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Free school meals voucher extension risked legal challenges

The government’s last-minute U-turn on providing free school meals vouchers over the summer holidays risked exposing it to legal…

James Carr
James Carr
News

Revealed: Oak bosses’ bid for £41m payday

Oak bosses would have been in line for a £41 million payday under their preferred proposal for the future…

John Dickens
John Dickens
News

DfE snubs calls for sprinklers in all new schools

The Department for Education (DfE) is planning to amend guidance to recommend fire suppression systems – such as sprinklers- …

James Carr
James Carr
News

Unions demand ‘immediate’ release of Covid-19 variant school outbreaks data

Unions representing heads, teachers and support staff have demanded the “immediate” release of data on the number of Covid-19…

Freddie Whittaker
Freddie Whittaker
News

Repairing England’s schools will cost £11.4 billion, DfE admits

Repairing or replacing all defects in England’s schools will cost £11.4 billion, the Department for Education has admitted. It…

Freddie Whittaker
Freddie Whittaker
News

Spielman bags two more years as Ofsted chief inspector

Amanda Spielman has been given two extra years in the role of Ofsted chief inspector, the Department for Education…

Freddie Whittaker
Freddie Whittaker


News

GCSEs and A-levels: 7 key trends from provisional 2021 entries data

GCSE and A-level entries continued to rise this year, but subject-level data reveals big changes in some subjects. Exams…

Samantha Booth
Samantha Booth
News

Pupils missed 33 million days of in-person education due to Covid last autumn

Pupils missed 33 million days of in-person education because of Covid during the autumn term last year, as schools…

Tom Belger
Tom Belger
News

Covid: Schools close sites after surge in Indian variant

Schools are being forced to close on-site provision and switch to online learning due to surging Covid rates linked…

James Carr
James Carr
News

DfE to finally publish ‘summary’ of school condition data

The government will finally publish a summary report on the condition of England’s schools, a senior civil servant has…

Freddie Whittaker
Freddie Whittaker
News

DfE needs ‘proper lessons-learned’ Covid review, and 4 more demands from MPs

The Department for Education seems “surprisingly resistant” to the idea of conducting a “proper lessons-learned exercise” on its early…

Freddie Whittaker
Freddie Whittaker
News

DfE considers producing Queen’s platinum jubilee book for primary schools

The Department for Education is considering paying for the production of a commemorative book marking the Queen’s platinum jubilee…

Samantha Booth
Samantha Booth