Freddie Whittaker
@FCDWhittaker
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Journalist | Deputy editor, political editor @SchoolsWeek | Ex-Gloucester Citizen, Oxford Mail | Stroudie, musician, festival steward and @HackDrinks convener
South East London
Joined October 2009
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Pinned Tweet
Today, we should have been publishing a story revealing daily rates paid for consultants working on the DfE's £7.6m SEND change programme
But the threat of an injunction has forced us not to do so
So here's the story of the story we can't tell you...
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BREAKING: The DfE has admitted an error in its school funding allocations for 2024-25 that would have inflated the core schools budget by…£370 MILLION
Keegan has ordered a review, and new funding formula data has been issued. What a clusterfuck
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It would be incredibly embarrassing if the DfE didn’t realise that “next year” means September in schools
Suggestions that pupils may not return to school until next year are simply speculation and are not helpful to parents, schools or teachers. We have said that we are working to get all pupils back into classrooms in September.
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I've covered education for almost 10 years and I've never seen general secretaries of all four unions deliver a joint press conference before. Joint action, if approved, will be unprecedented. I can't help but feel government has underestimated the strength of feeling here
Joint education union press briefing on industrial action is taking place at
@NAHTnews
national conference
@cyclingkev
@PaulWhiteman6
@PatrickR_NASUWT
@RealGeoffBarton
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BREAKING:
@AngelaRayner
to announce big new powers for councils and plans to reduce autonomy for academy trusts. Councils will be allowed to open schools again under a future Lab govt, and will be able to take back academies from failing trusts
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In almost 7 years in education journalism I have never seen so many school staff losing their shit on my timeline
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DfE prediction for minimum per-pupil funding for secondary schools has been revised down by £55. At primary level it’s down £45
Based on these figures, average secondary would be £57,970 worse-off than predicted in July, primary £12,420
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Firstly, there the fuck are the Skips?! Secondly, if you think Original Pringles are good you belong solely in the bin. Thirdly, have they never even heard of spicy tomato wheat crunchies?! Everything about this is wrong.
According to the British public, this is the
#official
crisp pyramid. Have any of your faves been snubbed?
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Why did they make it look like Johnson is checking Raab for nits
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BREAKING:
@TheIFS
analysis finds that around 160,000 children who got free school meals under the old legacy system WILL lose out under govt’s new criteria for universal credit
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Let's fact-check those
@GillianKeegan
claims about teacher pay...
She claimed teachers' salaries are 'a lot higher than the average salaries across the country'. This is not true
She also claimed the average head earns £95k. This is also incorrect
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Looks great. Time for a conversation about whether cars need to drive down most central London streets
Road closures in Soho for outside tables - here’s Old Compton Street. Surely had to be permanent, it’s really lovely
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People really just don’t know how old millennials are, do they?
BREAKING:
@sajidjavid
announces national minimum wage will be increased to £10.50 an hour within 5 yrs. And will apply to 'Millennials'
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A few people have already pointed this out, but the way Williamson's statement was delivered, veering between primary and secondary and throwing various dates around, is incredibly confusing. Schools have been waiting, anxiously, for clear information. They have not received it
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Surely the picture on the right is just Nick Brown wearing glasses
Nick Brown continues as opposition chief whip as does his Lords counterpart Tommy McAvoy.
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The right: We want people from all backgrounds to be able to get on in life
Angela Rayner: *Becomes shadow education secretary*
The right: We didn't mean it like that
No GCSEs above a D. Our shadow Secretary of State for Education.... Scary.
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BREAKING: Huge victory for
@Schools_ABC
@defenddigitalme
and
@libertyhq
as DfE finally deletes its migrant children database, years after it stopped collecting pupil nationality data following a massive backlash and boycott by schools
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Schools have not received their actual funding for 2024-25 yet but they did receive indicative allocations data in July and will have planned accordingly- this is a big problem
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DfE permanent secretary has corrected the record after she told
@CommonsEd
dept wasn't 'aware of the announcement on the new variant' when it ordered Greenwich to retract early Christmas school closure request
Turns out DfE did know. Over an hour before
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Haven’t we all suffered enough
Matt Lucas and David Walliams revive Little Britain for 'Little Brexit' special
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Breaking:
@NASUWT
teaching union will re-ballot for industrial action after members vote to reject pay offer
Union says 87% of survey respondents rejected it (though no turnout figure provided), and 77% said they'd be willing to vote to strike
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Leadsom is speaking against government policy here. New RSHE guidance only gives parents the right to withdraw their children from sex education at secondary school, not relationships education
Leadsom says it is "absolutely right" parents should be able to withdraw their children up to a certain age from classes about LGBT rights.
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Boris Johnson told
#PMQs
earlier today that "six million children will have access to tuition" thanks to the government's reforms.
This is incorrect.
In fact, the funding pledged last week is for up to six million *courses*
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Imagine being an MP and thinking that John Bercow is the most pressing issue in British politics right now.
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Having a normal one with all my cup friends
VERDICT: after 585 pages & copious cups of coffee, this
#WithdrawalAgreement
looks v. problematic. £39bn to get out of Europe, but run by Europe. -To support this, requires 2 key changes. 1.Unilateral method of leaving backstop. 2.Future trade deal fleshed out beyond flimsy 7 pgs
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First garden centres, and now golf. It's almost like the government is prioritising the needs of a certain demographic...
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Journalists should be refusing to accept anonymous briefings on coronavirus. It’s too important an issue to let the government get away with not saying things on-record
The whole “herd immunity” concept - fanned by official and “source” briefings - is a PR disaster, which
@MattHancock
is now trying to close down. He says it was never part of the plan
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Breaking:
@NEUnion
strike ballot results are out.
Among teachers in England turnout was 53.27%, and of those who voted, 90.44% voted in favour of strike action
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Exclusive: The government snubbed bids for its flagship new rebuilding scheme from nine schools that have since been confirmed to have RAAC, Schools Week analysis shows
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Still no sign of the list of key workers whose children will still be able to attend school promised by the government. Less than 24 hours to go until headteachers are supposed to enact these closures, and they don't know who they're going to be looking after on Monday
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Gavin Williamson told the House of Commons today he wants to encourage 'as much live teaching as possible', claiming it has been 'shown to be the best way in terms of delivering teaching'.
Last week Ofsted described this as an 'unhelpful myth'
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It was a real honour to visit Anderton Park school on Monday to profile
@MrsSHC
and see what a wonderful learning environment she and her team have created. Astonishing that anyone would seek to disrupt and make their lives such a misery
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Retire? Lol
UK's renting millennials face homelessness crisis when they retire
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You know you’re in a bathroom designed by a boomer when there’s no appropriate surface for you to put your phone on when you’re in the shower
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Allan and Donelan served together on the education select committee
Conservative MP for Telford Lucy Allan doesn’t seem especially enamoured with the new Education Secretary
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Downing Street has decided there's no room for us (or other sector press apparently) at today's briefing, despite the focus on the education catch-up plan.
I wonder why they might want to avoid technical questions about such a well-thought-through scheme...
.
@GavinWilliamson
is doing the daily coronavirus briefing today at 5pm. Hopefully some more clarity on the coronavirus catch-up cash
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@OwenJones84
I think Owen is broadly right about the groupthink thing, and it's a proven fact the industry is dominated by those from privileged backgrounds. I also think his concerns are shared by a lot of people outside the media.
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*leans out from behind comfort zone*
I don't think the response from journalists to
@OwenJones84
's critique of the media today has been...helpful
*hides*
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I note that twitter is once again alive with classist nonsense about
@AngelaRayner
, ahead of her first PMQs on Wednesday.
As someone who has reported on her since she became shadow education secretary, I would urge everyone: underestimate her at your peril
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I really wish someone would tweet 'Britannia waives the rules'
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Confusion among unions after this morning, when the PM and his education secretary said different things about the teacher pay dispute
Sunak says his door is 'always open', but Keegan has rejected calls for fresh talks...
Yeah I don't know either...
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I’m at the picket outside Archway School, Stroud (my old school!) where striking teachers have told me about their fears that pay erosion is affecting recruitment, leading to fewer specialist teachers in classrooms and higher workload for other staff
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The DfE is expanding its team of school resource management advisers, who are sent into schools to help them save money on pens and photocopying. And it's going to cost £2.3m
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The total core schools budget will be the same as allocated - £59.6bn next year - but school-level allocations will be differ by to what was sent out in July
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Appearing on Marr, Sir Mark Walport, former govt chief scientific adviser and a SAGE member says new variant is transmitting "more readily" in young people and it'll be "very difficult" to keep under control without "much tigher" measures, "potentially" including school closures
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Education secretary
@GillianKeegan
has taken aim at Labour's record in government and its plans to tax private schools, while bigging up her own party's achievements
But do her claims stack up? We put together this fact-check...
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DfE tells me they still can't confirm the arrangements for the start of term, despite apparent lobby briefings on the subject. What a mess
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BREAKING: DfE scraps its divisive and controversial policy of having schools collect pupil nationality and country of birth data. HUGE victory for
@Schools_ABC
@libertyhq
@defenddigitalme
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Lib Dem leader
@timfarron
pitches in on pupil nationality data collection row. Says it's "disgusting" that the DfE is making schools do it
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New report finds the Home Office prioritised checks on pupils’ immigration status over helping schools to identify migrant children in need of free school meals
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Breaking:
@ASCL_UK
members vote to REJECT the government's pay offer - by a margin of 87 to 13 per cent, on a turnout of 56 per cent
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Breaking:
@AngelaRayner
to launch consultation on Labour's 'National Education Service' policy today, as party analysis shows spending on children's services has plummeted by £1bn in 5 years
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Corbyn thanks head of school from his constituency who he met outside. He also pays tribute to "tireless campaigner"
@AngelaRayner
#NAHTConf
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I hope it includes reference to the time, when she was home secretary, that the government tried to force schools to record data on pupils' nationality and country of birth so it could be used for immigration control
Exposing the abuse of power by public institutions and politicians in a series of riveting first-hand accounts from her time in office,
@theresa_may
’s The Abuse of Power arrives in September and we have limited signed copies available here:
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Imagine having such a sense of entitlement that you want to make it more difficult for women to access local services out of sheer spite.
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How do we know the cupboards above the four ovens aren't also hidden ovens
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Yes, this is fine, let's keep pretending millennials are still teenagers and lock them in their "tiny private bedrooms" instead of actually thinking about freeing up some of the property and wealth hoarded by the older generations. That'll work nicely.
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New: Shocking new government data shows almost half of SEND children awaiting an EHCP last year waited beyond the legal deadline for that support, while the number of outstanding tribunals has also soared
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Extraordinary investigation here from
@jessjanehill
, uncovering how poorly co-ordinated and last-minute placements by the Home Office leave schools scrambling to accommodate dozens of traumatised children, who can then disappear without warning
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Hugo Swire accuses
@AngelaRayner
of being asleep under a tree while Labour was in power. Pretty sure she was raising kids & working in care
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My feed is full of academics, former government advisers of note, teachers and school leaders. Every single one thinks grammars are bad.
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The government has told schools to increase their cleaning regimes to assist the safe return of pupils.
But school business managers are being told by the DfE that they can't claim for the extra costs incurred via the department's 'exceptional costs' scheme
The government’s exceptional costs reimbursement scheme must be extended to cover preventative measures as school reopen in the coronavirus outbreak, headteachers’ unions have said
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The government was presented with an opportunity to tackle holiday hunger at a time of national crisis. It decided not to.
A national voucher scheme aimed at keeping the poorest children fed during school closures will not run throughout the Easter holidays, the Department for Education has confirmed
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@GillianKeegan
Keegan also claims teachers are 'probably in the top 10 per cent of earners in some parts of the country'. It's not clear which figures she's using, but she cited her cousin earning £28k in Knowsley.
However, the AVERAGE salary in Knowsley is over £32k
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Breaking: As
@GillianKeegan
seeks to dissuade school staff unions from striking, it has just been announced that staff in her own department will walk out on February 1 as part of coordinated
@PCS_union
action
Ofsted, OfS, IfA staff also involved
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Whatever you think of her politics,
@JustineGreening
has been treated shabbily by her leader and her party today, and for the past few weeks. I'm not surprised she has quit.
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Breaking: The DfE consultation on minimum service levels for schools
150-character limits on some questions, everyone has to fill the whole thing out so schools have to answer on HE. One question, assume by mistake, has char limit of 2! Absolute shambles
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School leaders, teachers and support staff are responding incredibly to an unprecedented situation that many institutions were not well set up for.
They are putting their lives at risk every day.
But sure, let's punish them
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Just re-watching this vid of Corbyn arriving at
#NAHTConf
yesterday. He was incredibly well-received by headteachers
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You could say that Jamie Reed has...
...gone for the NUCLEAR option
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The crippling workload crisis in schools has been laid bare in a leaked government report
The DfE also faces questions about why the document still hasn’t been made public
We have seen a copy, and it makes for grim reading…
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This week's landmark court ruling over former Durand Academy land should, unless Durand Education Trust appeals, mark the end of a six-year saga that has demonstrated some of the major pitfalls of the academies system. A (hopefully short) thread
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Ugh a pool near my home town cancelled women-only swims because some manbaby complained about them
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Mate it's Pat who needs to apologise, let him fight his own damn battles
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The
@MailOnline
has ripped off my colleague
@BillyCamden
's big scoop on Highbury College principal Stella Mbubaegbu's expenses without acknowledging where the story came from. Shameful, if unsurprising behaviour. Read the original here
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How many times must the sector say 'I told you so' about teacher recruitment and retention?
Secondary target missed by 41%
Primary target (unusually) missed by 7%
17% of the necessary physics teachers recruited
Nothing short of a disaster
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.
@MaryBoustedNEU
and
@cyclingkev
are now addressing
#NEU2023
, their last as joint general secretaries of
@NEUnion
Mary: "I qualified as an English teacher in 1982, three years into Margaret Thatcher’s and her Conservative Government’s first term"
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NONE OF THOSE ARE TEACHING UNIONS
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Here's the glorious moment
@LucyMPowell
said "no shit, Sherlock" in yesterday's
@CommonsEd
hearing with Lord Agnew and Dominic Herrington
#edselctte
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Exclusive:
@AngelaRayner
tells me Labour is looking at ‘all options’ for accountability reform and won’t rule out replacing Ofsted. Says current system ‘drives bad practice’
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I suspect we'd all be pretty unwell if we were treated as badly as Diane Abbott has been.
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Imo a load of British journalists should answer this question publicly and so we can all spend days beefing about class
Fun twitter question for your Monday. What was your first ever job, hourly rate of pay and year?
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@OwenJones84
And so I don't think it looks great when our response to criticism is to stick our fingers in our ears and deny there's a problem.
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Nick Timothy was appointed to the DfE board in March.
Now we have learned from correspondence that his appointment was rushed through without competition at the behest of Gavin Williamson.
My exclusive in this week's
@SchoolsWeek
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The deeply offensive comments made about
@moffat_andrew
by a lead protester in this piece tells you everything you need to know about these protests - that they are fuelled by homophobia and bigotry
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@GillianKeegan
Keegan is correct to say average teacher salary is £39k. But this is only slightly higher than the average for all occupations - £38,131 in 2021.
And the DfE's own figures show the average head's salary is £74,100, over £20k less than her claim of £95k
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Big news: School leadership union
@ASCL_UK
will ballot its members nationally for strike action for the first time in its history
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The impact of this can’t be overstated - £370m is what it would cost to give every teacher roughly a 1.5% pay rise
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Surprise surprise
After refusing to say whether all of the £705m additional catch-up funding pledged this term is new, the DfE quietly admits that some is coming from existing budgets
.
@wesstreeting
says they're 'robbing Peter to pay Paul'
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After months-long FOI battle, DfE finally admits it had agreement to share pupil nationality data with the Home Office
Exclusive: DfE had agreement to share pupil nationality data with Home Office
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