School Management Plus

New DfE guidelines suggest trust boards will have to justify decisions around salaries The pay of multi-academy trust bosses is to be linked to Ofsted ratings, pupil outcomes and local levels of disadvantage, the government has announced. The Department for Education (DfE) has published the detailed framework outlining how new controls on executive salaries will work.

Andy Burnham says services were cut by previous governments just as they were most needed Pic: Fred Duval/Shutterstock Andy Burnham has promised to rebuild "a comprehensive education system" that would create parity between academic and technical education. The prime minister told the Labour Party conference that a system too focused on the "university route" had resulted in many young people being "cast adrift".

The past two years have been “really tough” for British independent schools with the pressures in some regions “profound”, the chair of the Heads’ Conference (HMC) was expected to tell the group’s members today. The impact of school closures had “touched all of us”, Anne Cotton, head of King’s College School Wimbledon, was expected to tell the annual gathering of the country’s leading independent schools.

Jenny Davey (in red) at her official installation as warden of Glenalmond College The new warden of Glenalmond College in Scotland, Jenny Davey, has been officially installed in her post. The ceremony took place in the college chapel in front of members of the school board, staff, pupils, parents, alumni and other guests. Born in the United Kingdom, Mrs Davey spent her early childhood abroad, living across Ghana, Sierra Leone, Curaçao in the West Indies, Nigeria, and Zambia.

Pic: Industryviews, Shutterstock The government has unveiled plans for new vocational GCSEs as part of a major shake-up of education intended to prepare young people for the world of work. The qualifications, which will be the same size and value as existing GCSEs, will contain nationally-set content and be studied alongside English, maths and science. The DfE said the announcement delivered on the Prime Minister’s commitment to ensure that the “hard hat is as valued as the graduation cap”.

Pic: Vitaly Gariev/Unsplash Running a tutoring business means juggling scheduling, billing, progress tracking and communication across disconnected tools. You’re likely losing hours each week to manual admin work that doesn’t scale with your roster. A dedicated tutor management platform consolidates these functions into one system, reclaiming time you can reinvest in teaching, sales or strategic growth. Manual processes compound time loss as a business grows.

Pic: Northallertonman/Shutterstock A good mate and I have been arguing about international schools and the “non-profit tag” to the extent that he now twists almost every school discussion towards the subject. His position is simple: in a for-profit school, the owner takes money out of the school to fund their lifestyle; expensive cars and luxury holidays. In a non-profit school, every penny goes back into educating children.

Sophia Haughton, Heartlands Academy Birmingham Sophia Haughton understands the importance of school culture, and of securing the best possible outcomes for young people, because she learned them as a pupil. “School was my safe place and my haven, where I felt a sense of belonging and enjoyed learning,” she says. “I was fortunate to have some great teachers who looked out for me. They knew I came from a difficult background. My mum had mental health problems so there were sometimes issues at home.

Girls enjoying sport Pic: Unai Huizi/Shutterstock This is the first in a series of columns for School Management Plus that will run through Helen Jeys’ year as president of the Girls’ Schools Association. The theme for my year as the president of the Girls’ Schools Association is “the voice of the girl”. I am fortunate to be the head of a girls’ school – like many across the UK – where girls advocate for each other, stand up for what they know is right and have the confidence to share their views.

Schools are “bewildered” by AI and are “crying out for guidance” on how to prepare for its impact and use it effectively, Sir Anthony Seldon has said.