The government is “considering options” for supporting primary school children with access to free sanitary products, a minister has said, following criticism that its current plans to tackle period poverty do not go far enough. The chancellor Philip Hammond announced
Brexit nudges funding formula to the back of the line
The national funding formula sits in the wings while the government attempts to sort Brexit. But is it worth waiting for? When he was asked about schools closing early on Fridays as a result of squeezed funding, Philip Hammond suggested
ESFA spends over £500k on cash awards for staff
The Education and Skills Funding Agency spent more than £500,000 on cash awards for civil servants last year. A total of 828 employees got awards worth £511,115 in 2017-18, an average of £617 each. This includes £22,000 for the pilot
DfE plans new national computing SCITT despite other centres struggling to recruit
The government is planning a new national SCITT for computing, despite other subject-specific training centres failing to hit recruitment targets. The Department for Education is looking for organisations to run a “national computing school-centred initial teacher training” (SCITT) programme to
DfE spent £15k defending nationality data collection months before it was scraped
The Department for Education spent almost £15,000 defending its divisive pupil nationality and country of birth data collection in court just months before it was scrapped, and it didn’t receive a penny of help from the Home Office. Two attempts
Hannah Wilson’s top blogs of the week 18 Mar 2019
Balance for Better @debsnet Deborah Netolicky unpicks her own battles in finding balance as a woman, including focusing on self-care and learning how to say no to reduce the feeling of “busyness”. As co-editor of Flip the System: Australia she
ESFA reveals church school exemption to related-party transactions rule
Church schools will not need to seek prior approval to buy services from their diocese, the Education and Skills Funding Agency has revealed. From April 1, academy trusts will have to seek government leave to pay out more than £20,000
The Unexpected Leader
Serendipity: I had just come home from an afternoon talking to a group of NPQH trainees and had been struck by the diverse group of would-be headteachers in the room. One of the senior teachers had approached me and said,
Losing teachers, cutting curriculum and parent donations: heads speak out about funding woes
Schools are shedding staff, relying on parent donations and eyeing curriculum savings to meet capital funding cuts – as a new survey shows two in five schools have buckets to catch the drips from leaking roofs. School leaders are increasingly
Academy trusts turn to ‘grammar streams’ in selective areas
An academy trust has expanded a “grammar stream” at one of its schools, while at least two more chains have opened selective classes this year. United Learning, which has 59 schools, has nearly doubled the number of year 7 pupils