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11 May 2026

Author: Freddie Whittaker

‘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 […]

Coronavirus: Nearly one in six secondaries not fully open, DfE data suggests

Around 1,500 schools have now been forced to partially close, with as many as one in six secondary schools not open to all pupils, new government figures show. According to the Department for Education’s latest school attendance survey data, 84 per cent of state-funded secondary schools were fully-open to all pupils as of last Thursday, […]

Campaign calls for BAME author quotas in GCSE study lists

Exam boards should ensure “at least a quarter of authors” in GCSE English literature specifications are from ethnic minority backgrounds, Teach First has said. The education charity also said schools need extra funding to train and support teachers “to appropriately explore racism with their pupils”, and called for a special fund to allow schools to […]

23 trusts submitted financial returns late

The government has named and shamed 23 academy trusts that were late in submitting financial returns in the last academic year. Trusts were supposed to have their land and buildings collection tool sent off by November 4 last year, and financial statements were supposed to follow on December 31, with accounts returns due on January […]

DfE introduces intelligence gathering to monitor exclusions ‘in real time’

The government is switching to monitoring changes in the use of exclusions and other disciplinary measures “in real time”, a minister has said, amid concerns of an exclusions “spike”. Children’s minister Vicky Ford said the Department for Education was “introducing intelligence gathering and monitoring processes” to gather information on the use of exclusions as schools […]