Paul Offord | FE Week

Large London college leaps two grades from inadequate

A large London College that was rated inadequate less than two years ago, has pulled back from the brink to register a ‘good’ overall Ofsted rating in a report out today. The report out today was full of praise for the leadership team at Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College. The good-overall verdict, with only […]

Ofsted accused of hiding huge gaps between inspections

Ofsted has been forced to deny that it removed inspection dates from its new promotional logos due to the length of gaps between inspections. The inspection watchdog recently released new logos that schools, colleges and providers are entitled to use in their own promotional materials if they receive ‘good’ and ‘outstanding’ ratings. The decision to […]

‘Golden hello’ maths teacher recruitment drive flops

A major government scheme that aimed to recruit more than 500 specialist maths teachers at colleges has accepted just 13 participants in its first year, FE Week can reveal. Former skills minister Matthew Hancock announced in February 2014 that up to £20 million would be made available to encourage the “brightest and the best” to […]

South-east triumphant at AoC sport championships

There was a shock result at last weekend’s 39th AoC Sport National Championships after the south-east claimed the coveted Wilkinson Sword for the first time in seven years. The team (pictured above) – who were runners-up in 2016 – wrestled the title off their local rivals the south-west, reigning champions for three years in a […]

Team UK selected for WorldSkills 2017 in Abu Dhabi

Apprentices from Toyota, Airbus and Topshop are among 32 of the country’s elite learners who have been selected to represent the UK and go for gold at WorldSkills Abu Dhabi later this year. The team [see below] will fly to the Middle East in October to compete against young people from 76 countries, in more […]

Highly unusual decision taken to extend principal’s notice period to full year

A large city college in “financial crisis” has taken the highly unusual step of extending the contract of employment notice period of its principal to 12 months, FE Week can reveal. It is understood the extension was granted last year to City of Liverpool College principal Elaine Bowker – despite her overseeing a catastrophic slump […]

Labour pledges to bring back education maintenance allowance

Labour will raise corporation tax to fund the re-introduction of the education maintenance allowance, the party has revealed today. The payments, aimed at supporting pupils from lower-income households who stay in education between the ages of 16 and 19, were scrapped in England by the coalition government in 2010, although they carried on in Wales, Scotland […]

Exclusive: Call for long-term AEB procurement pause after election delay

A long-term pause on the first ever procurement process for adult education budget contracts has been called for – after FE Week learned it’s now unlikely any tendering results will be published before the general election. The former Skills Funding Agency first wrote to independent training providers last autumn and told them that their current AEB contracts […]

DfE blasted for flip-flopping on GCSE maths and English resits

The government has been blasted for flip-flopping on its review into GCSE maths and English resits. All 16 to 18-year-old students with a near-pass (previously grade D, now grade three) GCSE in the subjects have since August 2015 had to continue studying and resit them through the rule, alongside FE courses, rather than a level […]