Rides on time for children’s learning at CVPS

Fairground showmen turned into classroom teachers this week as the children of Cramlington Village Primary School (CVPS) learned history and physics via bumper cars and carousels. The children were thrilled to learn about the history of the fairground when they visited Turners Fun Fair in Cramlington this week. Members of the Showman’s Guild of Great …

North East schools celebrate the Education Arts Festival

Schools across the country have been taking part in the Education Arts Festival 2021, using the creative arts to promote student wellbeing throughout the past year during the pandemic, and sharing the fantastic work of pupils on Twitter, which you can follow at #EduArtsFest. Morpeth Chantry Middle School, an Artsmark Platinum school, has creativity as …

North East charities write to the Secretary of State for Education about pupil premium

Regional organisations Schools North East, the North East Child Poverty Commission and Children North East have questioned the Government’s commitment to putting children and young people at the heart of the post-Covid recovery after new free school meal figures confirmed a multimillion-pound funding loss for the region’s schools. In March, the three organisations wrote jointly …

Schools North East welcome new trustees at AGM

Schools North East held its 13th Annual General Meeting 2020 this week (delayed due to coronavirus restrictions), welcoming Partner Schools virtually from across the region. We are delighted to announce the election of four new Trustees, all who have previously supported our work as members of our Head Teacher Advisory Board. The new trustees are: …

Generalised approach has failed disadvantaged white pupils, MPs warn

Following its inquiry into left behind white pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds, the House of Commons Education Committee published a report this week entitled, The forgotten: how White working-class pupils have been let down, and how to change it. While the focus of the report is white pupils from poorer backgrounds, the recommendations are an important …

Department for Education data shows North East Pupil Premium losses could be worse than forecast

New data from the Department for Education shows that there has been a 3.5% or 300,000 pupil rise in those who are eligible for free school meals across England between January 2020 and 2021. This means that there are 1.7 million pupils claiming free school meals. Other headline data from the DfE’s release showed that …

Ofsted Chief Inspector defends record to parliament’s education committee

Ofsted Chief Inspector Amanda Spielman went before the House of Commons education committee this week for an accountability hearing, as well as to give evidence on safeguarding in schools, following on from the publication last week of Ofsted’s review into sexual abuse in schools and colleges. Chair of the committee, Robert Halfon MP, opened by …

Gavin Williamson pledges a “broader vision” for schools

The Secretary of State for education addressed delegates at the Festival for Education where he pledged to announce a “broader vision” for schools later this year which will focus around the plan of working towards an academised model with all schools joining trusts, which was announced earlier this year.  This follows a week where the …

North East Schools utilise the creative arts to benefit pupil wellbeing

Pupils at Cragside Primary School, Newcastle and Newminster Middle School, Morpeth have taken part in the Education Arts Festival 2021, producing some fantastic pieces of work, as well as sharing them on Twitter which you can follow at #EduArtsFest. Alongside this, both schools have used the creative arts to promote student wellbeing throughout the past …

Damning response to lacklustre government ‘recovery’ plan

The government has announced a £1.4 billion ‘recovery’ plan for schools following the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. The funding, announced on Wednesday, is primarily to be used to support the existing National Tuition Programme, the development of “local tutoring provision”, and teacher training.  This works out at approx £50 extra per pupil over the …