News

“Britain’s strictest headteacher” re-iterates her philosophy on rightwing podcast

10 March 2026

Katharine Birbalsingh sets out views including that hers is the only school in Britain “teaching British history properly”

Catholic multi-academy trust saw top-paid person’s pay jump by six figures last year, to more than £300,000

6 March 2026

Rise in remuneration for top-paid person at Nicholas Postgate Catholic Academy Trust in England’s north-east was the highest yet seen by this website in 2024-25.

Chair of board at under-pressure Mossbourne Federation stands down

6 March 2026

The seven-school “tough love” academy chain has been under intense scrutiny since a safeguarding review made serious criticisms of behaviour management practice at one of its schools

Multi-academy trust faces questions over its 25 per cent topslice

4 March 2026

Central charges at University of Chichester (Multi) Academy Trust increased five-fold in 2024-25, its latest accounts show, with one secondary having £1.6m of its budget retained by the central trust, and two primaries facing a topslice of nearly £1m each.

“If we have to reveal it, we have to”: How academy trust at centre of behaviour row spent £400,000 on legal fees

27 February 2026

The Mossbourne Federation, which describes itself as having a “no excuses” philosophy of “tough love,” spent the money on bringing in a top barrister to conduct a “parallel” review alongside a statutory safeguarding investigation into behaviour management practice at one of its schools, and on using solicitors to interact with the latter.

All schools in England to become academies, DfE appears to confirm

25 February 2026

Even schools within new local authority “school trusts” will be academies, the department states having been asked for clarity about moves set out in its white paper.

Moderately-sized academy trust shells out £175,000 on non-contractual pay-off to a former staff member

13 February 2026

But details are elusive as to what might have driven this, within overall pay-offs at this trust last year dwarfing those at England’s largest chains.

Court over-rules UK Information Commissioner, finding academy trust broke the law in dismissing couple’s FOI request as “vexatious”

12 February 2026

Bosco Catholic Education Trust, currently ultimately controlled by the man who is to become the leader of the Catholic church in England and Wales, should have responded to questions about how it responded to official investigations, tribunal finds.

Catholic academy chain nearly £10 million in the red, as accounts reveal it also broke government financial transaction rules

10 February 2026

St Ralph Sherwin Catholic Multi-Academy Trust sees finances slide from position which was reported as already the worst in the sector as of last year.

How staff and parent campaign toppled the leadership of 24-school academy trust

9 February 2026

CEO, chair of board, finance committee chair, finance director and well-known trust member have left Arthur Terry Learning Partnership in recent weeks. New vice-chair’s DfE history and role as a School Resource Management Adviser may also raise eyebrows, given trust’s recent struggles.

Teachers at world-famous hospital school extend strike to 20 days

3 February 2026

Petition “standing with” staff at the Great Ormond Street Hospital school reaches 1,400 signatures.

24-school academy trust “using EHCP and pupil premium cash to fund its central topslice,” union says chain has admitted

28 January 2026

The Arthur Terry Learning Partnership faced huge anger on this and other issues around its financial management, at demonstration in London yesterday.

Academy chief executive says he hopes Labour politicians who challenged trust takeover will be “washed away” at next elections – prompting deputy council leader to call on him to resign

23 January 2026

Staggering war of words between Michael Gosling, chief executive of Trinity Multi-Academy Trust, and Scott Patient of Calderdale council, follows rapid collapse of Trinity’s proposed “merger” with Pennine Alliance Learning Trust.

Average pay and pensions packages for CEOs of academy trusts, just outside England’s 10 largest, approached £300,000 last year

22 January 2026

New analysis by Education Uncovered shows a £200,000 salary is becoming standard among larger chains – with pensions payments where disclosed averaging more than £50,000.

School confirms move to join multi-academy trust already signed off by government, but without yet any detail for parents

21 January 2026

Aylesford School also fails to mention plans to end its existence as a single academy trust, in accounts signed off after this proposal had been publicised by the DfE.

Traditionalist academy chain pulls out of “merger” with smaller trust after local outcry

20 January 2026

Trinity Multi-Academy Trust will no longer join up with the Pennine Alliance Learning Trust, after concerns raised about a clash of culture including a local MP, a union and councillors, and with students seemingly poised to protest this week.

No sign of action by academy trust on recommendations of reviews triggered by parental concerns about its behaviour policies

16 January 2026

Mossbourne Federation appears yet to make any changes to its governors, trustees or members, or to amend messages discouraging emails from parents, with local children’s safeguarding commissioner this week describing lack of detailed reaction so far as “not good enough”.

Academy trust appears to pay its former chief executive £250,000 – for nine months’ work

16 January 2026

Relatively lenient disclosure requirements on academy trusts in terms of senior leader pay make it impossible to know for sure the recipient of the money. But its leader for most of the year was Julian Drinkall – who strangely seems to have been in a similar position four years ago.

Not a single parent in evidence, anywhere in governance system of controversial traditionalist academy trust

15 January 2026

The Mossbourne Federation has no parents recorded as serving either on its overarching trust board, or on the governing bodies of its schools.

Academy puts in bid to join 14-school chain – without telling parents

14 January 2026

Mystery also surrounds missing headteacher at Aylesford School, Warwick, who has not been seen there for months.

Academy trust whose effective “topslice” charge to its schools appears to be 24 per cent says the real figure is “closer to five per cent”

9 January 2026

But where is the detail from the Arthur Terry Learning Partnership?

Future Academies still appears not to be compliant with DfE governance rules, despite its directors’ past history as government policymakers

8 January 2026

11-school academy chain appears to have schools without elected parents, despite this being against both the DfE’s Academy Trust Handbook and its own articles of association, while also seeming to lack elected staff members on governing bodies, despite this being stipulated in its constitution.

Beleaguered academy trust reveals £4m in-year loss and £4.5m loans from government – as its effective 24 per cent topslice charge on school budgets is set out in accounts

6 January 2026

Scale of financial struggles facing Arthur Terry Learning Partnership is revealed in financial statements for 2024-25.

Ofsted’s apparent failings on Mossbourne inspection appear part of a pattern

19 December 2025

Education Uncovered investigations into six other schools repeatedly showed documentable concerns emerging, but with little acknowledgement of them in Ofsted’s published reports, or impact on their ratings.

Teachers at world-famous hospital school complain of “toxic” working environment which has seen them out on 14 days of strike

18 December 2025

The Great Ormond Street Hospital school has had a stable workforce for years, with teachers testifying to “incredibly rewarding” work with extremely sick children. But the atmosphere has changed in recent months, a union states.

Former headteacher and DfE adviser Ruth Miskin sees her phonics company’s value climb to £19 million

18 December 2025

Post-tax profits at Ruth Miskin Literacy, whose sole shareholder is Dame Ruth, have approached £10 million in the past four years. The company turns 20 years old on Sunday. It plans to invest in an expansion drive overseas, say the accounts.

Two-school academy trust bidding to cut teaching assistant pay by "up to £4,000 per year" – despite reserves of nearly £4 million

16 December 2025

Strike action at Woodfield School, run by Compass Learning Partnership, which also spent more than £1.35 million on “key management personnel” in 2023-24.

77,000 detentions in 3.5 years – but will “no excuses” culture at Mossbourne Victoria Park Academy change?

12 December 2025

Damning review of implementation of behaviour policies at the London school came with recommendations to which the government says the trust must now respond.

“Our curriculum review is not a ‘copy and paste’ from England,” senior Northern Ireland civil servant tells Assembly members

11 December 2025

“Knowledge-rich” reforms are drawing support from across the political spectrum internationally, committee told.

Councils warn home-to-school transport system is “outdated, expensive and failing families”

9 December 2025

“We’re working with a 1940s system in 2025,” Public Accounts Committee hears, with £2.5 billion being spent. Reporter: Ciara Cassidy.

Two schools which fought off privatisation get “wonderful” early Christmas present – as donor clears their debts

8 December 2025

Anonymous donor appears to have come up with a six-figure gift, to ease schools' money worries.

Sound familiar? Controversial Conservative education reforms seemingly heading for Northern Ireland

3 December 2025

Education Minister Paul Givan has introduced a raft of reforms drawing heavily on the work of Michael Gove and Nick Gibb, with well-known traditionalist educationists from England brought in en masse to offer their advice.

Teachers at troubled chain of free schools to be balloted on strike action

1 December 2025

Move comes after Canary Wharf College proposes its takeover by another local academy chain – and then announces plans to cut its distinctive long holidays while reducing length of the school day, with two months’ notice.

School’s £300,000 legal bills revealed through freedom of information response

24 November 2025

Pensby High School, on the Wirral, has paid the money in legal battles, including against parents and a former staff member.

Government makes significant concession to overseas-trained teachers, as recruits from six countries are given fast-track access to Qualified Teacher Status

21 November 2025

Move follows coverage in Observer last year of conditions facing Jamaican recruits to Harris Federation schools

Cutting academy reserves to level seen in LA schools would release £1.5 billion for spending in classrooms

18 November 2025

Academies sector as a whole had £2.7 billion sitting in reserves in 2023-24, this website's analysis shows, as DfE says schools could be doing more to make use of their funds.

The academy chains sitting on £1 billion of reserves

18 November 2025

Some 63 academy trusts collectively held £1 billion in 2023-24, DfE data shows, with the 10 with the highest levels of reserves sitting on a third of a billion between them.

Under-pressure academy trust forced by minister to reverse its decision to close school sixth form

17 November 2025

The 24-school academy chain has had its proposed closure of Nether Stowe School’s sixth form in Lichfield blocked by the government, with ministers concerned about local options for students.

Campaigners launch crowdfunding drives, shining spotlights on school attendance pressures and the experience of Ofsted

13 November 2025

Stressful scenarios within education could both benefit from greater scrutiny and discussion, the fundraisers argue.

The local authority where eight academy trust chief executives are paid more than the Prime Minister

11 November 2025

Union branch secretary, who carried out the research, said “the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of MAT executives” was undermining the principle of public education.

Academy trust cuts sanction for children with “inappropriate hairstyles” from three days in isolation to two

3 November 2025

Pupils at the Gorse Academies Trust also face “isolation” for “lines in their eyebrows,” for uniform violations, or for forgetting their student planner twice, its behaviour policy states. However, the chain running academies in Leeds has reduced the severity of some of its sanctions, which faced scrutiny this summer during a judicial review case brought by three pupils. Meanwhile, Michaela Community School can place children in “referral” for offences over uniform, hairstyle and “damaging the School’s reputation”.

Scores of job cuts lined up by academy trust, whose schools’ “topslice” soared up to six-fold in three years

22 October 2025

Last year the Arthur Terry Learning Partnership charged its schools a topslice of 20 per cent - more than £1m each in five of its schools. It is now poised to cut up to 100 jobs.

Academy trust which ran into trouble after spending “millions” on iPads for pupils and staff now under fire over plans to close school sixth form

20 October 2025

Arthur Terry Learning Partnership has told parents that the sixth form had had “very low numbers for a number of years”. Yet its roll had been beyond that set out in its funding agreement with the DfE.

“Absurd” demands being placed on Ofsted inspectors by new inspection framework, new analysis suggests

14 October 2025

Former senior inspectors calculate that inspection teams are being asked to make more than 300 judgements on each primary school during their short visits, based on content of Ofsted’s guidance for inspectors.

Schools are rejecting children because of their additional needs, says select committee chair. But Ofsted gives no indication it will hold institutions to account

14 October 2025

Sir Martyn Oliver, chief inspector, also said it was “staggering” that 84 per cent of children’s homes are now operated by private providers.

Union reaches 25th day of strikes over impact of closure of alternative provision facility in East London

10 October 2025

NEU seeking to cap class sizes and guarantee learning support assistants at London East Alternative Provision centre.

Disadvantage gap for access to some subjects outside the EBacc core has grown dramatically in past 10 years, new data analysis shows

9 October 2025

Children attending schools in poorer areas now much more likely than they were a decade ago not to be offered courses in design and technology, music, or performing arts.

DfE seeks consultants for £500-a-day work to rewrite England’s national curriculum

8 October 2025

Invitation to tender document also reveals that ministers expect much of the detailed programmes of study work on the curriculum to be completed by next summer. But the instruction to consultants is: you must not use AI.