-
Recent Posts
- Useful education links from 10th-17th May
- INFOGRAPHIC: Boys vs Girls absence figures for persistent offenders at special schools
- Absence figures paint a grim picture for boys with problems
- Imperial College London pulls auction of unpaid internship following student opposition
- MAPPED: Department for Education spent more than £1m on hotels last year
Recent Comments
- Academies: The conclusion | Academies Uncovered on Academies present schools with greater opportunity to “innovate” says committee member
- Universities in Birmingham among best and worst in UK for complaints from … | Business Education Tips on University complaints – get the data
- INFOGRAPHIC: Boys vs Girls absence figures for persistent offenders at special schools | Help Me Investigate… Education on Absence figures paint a grim picture for boys with problems
- MAPPED: DfE spent £156,000 on Coventry hotels last year | Coventry Data Blog on MAPPED: Department for Education spent more than £1m on hotels last year
- When is a leak not a leak? | The Help Me Investigate Blog on When is a leak not a leak: An investigation into children’s home data
Blogroll
Archives
Categories
Meta
Explore by keyword
academies academy schools applications birmingham birmingham university data data journalism department for education DfE disability education factcheck FOI foieg freedom of information free school meals from:pinboard funding gcse guardian Hammersmith and Fulham hefce help me investigate higher education hmitwt ifttt intellectual property IP Kensington and Chelsea links Michael Gove non-completion Northern Ireland Ofsted patrick worrall pupils schools secondary schools SEN transport tuition fees ucas universities university university funding
Category Archives: Tips and How-Tos
When is a leak not a leak: An investigation into children’s home data
Tweet While working on a story relating to children’s care homes, Beth Ashton stumbled across some data that shouldn’t have been public. What she did next illustrates the ethical and legal issues facing journalists and public bodies dealing with sensitive subjects. A few … Continue reading
What information do universities record – and what might be requested?
TweetTimes Higher Education reporter David Matthews wrote about “stumbling blocks” to university transparency this month – and in the process highlighted some useful tips for those wanting to investigate higher education. Here are the highlights: Who makes the decisions? Most … Continue reading
Posted in Data, Links, Tips and How-Tos
Tagged annual reports, data.gov.uk, David Matthews, executive board, Ferdinand von Prondzynski, FOI, governing council, Higher Education Statistics Agency, Key Information Sets, senate meetings, Student Loans Company, Thomas Docherty, Times Higher Education, Trac, transparency, Transparent Approach to Costing, ucas, Unistats, universities, university executive committee
Leave a comment
Do you want to join the HMI Education team?
TweetAs explained earlier, we’re creating some new roles at HMI Education. If you’re interested in getting involved there’s no minimum or maximum commitment needed just a passion to help investigate and improve the UK’s education system. You may have an idea for … Continue reading
Posted in Tips and How-Tos
Tagged community management, curation editor, data journalist, editor, multimedia journalist, roles
1 Comment
New investigations, new data and new roles at Help Me Investigate
TweetHelp Me Investigate Education has a new team of editors, brand new investigations – and lots of ideas for new ones. We’re also looking for new contributors to get involved with the website.
Academies and the Freedom of Information Act
TweetThe number of academies in the UK is increasing by the month and their set-up can often be complex, with multiple parties involved in the running of the school, but the Freedom of Information Act provides a useful tool to … Continue reading
Posted in Tips and How-Tos
Tagged academies, DfE, FOI, freedom of information, schools
Leave a comment
School food hygiene ratings: how to find them in your area
TweetWith food hygiene in the news following the horsemeat scandal, I thought I’d put together a quick guide on getting information about your own local schools’ hygiene ratings. You can download FSA ratings of food hygiene for each local authority. … Continue reading
University Governance deconstructed… then constructed again…
TweetIf something has a Wikipedia entry that’s difficult to understand, it’s bound to be an intricate, complex, and rarely explained subject. University governance is one of those subjects. Rarely looked into, examined or explained, (outside of academia at least) the … Continue reading
Posted in Tips and How-Tos
Tagged convocation, council, court, hefce, legislation, management, managing structures, senate, university charters, university governance
Leave a comment
Data: BBC reveals locations of proposed new primary school academies
TweetBBC Radio 4′s The Report has done a nice bit of investigative journalism and revealed “the locations of 173 English primary schools the government wants to convert into academies.” Here’s the data The Report collected. The full report will air tonight, 16 February, … Continue reading
Posted in Data, Tips and How-Tos
Leave a comment
VIDEO: Tips on investigating education from Fiona Millar
TweetFiona Millar is an experienced journalist and campaigner who publishes The Truth About Our Schools, a website and blog covering the education sector. I met up with Fiona to ask what advice she would give to people wanting to investigate … Continue reading
How to: Use spreadsheets to organize data
Tweet If you’re dealing with a lot of data, one way to organize it is by using a spreadsheet, such as Excel. This is especially useful if you’re interested in data journalism. But the problem for many beginners is where … Continue reading
Posted in Links, Tips and How-Tos
Tagged data journalism, Excel, how tos, links, spreadsheets, tips
Leave a comment
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
How To: Find out when the Department for Education will publish its next stats report
TweetNo matter what topic you’re investigating, data will almost always play a key role. The right statistical information can answer questions you didn’t even realize you had. So it helps to have a good grasp of the data. A big part of … Continue reading