Huw Lewis, the Welsh Education Minister, has announced new guidelines which aim to transform teacher training courses in Wales, including a new two-year postgraduate course and greater subject specialism for primary school teachers.
Former Education Secretary David Blunkett has questioned the government’s plan to convert every school into an academy by 2020, warning that it is ‘doomed to fail’.
The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) and the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference have warned that pupils could be harmed by Ofqual’s proposals to make it harder for schools to successfully challenge GCSE and A-level grades.
Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) will be replaced by a ‘stronger, more challenging accreditation’, according to a new Department for Education (DfE) white paper.
Further details of the government’s plans to convert all primary and secondary school in England into academies have been outlined in the ‘Educational Excellence Everywhere’ white paper.
The Department for Education (DfE) has announced plans to launch an ‘Excellence in Leadership Fund’, which will encourage multi-academy trusts and other providers to develop ‘innovative ways of boosting leadership’.
According to David Anderson QC, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, the government’s anti-extremism Prevent strategy is inhibiting free speech in schools and encouraging teachers to avoid ‘toxic’ issues of extremism.
Schools Minister Nick Gibb gave a speech at the Best in Class Summit, taking place at Sutton Trust, outlining the government’s reforms to transform life chances through education and make schools the ‘engines of social mobility
A new curriculum for Welsh schools is expected to be delivered on time, and will see a number of changes including making computer skills a speciality which is as central to learning as literacy and numeracy.
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has criticised the sustainable schools policy in Northern Ireland as ineffective, claiming it operated on the basis of ‘flawed and inaccurate data’ and has called for it to be put under review.
