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20 April 2026

Author: Freddie Whittaker

DfE broke pupil data protection laws, damning ICO audit reveals

The Department for Education broke data protection laws in the way it handles pupil data, the information watchdog has ruled, following an investigation that revealed widespread failures. The Information Commissioner’s Office has concluded that the DfE failed to meet several articles of the general data protection regulations (GDPR), which govern the management and use of […]

More schools partially closed, but attendance rises

The proportion of schools fully open to all pupils has fallen again, Department for Education analysis shows, but more pupils are attending school. According to new attendance data published today, 92 per cent of state schools were fully open as of last Thursday, down from 93 per cent the previous week. It means 8 per […]

Government to ‘explore’ one-to-one teaching for ‘exceptional’ pupils

The prime minister has said he wants to “take further” the idea of one-to-one teaching, both for pupils in need of catch-up support and those of “exceptional ability”. During his speech to the Conservatives’ virtual conference, Boris Johnson said he wanted to “explore the value of one-to-one teaching”, adding that believed such intensive teaching could […]

Academy orders can be revoked if schools improve to ‘good’, DfE confirms

Failing maintained schools that become ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ before converting into academies can have their academy orders revoked, the Department for Education has officially confirmed. The DfE has today updated its statutory guidance on “schools causing concern” with more detail on the scenarios in which academy orders can be revoked. This appears to be the […]

How schools became the battleground of Cummings’s culture war

Schools have been hurled into the centre of a “culture war” by the publication of unexpected guidance thought to have originated in Downing Street that targets divisive educational issues. This has all the hallmarks of having been thrown in by No 10 in the expectation that there will be a massive row Documents supposedly meant […]

‘Compelling logic’ in call to scrap GCSEs, says Green

Calls to scrap GCSEs deserve “serious consideration”, the shadow education secretary has said, as she pledged a review of the “whole of the assessment system”. In her first interview with an education sector publication since taking the job, Kate Green told Schools Week that there was “a lot of compelling logic” in the case being […]

DfE to clarify ‘intent’ of controversial new RSE guidance

The government is set to issue a statement clarifying the “intent” of additional relationships and sex education guidance published last week, amid reports of confusion and fear among teachers, campaigners have said. Some of the teachers who have contacted us have really been very concerned Liz Moorse, chief executive the Association of Citizenship Teaching, told […]

NEU launches ‘school Covid map’ website

The National Education Union has launched a website to show the Covid infection rate around individual schools. The Covid-19 Map for Schools website allows anyone to search for their local school and see government data on the number of cases in the area, and whether it’s on a local “watchlist”. The union said today nearly […]