Auditors are increasingly raising the alarm about academy trusts at risk of running out of money, with chains raiding reserves and eyeing expansion to pay off deficits. A Schools Week analysis of annual accounts has revealed a prevailing picture of “unviable trusts”. The Rodillian Trust, which sponsors three schools in West Yorkshire, used more than […]
Auditors flag increase in financially ‘unviable’ academy trusts Read More »
Key architects of the government’s new national funding formula have suggested the pupil premium could be rolled into core school funding before protection for it runs out in 2020. The government has pledged to keep the £2.5 billion pupil premium throughout this parliament. It gives additional funds of between £935 and £1,320 for every pupil
Roll pupil premium into national funding formula, say experts Read More »
Growing numbers of academy leaders, many of them responsible for only a handful of schools, now earn more than £200,000 a year. In one case a headteacher at a single academy trust is now paid £220,000, while an associate head at the same trust is on £145,000. A Schools Week investigation also revealed two chief
Meet the £200k-per-year academy chiefs who look after just a handful of schools Read More »
Twenty-three academy trusts breached funding rules last year when they made payments of more than £4 million to companies related to members of their staff or trustees. For the first time, Schools Week can reveal who the trusts are and the 26 transactions in which they failed to show they were fully compliant with rules
Revealed: The 23 trusts that broke rules over £4m related-party transactions Read More »
A superhead who was banned from teaching for life over her expenses can now return to the classroom after a government disciplinary panel ruled that a prohibition order against her be set aside. Jo Shuter was banned for life in 2014 after a misconduct hearing into expenses claimed at London’s Quintin Kynaston School, but was
‘Superhead’ Jo Shuter has teaching ban overturned Read More »
The education watchdog Ofsted has apologised after publishing an unapproved inspection report into Durand Academy that placed the beleagured south London school into special measures. Ofsted criticised the school’s leadership and management, teaching quality and pupil welfare and outcomes in the report published late last night. But it has since been removed and is not longer
Ofsted publishes ‘unapproved’ report placing Durand in special measures Read More »
New phonics retakes for year three pupils caused an increase in workload for more than three fifths of teachers, government figures have revealed. The government has announced today that 51 per cent of year three pupils reached the government’s ‘expected standard’ in a pilot of the check carried out by the National Foundation for Educational Research in
Year 3 phonics check trial prompts impact and workload concerns Read More »
The country’s best-paid academy boss has been handed another pay rise – boosting his salary to at least £420,000. It marks another salary increase for Sir Dan Moynihan, chief executive of the Harris Federation, who was paid at least £395,000 in 2015. New annual accounts published by the trust, which runs 40 schools, show another
Harris Federation boss’s salary reaches £420,000 after latest pay rise Read More »
Plans for the first “strike” of school governors have prompted a warning about the morale of volunteers who are being forced to make school staff redundant as budgets tighten. Governors in West Sussex have written to MPs threatening to stop signing off budgets and carrying out supervisory work in protest over a growing school funding
Governors in West Sussex plan strike over school funding Read More »
More pupils leave schools when they become sponsored academies than when they are under local authority control, a new report has shown. Researchers at Education Datalab analysed up to three years of data for 149 schools. Among those that became sponsored academies in 2010-11, the rate of pupils leaving – to other schools, alternative provision,
Sponsored academies lose more pupils after takeovers Read More »