Author Archives: Paul Bradshaw

About Paul Bradshaw

Founder of Help Me Investigate. I'm a visiting professor at City University London's School of Journalism, and run an MA in Online Journalism at Birmingham City University. I publish the Online Journalism Blog, and am the co-author of the Online Journalism Handbook and Magazine Editing (3rd edition). I have a particular interest in Freedom of Information and data journalism.

Link: Tuition fee problems in waiting and other education context

TweetThere’s both historical context and future warning in a Guardian interview with Cambridge historian Simon Szreter. Among the best quotes:

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Links: School transport cuts and obligations

TweetThe BBC report on the number of cuts being made to “optional” school transport services, following a series of FOI requests by the Campaign for Better Transport (CBT). There’s some important background in the report on what services are not … Continue reading

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Links: Public Accounts Committee on how funding is allocated

TweetFrom the BBC: “Under the system of formula-based grants, funding given to schools with similar needs could vary by up to 40%, the Public Accounts Committee said.

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Data: Free Schools and disadvantaged children

TweetSchoolDuggery has published some data on free school meals: “We estimate that fewer than 400 children entitled to free school meals (FSM) are attending the first wave of free schools, according to data supplied under a Freedom of Information Act … Continue reading

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How-to: find out academy charity salaries

TweetHere’s a lesson in how to investigate salaries surrounding academy schools: a Guardian report that “Charities that run chains of academy schools are using public funds to pay senior staff six-figure salaries, with some on £240,000 or more.” It arrived at that figure … Continue reading

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Links: unreliable data on children’s services (FactCheck)

TweetChannel 4’s FactCheck reports on some very shaky data being submitted by local authorities to the Department for Education. After listing a number of figures which varied wildly from year to year, and a response from a DfE spokesman that … Continue reading

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Data: University energy consumption

Tweet Tony Hirst has written a post on university energy data with plenty of links to data sources and projects. Well worth exploring.

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Data: school populations by local education authority, August 2010

TweetFollowing on from the previous post, here’s some data on school populations to provide some context.

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City of London Corporation: population 9,700, schools: 1

TweetHere’s a curiosity from an FOI request to the City of London Corporation on What Do They Know: “Please note that the City (the “Square Mile”) has a resident population of about 9700 and only maintains one school in its capacity … Continue reading

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Education news: 470 colleges lose foreign student licences

TweetFascinating story from the excellent Dominic Casciani on how many colleges have been barred from accepting non-EU students following a Border Agency crackdown: “Earlier this year, tighter rules were introduced on student visas, primarily aimed at private colleges offering language or … Continue reading

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Links for 31 October 2011

Tweet Fear and loathing in the classroom: the girls think they are fat and the boys are carrying weapons “The study by the [Schools Health Education] unit, based on data collected from more than 83,000 children aged between 10 and … Continue reading

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Follow The Money: Where to find data on education spending

TweetIf you’re interested in following spending in a particular area of education a good place to start is OpenSpending.org. The site, which looks at public spending, has a section devoted to education. This is further split by sector: Secondary and … Continue reading

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