ACT - The Association of Christian Teachers

Education Secretary Damian Hinds saw how Premier League football club Arsenal FC is helping school children learn and engage with modern foreign languages through its Double Club.

The Double Club is a pioneering initiative set up by the North London side and uses football to illustrate how learning a language can be fun, useful and engaging. The scheme culminates with pupils getting a guided tour of Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium.

On Thursday, 13 June, the Arsenal-supporting Secretary of State joined pupils from Sheffield Park Academy in Sheffield to see the stadium and meet Dan Lane, Gunners manager Unai Emery’s interpreter, to understand just how useful languages can be.

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The government would like the most selective maths universities to consider opening a maths school. It is committed to opening more across England during this parliament and has made funding available for that purpose.

2. This guidance is for universities and partner organisations, such as multi academy trusts (MATs), wishing to set up a maths school. It describes the key features of a maths school, the government’s requirements for a maths school, how to express an interest in and seek approval for establishing a maths school, and the criteria against which full business cases will be assessed.

Context

3. The government believes that universities have a great deal to offer the state school system. Supporting the school system to drive forward improvement and raise attainment can take a number of forms including formal sponsorship arrangements or opening a new school, such as a maths school, where the university has the skills and expertise to do so. There are of course other ways in which universities can support raising attainment in schools, such as being part of formal school governance arrangements, offering continuous professional development for teachers and collaborating on curriculum development.

What is a maths school?

4. Maths schools are free schools for 16 to 19 year pupils who have great aptitude for maths. As set out in the government’s Industrial Strategy

1, maths schools have a role to play in addressing shortages of highly skilled graduates in sectors that depend on science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) skills, sectors which are essential if we are to compete successfully in a global economy. The aim of maths schools is to prepare more of our most mathematically able pupils to succeed in mathematics-related disciplines at highly selective maths universities and pursue mathematically intensive careers.

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A controversial free school dubbed “the strictest in the country” will open a new school after securing government approval.

The new Michaela Community School, renowned for its “no excuses” behaviour policy, is one of 22 free schools given the green light in a bid to create thousands more places.

The secondary school in Stevenage will follow the same model as the original school in northwest London – which has repeatedly made the headlines for its strict approach to discipline.

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Detailed discussions have been held about how a Labour government would radically reform Ofsted as part of its plan for local, democratic accountability of schools, Tes can reveal.

The party's policy chiefs have been talking about how to change the current system over concerns about its reliability and the impact it has on workload and teacher retention, it is understood.

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Ofsted has called for the resumption of routine checks on outstanding schools, after 80% of those it re-inspected due to specific issues were downgraded.

England's schools standards watchdog re-inspected 305 schools rated outstanding, after concerns were raised about falling standards.

It said 256 lost their top-level rating as a result.

In 2011, inspectors were stopped from carrying out routine inspections of these top-rated schools.

The move, during Michael Gove's time as England's Education Secretary, aimed to focus resources on the worst-performing schools but was criticised at the time, as it meant hundreds of schools would not be checked at all.

Last year, Ofsted highlighted the issue, saying that as some schools had not been inspected for a decade or more, there was a chance their ratings no longer truly reflected standards at the school.

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