News

DfE urged by subject associations to make radical changes to English GCSE, among host of other recommendations

4 July 2025

English associations looking for change which appears to go beyond the curriculum and assessment review's promise of "evolution, not revolution".

Major project to investigate teacher effectiveness defends itself against possible concerns, including financial support from high-profile trading firm

2 July 2025

Teacher Education Dataset project, using pupils' assessment results from multi-academy trusts involved in the National Institute of Teaching, has had to guarantee that the data will be anonymised so that it cannot be used for teacher accountability.

School, which told community it struggled to find money for heating, finds £200,000 for legal case against parents

27 June 2025

Judge orders transparency over payments for legal costs, following Freedom of Information challenge

Schools on strike over Catholic multi-academy trust’s alleged 20 per cent-plus topslice

25 June 2025

Nicholas Postgate Catholic Academy Trust said to be charging schools for services local authority would be providing for free.

String of schools featured by Education Uncovered have high teacher turnover rates, official DfE data show

23 June 2025

School-by-school statistics show high teacher departure rates in some institutions.

Scrap the “dual science route” at GCSE, Association for Science Education proposes, in broad-ranging critique of curriculum and assessment regimes

20 June 2025

Education Uncovered is looking ahead to the publication of the government’s final Curriculum and Assessment Review report, in the autumn, by covering responses from subject associations. Detailed subject-by-subject findings did not appear in the interim report, published in March. So it seems important to document what subject associations have been saying, especially as some of their conclusions appear to contradict the review’s overall pledge of an “evolution, not revolution” approach to reform. In the first, then, of what I hope will be an ongoing series, I report below on the submission of the Association for Science Education.

Teachers at super-strict academy told to hand out 25 detentions a week - whatever their pupils’ behaviour

18 June 2025

Staff also told to award reward points - but to "sanction" pupils who fail to "track the teacher," or who slump at their desks

Three children, who spent nearly 1,000 hours in “isolation” in single academic year, at centre of legal challenge against multi-academy trust

11 June 2025

Gorse Academy Trust's isolation policy under detailed scrutiny during judicial review hearing in Leeds.

Secondary school lost one in six of its year seven to nine pupils, after introducing hardline behaviour policy

6 June 2025

Ark Alexandra Academy in Hastings, East Sussex, has been subject of sustained controversy, including criticism from local MP and union. Now new statistics show scale of pupil departures.

Mother details ADHD child’s rapid slide from excitement to anxiety over new secondary school rules

6 June 2025

"You can't punish the SEN out of a child," parent argues, after her son went off sick from Ark Alexandra Academy, never to return.

Proposed job cuts at Harris Federation reduced by two thirds following union pressure – but strike action at four schools still possible

3 June 2025

Harris reduces number of positions facing redundancy from 45 to 15.

Labour MP hails government’s decision not to award schools to major academy trust

23 May 2025

Academy controversies in Hastings, East Sussex, shine a light on struggle to bring local accountability to management decisions, say critics.

Schools failing Ofsted inspection could be merged with another local authority institution, former education secretary David Blunkett proposes

20 May 2025

Argument on whether always to force academisation on schools in Ofsted's lowest categories returns to the House of Lords today.

Find your “moral force” – it might come in handy if you’re about to make staff redundant, leader of academy sector group appears to suggest

20 May 2025

Leora Cruddas, of Confederation of School Trusts, raises eyebrows after citing Gramsci's thinking on staying strong.

Another major academy trust in large-scale redundancy drive

16 May 2025

Now Academy Transformation Trust planning to cut frontline and central service jobs.

Revealed: how academies dominate government’s new childcare places scheme

14 May 2025

New analysis shows how schools in multi-academy trusts comprised almost two-thirds of the successful bidders for expansion of childcare scheme.

Harris could save millions by reducing executive spending to that seen at other large MATs, new analysis shows

13 May 2025

Harris would save more than £4 million if its spending on six-figure salaries were the same, per pupil, as that of England's biggest academy trust.

“Like nothing I’ve seen in decades” Unions lift the lid on Harris redundancy plans

9 May 2025

Education Uncovered sets out the detail and controversy around plans by England's second-largest academy chain to cut more than 40 frontline jobs.

Cut the number and length of GCSE exam papers to boost pupil wellbeing, says head of one of England’s big three exam boards

7 May 2025

England's big three boards are now all calling for reductions in the number of exams pupils take.

Academy trust running the West London Free School “will have to make up to 10 per cent of staff redundant”, Conservative peer tells House of Lords

2 May 2025

Debate on Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill also saw national wellbeing measurement again discussed.

Headteacher joins union picket line in dispute involving multi-academy trust for whom she works

1 May 2025

Head calls for more transparency over budgets of schools within Nicholas Postgate Catholic Academy Trust, in dispute which puts spotlight on local vs centralised control of schools.

Brace yourself: Lords Agnew, Nash, Baker and Harris lined up to speak on schools bill, with Gove waiting in the wings

30 April 2025

Host of former education ministers poised to speak, with measures on academisation likely to continue to provoke debate.

Proportion of English pupils saying they dislike school doubles in eight years

29 April 2025

England sadly now has third-highest figure of any nation within the TIMSS study saying they do not like school

Academy applications slump to 10-year low for the first two months of 2025

24 April 2025

Low voluntary application numbers in both January and February this year, following spike in December.

Teach climate change throughout the curriculum, reform school accountability and cut assessment burden, argues England’s largest exam board

23 April 2025

Submission by AQA board to DfE's curriculum and assessment inquiry offers wide-ranging critique of set-up.

Unofficial consultation on Ofsted proposals draws overwhelming thumbs down from respondents

22 April 2025

"Alternative Big Consultation" shows 88 per cent of respondents rejecting inspectorate's plans for report cards.

Government still footing the bill for failed Bright Tribe chain and sister trust, four years after closure, DfE report reveals

4 April 2025

Disclosures in DfE documents also reveal extra payments of £3m over four years in relation to three free schools in England's South West.

National pupil wellbeing survey needed to help schools understand causes of persistent absence and exclusion, conference hears

3 April 2025

Calls for pupil wellbeing statistics to be collected as we do for many other aspects of schooling.

Revealed: PR agency’s £180-an-hour charge for pro-academy spin

2 April 2025

The academisation of two primary schools in Brighton and Hove shines a light on costs of public relations, and a trust's influence over the process, as revealed through a Freedom of Information response.

Amanda Spielman’s nomination for peerage by Conservatives underlines politicisation of role of chief inspector of schools

31 March 2025

Backing by Michael Gove and the Spectator also underscores closeness with Conservative ministers, with report last year also criticising limited impact of Ofsted's board.

Academy trust spends £235,000 on one-day “celebration” event for staff and governors

27 March 2025

Cost revealed through FOI, as union tells Education Uncovered of plans to ballot members on strike action over lengthening of school day.

School which was forced into arms of England’s largest academy trust now facing crisis

26 March 2025

Holland Park School in West London has announced departure of its fifth headteacher in four years, while NEU staff members put together an explosive letter warning of "unsustainable" situation under United Learning Trust.

Furious headteachers and governors reject diocese’s move to propel them into church multi-academy trusts

25 March 2025

"Consultation" response from schools says diocese's move was "dictatorial rather than nurturing".

Commons hears call for nationwide measurement of children’s wellbeing in schools

19 March 2025

Lengthy report also suggested that impact of school behaviour policies on children's wellbeing should be tested.

Ofsted rates another Astrea secondary as good – in teeth of worst parental ratings of any major trust last year

17 March 2025

Controversial trust racks up a hat-trick of "good" inspection results, despite parent responses in Ofsted surveys.

Employment in the family: is this the highest number of related party transactions in an academy trust?

13 March 2025

Gorse Academies Trust has multiple declarations of employment of family members set out in its accounts.

Departing academy CEO received nearly £200,000 in pensions payments – or did he? UPDATE: no he didn't!

12 March 2025

Very high pensions contributions listed in 2022-23 accounts - only to be changed in following year's financial statements. It has now been confirmed that the figure published in the 2022-23 accounts was wrong.

No mention of the 168 people paid six figures at the Harris Federation – and other strange aspects of new Taxpayers’ Alliance report on academy pay

11 March 2025

TPA’s first report on academy leader remuneration, more than two decades after launch of the policy, is full of holes, despite garnering coverage in national media.

Half of England’s academy trusts lack elected or appointed parents in their governance

7 March 2025

Education Uncovered analysis also shows fewer than one in 25 MAT boards feature elected or appointed parents

Academy trust, where pay of its leader surged at least 14% last year, suspends union rep for speaking out about budget pressures

6 March 2025

Hundreds of people sign petition calling for re-instatement of teacher at Excel Learning Trust, formerly South Bank Multi-Academy Trust.

Harris Federation ends practice of paying Jamaican teachers as “unqualified,” regardless of their experience

4 March 2025

Move announced as strike action affecting 18 academies had been looming.

Revealed: How the list of £250k-plus academy leaders remains dominated by men

28 February 2025

First look at top academy pay rankings for 2023-24 shows 10 people received quarter-million salaries.

School subjected deaf member of support staff to disability discrimination and victimisation after requiring her to work on-site during pandemic, tribunal finds

26 February 2025

Charlotte Bentley wins employment tribunal verdict after protracted dispute with Oaks Park High School in Redbridge, north-east London

“Clear” that multi-academy trust should have been paying tax on its phonics product income, accounting expert states

14 February 2025

Wandle Learning Trust faces fresh questions over its Little Wandle product.

Strike action on the ballot at Harris Federation primary, controversially academised last term

14 February 2025

Former Byron Court primary in north London holding vote.

Did teachers at one controversial Astrea academy have to miss lessons to be on site at an Ofsted inspection at another?

12 February 2025

Astrea's use of external staff during inspections feeds into the multi-faceted current debate about Ofsted.

Revealed: the academy trust leader whose pay has trebled in 10 years

3 February 2025

The chief executive of England’s 11th-largest multi-academy trust saw his pay rise by at least £40,000 last year, or 13 per cent –meaning that his remuneration has trebled in the past decade.

Pay of leader of England’s largest multi-academy trust rose by up to 15 per cent last academic year

31 January 2025

The pay of the chief executive of England’s largest multi-academy trust rose by up to 15 per cent last academic year, newly-released accounts information has shown.