All posts tagged: central

Academy trust central teams gobble up £200m

Academy trust central teams gobble up £200m

Published by skeptic

More from this theme Recent articles The country’s biggest academy trusts now extract £200 million from their schools’ budgets to fund growing central teams. Analysis by Schools Week of the 30 largest trusts found the average amount top-sliced has risen by 50 per cent per pupil since 2021. This dwarfs the 16 per cent rise in school funding over the same period. Trusts say they are centralising more services because it saves money overall and frees up staff time to focus on the classroom. ‘MATs absorbing more funding’ But Daniel Kebede, the general secretary of the National Education Union, claimed academy freedoms led to “an unbalanced system where MAT officialdom and booming CEO pay is absorbing an ever-greater proportion of funding, while teachers and support staff suffer. “We also need much greater transparency in MAT finances to ensure that school funding is going where it should be: frontline teaching and learning.” Daniel Kebede Schools Week analysis shows amounts charged to fund central teams in the biggest trusts rose to just over £198 million in 2023-24. …

Space South Central programme aimed at bridging skills gap now open

Space South Central programme aimed at bridging skills gap now open

Published by skeptic

Tech professionals are being urged to join a programme to help secure the future of the UK space sector. The course called ‘Securing the Future of Space: Space Software and Data/AI Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Programme‘ is delivered by experts from the Space South Central partnership of universities of Portsmouth, Southampton and Surrey and is now open for a second round. READ MORE: Portsmouth Uni debuts branch medicine model to address GP shortage Space South Central is the UK’s largest space cluster and connects business and academia to encourage innovation, collaboration and growth across the thriving space sector in Hampshire, Surrey and the Isle of Wight. The course, funded by the UK Space Agency (UKSA), aims to address the critical skills gap in the sector by empowering mid-career professionals with expertise in software, data, and artificial intelligence (AI) – supporting the UK’s growing £16.5 billion space industry Dr Louise Butt, director of Space South Central, said: “Our region has a long-standing heritage of space innovation and expertise. However, skills gaps, shortages, and recruitment challenges pose …

Academy trusts have been central to UK government vision for schools for years – but that may be changing

Academy trusts have been central to UK government vision for schools for years – but that may be changing

Published by skeptic

The transformation of a local authority school into an academy is supposed to lead to school improvement. This seemed to be the case at Mossbourne Victoria Park academy in Hackney, at least in terms of its results and good-behaviour policies. But the school has also recently received criticism from parents, who – as reported in the Observer – have described the way staff treat pupils as “scary” and as “psychological abuse”. In response, the Mossbourne Federation told the Observer: “We were saddened to read these accounts as we do not recognise the characterisation of the school. While we have high expectations of behaviour and attitudes to learning, we are very proud of being a diverse and inclusive trust, in which children and young people thrive and go on to secure outstanding results. “We take any issues raised by parents seriously and investigate them fully. We have also had external reviews by Ofsted and the local authority – in none of these were any concerns raised.” Academies are state-funded schools in England that are independent of …

How academy trusts parachute in central teams

How academy trusts parachute in central teams

Published by skeptic

More from this theme Recent articles Trust bosses have defended parachuting in central team staff to their schools during Ofsted inspections after the union representing inspectors raised “significant concerns”. Last month Sir Martyn Oliver, Ofsted’s chief, claimed some trust leaders were “putting pressure” on inspectors and making inspections “more adversarial”. Two trusts sent in seven extra staff, Schools Week has found. Another flooded one of its schools with 25. Inspectors say the practice is impacting their ability to evaluate “normal practice” at schools. One critic likened it to gaming. But trusts say separating central leaders and schools “completely misunderstands” the point of MATs, stressing they are the same organisation. Extra support helps limit disruption and supports school staff, they say. Schools Week investigates… What are the different approaches? Ofsted said it expects to “see a school as it operates on any other day”, with inspectors expected to meet staff directly responsible for management and governance. “As a minimum” this would include a trust’s chief executive. But inspectors “will recognise” that this could be more than one …

At least 42 Palestinians killed as Israel ramps up bombing in central Gaza | Israel-Palestine conflict News

At least 42 Palestinians killed as Israel ramps up bombing in central Gaza | Israel-Palestine conflict News

Published by Sam

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu says conditions for reaching a ceasefire in Gaza have improved. At least 42 people have been killed in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip, medical sources told Al Jazeera Arabic, as Israeli forces stepped up their bombardment of central areas and tanks pushed deeper into the enclave’s north and south. Six people were killed in two air strikes on a house and near Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip while four others were killed when an Israeli strike hit a motorcycle in Khan Younis in the south, the Reuters news agency reported on Thursday, quoting medics. Later, an Israeli air strike near a tent camp housing displaced families in eastern Khan Younis killed at least five people and wounded others. In Nuseirat refugee camp, Israeli warplanes carried out several air attacks, destroying a multistorey building and hitting roads outside mosques. At least 11 people were killed in the strikes, according to health officials at al-Awda Hospital in the camp. They said in a statement that dozens …

Reach expands central editorial team with hire of 60 journalists

Reach expands central editorial team with hire of 60 journalists

Published by Sam

Reach website Birmingham Live Reach has said it is hiring 60 new editorial staff which will include “audience writers” and “general assignment journalists”. The journalists will work across websites including the Mirror, Express, Manchester Evening News, Daily Record, Birmingham Live and Chronicle Live. The new roles will also include social video journalists working in newsrooms including the Mirror, Express, Daily Star, Daily Record, Liverpool Echo and Wales Online. According to Reach, these video journalists “will be tasked with turning the day’s biggest stories into social video, as well as helping to shape the news agenda daily with newsroom leaders”. The move follows a major re-organisation in March which saw 300 journalists (out of a company total of around 2,000) move into the Reach Content Hub. These journalists write traffic-driving content which is shared across multiple sites covering trending stories, wellbeing, money and other subjects. Thanks for subscribing. Close The hub is focused on creating “mainstream popular content” rather than news targeted at particularly local audiences. Reach said more production journalists will now be added to …

Children’s Commissioner calls for central register of children not in school

Children’s Commissioner calls for central register of children not in school

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A new report by the Children’s Commissioner for England, Dame Rachel de Souza, has called on the Department for Education (DfE) to ‘make sure no child falls under the radar’ by introducing a central database of children not in school. Humanists UK welcomes this as a key step in closing one of the legal loopholes exploited by proprietors of illegal faith schools. These proprietors claim that children are being home-educated and attend their establishments for supplementary religious education. The lack of any register means these claims go uninvestigated. The report, Children Missing Education: The Unrolled Report builds on previous investigations by the office of the Children’s Commissioner into attendance and home education, to provide the first in-depth analysis of the procedures local authorities follow to support children missing education. In Summer 2023, the Children’s Commissioner’s office issued a data request to all local authorities in England and identified that 11,576 children were recorded as listed as missing education between Spring 2021-22 and Spring 2022-23. Of this figure 2,868 were still recorded as missing education. The …

Raging wildfires in central Greece leave two people dead | Climate Crisis News

Raging wildfires in central Greece leave two people dead | Climate Crisis News

Published by Sam

Two people have died in a rugged mountainous area in central Greece while trying to help firefighters tackle a forest fire that has forced several villages to be evacuated, authorities have said. The fire near Corinth, 140 kilometres (87 miles) west of Athens, was still burning on Monday, fanned by fierce winds. Greek police spokeswoman Constantina Dimoglidou said the recovered bodies were severely burnt and that laboratory tests were necessary for their identification. The fire brigade has launched an investigation, the Greek Ministry of Citizen Protection said. Smoke from the fire, which burned several homes and a church, hovered over the capital throughout Monday. Greece, like other southern European countries, is plagued by destructive wildfires in the summer that have been exacerbated by global warming. The country this year has experienced its hottest-ever summer after its warmest winter on record, which left large areas with scant or no rain. Over the past few months, authorities have had to cope with more than 4,500 wildfires in countryside left parched by a protracted drought and early summer …

Storm Boris rages on in eastern and central Europe

Storm Boris rages on in eastern and central Europe

Published by Sam

This aerial photograph taken on September 15, 2024 shows a view of the flooded city center in Glucholazy, southern Poland. SERGEI GAPON / AFP One person has drowned in Poland and four people are missing in the Czech Republic, authorities said on Sunday, September 15, as Storm Boris lashed central and eastern Europe with torrential rains and flooding. Since Thursday, swathes of Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia have been hit by high winds and unusually fierce rains. The storm has already caused the death of four people in Romania, and thousands have been evacuated from their homes across the continent. Read more Subscribers only After a year of records, heatwaves and floods continue to rage across the planet “We have the first confirmed death by drowning, in the Klodzko region” on the Polish-Czech border, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Sunday morning. Tusk was travelling through the southwest of the country, which has been hit hardest by the floods. Around 1,600 people have been evacuated in Klodzko, and Polish authorities have called …

Prince Harry Says Battling Tabloids Was ‘Central Piece’ to Family Rift

Prince Harry Says Battling Tabloids Was ‘Central Piece’ to Family Rift

Published by Sam

new video loaded: Prince Harry Says Battling Tabloids Was ‘Central Piece’ to Family Rift transcript Back transcript Prince Harry Says Battling Tabloids Was ‘Central Piece’ to Family Rift In an interview airing on ITV on Thursday, Prince Harry talks about his marathon battle with British tabloids over privacy and the effect it had on his relationship with other royals. “To what extent do you think that your determination to fight the tabloids destroyed the relationship with your family?” “I think there’s — that’s certainly a central piece to it. But they — that’s a hard question to answer because anything I say about my family results in a torrent of abuse from the press. I’ve made it very clear that this is something that needs to be done. It would be nice if we did it as a family. I believe that, again, from a service standpoint, and when you’re in a public role, that these are the things that we should be doing for the greater good. But, I’m doing this, I’m doing this …