School’s careers programme proves successful one year on

One year after its launch, the Aspirations Programme, created by Hartlepool’s Dyke House Sports & Technology College (Dyke House), is already making great progress in helping students to reach out for career success. The Aspirations Programme was created to provide information, opportunities and support for pupils, parents and staff in order to raise aspiration and achievement …

Getting the priorities right: Pupil Premium and Closing the gap

“I dislike the ethos of so many of our comprehensives, where the imperative is to drag up the bovine thickos to some agreeably semi-literate level while the bright kids can go hang. It is all there in their epic disdain for competition and academic rigour, their indulgency of stupidity, the emphasis on the self-esteem of …

Grindon Hall school founders resign fearing it will “lose its Christian ethos”

Three founders of the school have resigned over fears that its faith ethos and its pupils’ exam performances will not survive a takeover by a new sponsor. Elizabeth Gray and John Burn, said they had no option but to resign from Grindon Hall Christian School, in Sunderland, due to concerns that "a secular sponsor will be …

National campaign against grammar school plans launched at Labour Party Conference

  Jeremy Corbyn said Labour members will "hit the streets" to expose the Conservative Party's "divisive and damaging agenda". The newly re-elected Labour leader used his victory speech to announce a campaign for "inclusive education for all" that will start with a street demonstration on Saturday, October 1. Mr Corbyn made a call for action to …

Plans underway for new strategy to improve Middlesbrough schools

Education chiefs at Middlesbrough Council are reportedly drawing up a new strategy with radical plans to tackle the underperformance of the area's schools. This comes after a report written by Lord Heseltine and commissioned by the Government, concluded that problems with education and skills are the "thorn in Tees Valley's side". Loca media are reporting that Council …

Ofsted grades for Northern Powerhouse schools “far too closely linked to APS on entry”, Sir Nick Weller tells North East Heads

The school leader chosen to lead a Government review of school performance in the North has highlighted a worrying correlation between average point scores (APS) and Ofsted outcomes, leaders attending the SCHOOLS NorthEast Annual General Meeting heard. Sir Nick Weller, head of the Northern Powerhouse schools review, published researched showing the breakdown of all Ofsted judgements and the …

Parents – ‘You’ve got to love them!’

‘Why?’ I hear you cry. Well I sympathise. I don’t think there will be a school leader in the land, who hasn’t been brought to the point of tears or past it by an intractable parental issue. I was introduced to this aspect of school leadership as a new deputy when the Head Teacher was …

Newcastle United and Kenton Academy Trust team up in “biggest wave of free schools”

Over 80,000 new school places will be created in a bid to deliver the Government's goal of opening 500 free schools by 2020. Education Secretary Justine Greening announced the approval of 77 new free schools on Friday, of which two are located in the North East: United West Academy and Laidlaw School Trust Alternative Provision …

Academies white paper will go ahead, Justine Greening confirms

The Education Secretary faced her first grilling in front of the Education Select Committee yesterday, where she announced the Government's plan to enact the Educational Excellence Everywhere white paper. Ms Greening explained to MPs that the Government is currently "pulling together" legislation to go ahead with the planned changes, adding that she wanted to focus …

But how do we do resilience?

We all know how important resilience and growth mindset (which aren’t interchangeable, but are certainly complementary) are to the development of successful learners. To be sure, research recently published by Iowa State University suggests that “grit” (the term generally preferred by Angela Duckworth and other American researchers) is less important in students’ success than other elements, namely teaching …