❌ Labour’s off-rolling crackdown could finally 'shed light on a practice that is currently invisible' but must be supported by councils and trusts to work, experts have said https://schoolsweek.co.uk/off-rolling-curbs-welcomed-but-warnings-over-gaps-in-data/

💸 Academy bosses are urging ministers to give them 'clarity' over whether recently dumped trust growth funds will come back from the dead https://schoolsweek.co.uk/clarity-sought-as-trust-growth-funding-absent-from-white-paper/

‼️ A crackdown on off-rolling pupils, a call for standalone schools to join or form MATs and changes to the admissions code are among major plans unveiled in today's schools white paper https://schoolsweek.co.uk/schools-white-paper-the-key-schools-policies/

💸 An academy trust loaded with a £9 million deficit has been ordered to slash costs, as it banks on government bailouts to keep it afloat https://schoolsweek.co.uk/job-cuts-loom-at-trust-with-9m-deficit/

📝 One of England's biggest academy trusts fell foul of a 'historic fraud' over a number of years Read more 🔽

📝 Bosses of under-performing schools given targeted support through the government’s RISE improvement scheme have felt 'on trial' and ignored during the first few months of the programme

Exclusive: One of England’s first PFI schools struck a secret deal for taxpayers to cover a £1m 'bullet payment' to break free of its contract Analysis also suggests PFI owners of English schools could have made as much as £85.7m in profits in one year schoolsweek.co.uk/secret-1m-ba...

The prominent boss of a troubled academy trust saddled with a multi-million-pound deficit has resigned following a leave of absence schoolsweek.co.uk/ceo-of-arthu...

💸 Almost £440,000 was spent supporting a merger that created one of England’s biggest MATs schoolsweek.co.uk/coast-and-va...

📊 Changes rolled out across 32 local authorities as part of a Tory-era SEND pilot have cut exclusions and kept more children in mainstream education, a report has found schoolsweek.co.uk/piloted-in-s...

📝 An under-pressure academy trust broke rules over a £15,000 payment to a former school leader schoolsweek.co.uk/struggling-t...

❗️Exclusive: More than a thousand schools with poor outcomes slipped through the net of the government’s RISE low-attainment crackdown, exposing a 'significant gap' in its latest bid to boost results schoolsweek.co.uk/schoolboy-er...

💸 Exclusive: England’s best-paid academy boss has been given another pay rise, taking his salary to at least £530,000 schoolsweek.co.uk/best-paid-ac...

Exclusive: Ministers urged to recognise role played by governors as 'core component' of accountability framework for schools It comes as a study found schools with effective boards were better prepared for Ofsted visits and 'more likely to sustain improvement' schoolsweek.co.uk/schools-with...

Investigation: Dozens of academy trusts have bolstered their reserves by up to 900 per cent, as leaders tighten their belts ahead of the coming financial storm schoolsweek.co.uk/trusts-finan...

Two trust bosses have teamed up to develop their own artificial intelligence (AI) platform to solve the 'challenge of data fragmentation' in schools schoolsweek.co.uk/new-ai-platf...

📉 Exclusive: Classrooms in schools rocked by falling rolls could be used by the NHS as 'community health hubs', the boss of the Department for Education’s property arm has said schoolsweek.co.uk/community-he...

🏫 When Dr Jenny Blunden took charge at her Cornish trust, its three schools were 'broken' But in a fight against low aspirations, the CEO has added successful schools and continues to battle for them as budgets remain squeezed Read our profile of her here 🔽 schoolsweek.co.uk/dr-jenny-blu...

Exclusive: A 'turnaround' trust once criticised for controversial behaviour policies has revealed plans to boost its academies’ 'emotional intelligence' schoolsweek.co.uk/suspensions-...

📝 Exclusive: A government consultation on the broadening of its RISE school improvement teams’ remit has been delayed into this term schoolsweek.co.uk/rise-consult...

🔢 Exclusive: The government wants school management information systems (MIS) providers to help it 'harness the potential' of the real-time data they collect to inform policy decisions schoolsweek.co.uk/dfe-wants-to...

England’s biggest exam board has scrubbed the names of two photographers from one of its GCSE assessments over concerns their websites contain images that 'may not be appropriate' for students schoolsweek.co.uk/photographer...

🔢 Exclusive: Ministers are set to publish data on the effectiveness of new RISE school improvement teams in the spring – but they won’t out individual advisers for poor performance

❌ A trouble-hit academy trust has admitted it did not conduct internal financial checks as its deficit swelled to more than £8 million and it received another government loan to keep it afloat schoolsweek.co.uk/no-internal-...

Exclusive: One of England’s biggest academy trusts is set to give up two special schools after deciding they would be better off in a specialist chain schoolsweek.co.uk/lift-academy...

👨‍🏫 When Andrew Truby took leadership of a Catholic trust, he was on his own and had no schools He reveals how he built the 'home for orphans’ and secured its future, during a career that has been characterised by seizing opportunities... 🔽 schoolsweek.co.uk/andrew-truby...

Exclusive: School governing boards are urging Ofsted to ensure cash-strapped leaders are using SEND funding for children and not to fill other budgetary holes schoolsweek.co.uk/ofsted-shoul...

❗The success of one of the highest-performing schools in the country has been 'achieved at too high a cost for some pupils', a safeguarding investigation has found schoolsweek.co.uk/mossbourne-s...

Presenting edition 413 of Schools Week 💷 Investigation: The council schools with million-pound deficits 🏫 School spotlight: Internal AP 👂 Fears over last-minute SEND listening exercise Plus teacher recruitment, free school meals, falling rolls and more Subscribe: schoolsweek.co.uk/subscribe-to...

Some worrying findings here: 📈 71% rise in council-run schools in deficit in three years ❗️48 schools over £1m in the red 📝Deficit schools charged up to £340k in 'interest'

Amid the success, there are rumblings of discontent over admissions and inclusion on the Isle of Sheppey following one of England's biggest school restructures We look in depth at all that's happened… 👇

Exclusive: A pioneering three-school trust in London plans to join one of England’s biggest MATs in the latest high-profile academy merger schoolsweek.co.uk/big-educatio...

💸 A school has been refused permission to cut its intake by a quarter despite estimates of a 'catastrophic' £2 million deficit after the local authority opposed the plans

Just days after government's big announcement of their launch, new AI-generated attendance reports have been suspended... 😬

👀 Officials want to reduce the 'legal risks' schools face when buying MIS This follows a string of costly court fights, involving local authorities and some of England's biggest MATs...

We revealed last year how almost £200m had been handed to trusts through this secret fund There was no published guidance explaining what it was or who could access the money But now DfE seems to have finally responded to calls for greater transparency...

👔 Schools must 'confirm as soon as possible' and consider legal advice on any uniform changes needed for a new cap on branded items, with parents able to escalate any disputes to government schoolsweek.co.uk/school-unifo...

💸 One in five council-run primaries could be plunged into deficit as the falling rolls crisis deepens, with 20 per cent of teachers already laid off in the worst-hit areas

❗️Seventy-five trusts – one with a deficit of almost £6 million – raised concerns about their ability to continue operating in 2023-24, more than double the year before Our investigation ⬇️ schoolsweek.co.uk/academy-scho...

Exclusive: Reform UK-run Kent council plans to raid £2 million from schools’ already-squeezed budgets to pay for vital services it can no longer afford, sparking fears of more classroom cuts schoolsweek.co.uk/reform-run-k...

This year, SATs moderators will be tested on questions written by AI, rather than actual children’s work The pilot has been launched amid a government push to ‘harness the power of AI technology across the sector’ Our exclusive👇

💸 An academy trust broke rules after paying nearly £5,000 in 'consultancy services' to the mother of its CEO, a government investigation has found schoolsweek.co.uk/academy-trus...

❌ Exclusive: A controversial decision allowing a school to introduce fair banding has been withdrawn by the admissions watchdog over allegations important evidence was ignored

Our investigation found: 👤In a fifth of RISE schools, advisers brokered in support from organisations employing fellow advisers 🔁 Organisations providing RISE support have their own 'stuck' schools 👥️ MATs with more than one RISE school receiving support from different bodies

❗️This has reignited concerns over fair banding, with one head arguing it 'systematically discriminates against certain groups' Full story ⬇️

LAs have reported what they suggest are tactics by schools to skew cohorts One council even accused secondaries of practices that 'amount to selection' Our investigation into the issues hampering in-year pupil transfers ⬇️

Exclusive: A council has raised 'serious concerns' over Catholic schools lowering the importance of looked-after children in admissions after a youngster in care was refused a place at the school deemed 'most appropriate' by their social worker schoolsweek.co.uk/serious-conc...

Edition 404 done and dusted Special school admissions investigation The sector grades Ofsted Our first Boardroom Leader Northern Star Academies Trust takes the School Spotlight @edsupportuk.bsky.social CEO talks defining high stakes

Here, we take a closer look at the RISE expansion, as analysis suggests hundreds of schools could fall within scope of the teams' new powers... ⬇️

🖥️ Exclusive: A management information system (MIS) outage at a major supplier has left schools unable to pay suppliers, run after-school clubs and respond to safeguarding concerns