-misse...

✈️ Exclusive: A publicly censured academy trust investigated by officials sent leaders on trips to New Zealand, Vermont and Philadelphia schoolsweek.co.uk/revealed-tro...

Ofsted chief inspector Martyn Oliver is about to deliver his keynote address at the Confederation of School Trusts (CST) conference in Birmingham. Follow along on our live blog... schoolsweek.co.uk/confederatio...

Breaking: The NAHT leaders’ union has joined calls for a change in Ofsted’s leadership, claiming the watchdog’s ability to restore the trust of school leaders “has been lost" schoolsweek.co.uk/naht-leaders...

The attainment gap between poorer pupils and their better-off peers at GCSE has decreased by the largest amount since before the pandemic. schoolsweek.co.uk/9-things-we-...

Schools will have a legal duty to set work for pupils to complete at home during the first five days of a suspension or exclusion, ministers have proposed schoolsweek.co.uk/dfe-plans-le...

'Every child deserves to find their voice. From today, that starts to look less like a privilege and – irrespective of background or postcode – more like a genuine entitlement for all of England’s children and young people' schoolsweek.co.uk/lucy-powell-...

Powell announces oracy will hardwired into the revised national curriculum, with it given 'equal status to reading and writing as a new strand of the English curriculum' It will 'light up every classroom, both in content and assessment' schoolsweek.co.uk/confederatio...

Around a third of school leaders have reported their school is considering a restructure or making redundancies amid funding shortages, a union survey has found schoolsweek.co.uk/third-of-sch...

Education secretary Lucy Powell is about to address CST conference Follow live here... schoolsweek.co.uk/confederatio...

💬 The Schools Week team is reporting live from the Confederation of School Trusts annual conference in Birmingham Follow all the key updates from our live blog here... schoolsweek.co.uk/confederatio...

Ofsted chief inspector Martyn Oliver should stand down, the country’s largest teaching union has said schoolsweek.co.uk/second-union...

Ministers must be prepared to write off SEND deficits accrued over the next two years, councils have warned, after predicting they will rise to £10 billion even after historic debts are wiped schoolsweek.co.uk/councils-cal...

'The challenges facing young people in the UK today are severe and unprecedented, and if we don’t provide qualifications that marry young people’s needs with our economy’s demands, we all suffer' schoolsweek.co.uk/the-obstacle...

'We have seen no evidence of meaningful progress on the part of Ofsted to address the significant workload and wellbeing issues caused by the framework, and are increasingly concerned about the welfare and morale of our members' schoolsweek.co.uk/ascl-council...