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13 April 2026

Author: Alix Robertson

DfE swerves new Scottish safeguarding policy

The government has “no plans” to replicate a Scottish safeguarding scheme that nominates someone to support every school-age child, despite concerns that English schools need to do better on safeguarding. The “named person” scheme, coming into force north of the border next year, allocates an individual such as a health visitor or teacher to provide […]

Universal credit: an impending ‘disaster’ for FSM pupils

The government has yet to decide how the universal credit benefits system will interact with free school meals, and a former shadow education secretary is predicting a “disaster waiting to happen”. Universal credit combines six benefits into one payment for eligible people old enough to work and is now being rolled out across the country, […]

Who topped the annual Regional Schools Commissioner League Tables?

The government has released the latest data showing the performance of the regional school commissioners in their second year of the job. A new set of performance indicators were used that year, and Schools Week has crunched the data to show how the RSCs measured up in each of the categories – and whose has […]

Improve teacher education to help SEND pupils, research says

Teacher education must “urgently” be upgraded to improve learning for pupils with special education needs and disabilities (SEND), new research from the University of Cambridge has found. The report, Inclusive quality education for children with disabilities, found teachers commonly admitted to a “lack of preparation” when it comes to dealing with the range of needs in […]

Cognitive science needs ‘fair scepticism’

Teachers need to be sceptical about applying popular but “untested” cognitive science theories to education, a panel of experts has warned. A debate at the Battle of Ideas festival on Sunday explored whether cognitive science – the study of the mind and its processes, such as memory, problem-solving, and communication – can “save education”. Panellists […]

Minister: MPs should check up on safeguarding in schools

MPs should hold schools to account over safeguarding issues, an education minister has claimed. Anne Milton, skills minister and member for Guildford, told fellow MPs in parliament today that they should take responsibility for judging whether safeguarding is effective in their local schools. Milton told the debate on sexual harassment and violence in schools that MPs […]

Ofsted plans MAT inspection changes from 2018

Ofsted wants to change the way it inspects multi-academy trusts (MATs) from September 2018, according to a senior inspector. Stephen McMullan told the annual conference of the National Co-ordinators of Governor Services in Grantham today that the watchdog was “considering” new ways of inspecting and evaluating MATs. These changes could be implemented as soon as next year. At the […]

Schools are referring more pupils to social services

Schools are sending more vulnerable children to social care services, with more than 110,000 cases last year, the latest government data has revealed. In 2016-17, schools were responsible for referring 114,530 children in need to social care services, an increase of nearly 11,000 compared with the previous year. This was 17.7 per cent of the […]

Institute for Teaching launches to create ‘expert teachers’

Schools collectively spend more than £1 billion every year on teacher development but it mostly doesn’t help them get better, the education secretary has said ahead of the launch of a new graduate school for teachers to help solve the problem. Teachers who want to train as teacher-educators will be able to sign up for […]