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20 April 2026

Author: Freddie Whittaker

Year 7 pupils ’22 months behind expectations’, finds writing study

New year 7 pupils are 22 months behind where they should be, an online assessment provider has said after testing the writing skills of over 112,000 children. But it is not clear whether the fall in attainment is as a result of “disruption due to COVID-19 alone”. No More Marking, a company that produces comparative […]

MAT to lose its four schools after ‘breakdown of trust’ among local governors

An academy trust will lose its four schools following a “breakdown in trust” between its central operation and local governors. The Learning Link Multi-Academy Trust, which runs the Dudley Wood, Netherbrook, Kates Hill and Sledmere primary schools in Dudley, was warned in July that if it didn’t address serious concerns about the way it was […]

School 21 founder to lead Careers and Enterprise Company

The founder and headteacher of School 21 in east London is the new chief executive of the Careers and Enterprise Company. Oli de Botton will officially take over at the head of the government-funded quango next year, replacing Claudia Harris, who left in July. The company said School 21 had “pioneered new ways of working […]

DfE and agencies’ performance-related bonus spend rises to over £6m

The Department for Education and its agencies paid out over £6 million in performance-related bonuses in 2018-19, an increase of almost 7 per cent on the previous year. Data on non-consolidated performance-related payments shows the DfE itself paid out £4,611,694 last year, up from £4,482,570 the previous year, while Ofsted paid out £1,181,764, up from […]

Coronavirus: Attendance rates vary hugely across England, finds EPI report

School attendance rates vary hugely across England, new research has found, prompting concerns that pupils in some parts of the country are more likely to be left behind. Analysis by the Education Policy Institute found that secondary school attendance rates in October ranged from 61 per cent in Knowsley in the north west to 94 […]

MPs removed from food poverty charity’s board following free school meals vote row

A former shadow education minister has said she is “deeply upset” after she and three other MPs were removed from the board of a food poverty charity following a row over the parliamentary vote on free school meals. Feeding Britain has announced a “restructure” of its board that has seen former shadow education minister Emma […]

No evidence for minister’s claim parents ‘prefer to pay’ for school dinners

A government minister stands accused of misleading the public after he falsely claimed that research showed parents “actually prefer to pay a modest sum” of “£1 or £2”, instead of receiving free school meals. It is pretty desperate to see ministers making misleading claims in order to justify voting against feeding hungry children in a […]

Mental health teams overlook excluded pupils

A new government initiative to support pupils’ mental health seems to be overlooking many excluded children. Research by the Anna Freud Centre and the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) shows that more than four in ten mental health “trailblazer” areas are not working with alternative provision schools, meaning some of the most vulnerable children could […]