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A specialist body of safeguarding officers should be set up within or separately from Ofsted because inspections are “too short” to cover the issue properly, a multi-academy (MAT) trust executive has said. Stephen Tierney, chief executive of the Blessed Edward Bamber Catholic MAT in Blackpool, said that safeguarding pupils was “too important” to be assessed as […]

More than a third of parents have been asked to donate money to their child’s school, according to a new survey by the Parent Teacher Association (PTA). Education leaders have said the findings again expose the “inadequacy of school funding”. Of 1,514 parents surveyed, 37 per cent recalled being asked to add to a school’s

The schools minister Nick Gibb has said he is “comfortable” with the way schools are dealing with rising cost pressures. It comes despite headteachers recently revealing how they are having to cut back on textbooks, cleaning and maintenance to balance the books, on top of making teaching and support staff redundant. The Institute for Fiscal

Chief reporter John Dickens launches our new weekly column with some of the most interesting findings from academy trust accounts for the 2015-16 financial year. An academy trust chief executive who resigned after a misconduct investigation received a payout of of more than £85,000. Denise Shepherd was suspended as chief executive of the Thinking Schools

The skills and apprenticeships minster has warned there is “clearly something wrong” with schools where “not enough” good careers advice is delivered as he launched the government’s ‘comprehensive careers strategy’. But Robert Halfon dismissed that funding was the sole issue, claiming instead it was due to the way a “school chooses to spend” their money.