The Church of England has been involved in providing mass education since the founding of the National Society in 1811. Today this includes 4,700 schools educating over 1 million children, 11 Anglican Foundation Universities and many hundreds of thousands of Christians living out their vocation to a role in the education sector. Click here to download and read the CoE’s latest publication ‘Schools for Human Flourishing’.
Peter Hyman, former Blair aide, on being a head teacher: ‘Real delivery is about the grind, not just the grand. As head, I spend a lot of time trying to bat away, ameliorate, ignore government initiatives. There is too much activity and too much one-size-fits-all: with 24,000 schools, the same things can’t possibly apply to them all. The greater the distance I’ve travelled from government, the more sceptical I’ve become about how it operates.’ Read more
Is it possible for children to learn about the ‘Three Rs’, whilst at the same time acquiring the benefits of play? The answer is yes, yet there is little evidence to suggest the best way of going about doing it. And so it is for this reason that the Lego Foundation is campaigning for there to be a change of mind-set about play in education around the world. In response to a study conducted by Cambridge University, the Lego Foundation aims to look further into the benefits of play. Read more
Thirty-three careers programmes are to share a £9.5 million fund to run projects in areas of need across England. The Careers and Enterprise Company, set up by Nicky Morgan in 2014 and boosted earlier this year with a large chunk of the government’s £70 million careers funding, has announced its list of chosen projects aimed at ‘areas of greatest need’, many of which are working with schools. Read more
The head of a flagship multi-academy trust praised by the prime minister has resigned, leaving its five schools with an uncertain future. Chief executive of Birmingham’s Perry Beeches Academy Trust Liam Nolan is stepping aside so the trust ‘can move forward’, staff have been told. Two free schools due to be set up by the trust have been ‘paused’. The Education Funding Agency criticised the trust in March for ‘significant weakness in financial management’. Read more
The definition of ‘underperforming’ councils that will be used to force schools to convert to academies will be set out in a consultation and put to a vote of MPs. The education secretary told the House of Commons that new plans to convert all schools in areas where a council is either deemed to be underperforming or no longer financially able to support schools would be subject to an ‘affirmative resolution’ in the House of Commons. Read more