The Schools' News Service

  There is a daily blog on the internet which tells the tale of a school which was taken over by a group of crooks posing as an academy. Their daily activities in restricting what teachers can say, do, wear, and teach, as well as their attempts to set up a total surveillance system are [...]

Almost £62 million of fast track funding will be awarded to 21 successful bidders across the country as part of Government investment to deliver “world class places for young people”, according to the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families. This is the first wave of funding from a pot close to £202m to provide exciting [...]

According to the government academies are meeting their aim of raising school standards thanks to their innovative approach.  The government cites an independent report by PricewaterhouseCoopers published 27 November. In their fifth and final annual report into the Academies programme, PwC also highlight the positive impact of strong leadership, sponsors and their increasing popularity with parents. [...]

Figures just published show that almost all infant and junior age pupils in Wales are taught in class sizes of 30 or fewer. Since 2001 all infant class have been subject to the 30 pupil class size limit. After taking into account the exceptions permitted by law, the September 2008 Class Size Count showed that just 15 [...]

Hundreds of school modernisation projects are to start early after the Government announced it was accelerating up to £800 million capital investment by 12 months. The Pre-Budget Report announced that funding originally earmarked for the Primary Capital Programme (PCP) and three other capital programmes in 2010-11 is now available in 2009-10. Overall schools capital spending has [...]

The Department for Children, Schools and Families has announced a £1.6 million grant for practical safety education for children. The grant will establish a Child Safety Education Coalition (CSEC) and was awarded to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) in partnership with the National Children’s Bureau (NCB). The CSEC will work to improve the [...]

A new campaign to encourage boys to embrace the joy of reading has been launched by the Deputy Minister for Skills, John Griffiths. The campaign, Read A Million Words Together, has been developed by the Welsh Assembly Government’s Basic Skills Cymru team with the aim of ensuring that more boys in Wales achieve the levels of [...]

There is a wide range of free resources for teachers covering most subjects in the curriculum available on the web site www.top5.org.uk The site is divided into around 80 sections ranging from art and school assemblies, through to physics and school visits. Within each section there are listings of free resources, and links to companies [...]

The Department for Children, Schools and Families has announced a £1.6 million grant for practical safety education for children. The grant will establish a Child Safety Education Coalition (CSEC) and was awarded to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) in partnership with the National Children’s Bureau (NCB). The CSEC will work to improve the [...]

Children’s Minister Beverley Hughes has called on parents across the country to demand more out of hours activities at their local schools.   She announced that although 65 percent of schools are already offering a full programme of out of hours activities, such as sport and drama, parents could help encourage the rest to follow [...]

Advertising spaces in the school to parents The most regular issue raised in correspondence to me relates to recruiting pupils and students to schools.  One recent issue involved a primary school without space for a nursery unit finding its number drop because parents prefer to sign up for the school with a nursery unit (irrespective of [...]

A survey shows on behalf of the DCSF shows that teenagers have had enough of being labelled as lazy and want the opportunity to do more positive things in their free time.   (It’s actually not very surprising – most of us don’t like being called lazy). More than 3,500 16 to 19 year olds were quizzed [...]