ACT - The Association of Christian Teachers

I am aware that you will now be making some operational changes to batched inspections, which you will now refer to as ‘MAT summary evaluations’, and that our officials have been discussing these changes. This includes scheduling school inspections that are part of a MAT summary evaluation over a period of up to two terms, rather than over a week. Once all school inspection reports have been published, you will then spend time speaking to MAT leaders and other headteachers across the MAT before sending and publishing a letter to the MAT leaders. As part of this time with the MAT, you also intend to carry out, only with the agreement of school and MAT leaders, short survey visits to schools not inspected as part of the MAT summary evaluation, to help inspectors get a rounded picture of the MAT.

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Urgent inspections of Steiner schools have been ordered by the Education Secretary, following an investigation by The Telegraph.

Damain Hinds has written to the chief inspector, Amanda Spielman, demanding that Steiner schools - both private and state funded - are subjected to “additional scrutiny” by Ofsted.

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Headteachers in the northeast of England have written to more than 300,000 parents over fears that their school budgets are at “breaking point”.  

The letter - sent ahead of the end of the Christmas term - urges parents to write to their MPs and sign a parliamentary petition to increase school funding and to support their child’s future. 

One head warns that the financial situation for schools has become “critical” and children will suffer unless action is taken.

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Exclusive: Ofsted could give schools just 150 minutes' notice             

Oxford and Cambridge are being accused of being so socially exclusive that they recruit more students from eight top schools than almost 3,000 other English state schools put together.

The Sutton Trust social mobility charity says the leading universities are failing to attract a wide enough range of talent.

Trust founder Sir Peter Lampl said all young people needed a "fair chance".

Oxford University said they were "very aware" that they "must work harder".

The study examined Oxford and Cambridge admissions data between 2015 and 2017 and found a handful of schools, mostly private, disproportionately dominating the number of places awarded.

The Sutton Trust says pupils from eight schools filled 1,310 Oxbridge places over three years, compared with 1,220 from 2,900 other schools.

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