Author: Freddie Whittaker

The government’s plan to give working parents access to up to 30 hours of free childcare every week risks increasing the gap in school readiness between disadvantaged children and their peers, the Sutton Trust has warned. A new report claims the decision not to extend the childcare offer for 3 and 4-year-olds to non-working parents […]

Labour will pay teachers “properly” if elected to power, according to the shadow education secretary. Following the government’s focus on traditional subjects, Angela Rayner also said she wanted all people to access a rich curriculum, insisting that knowledge “belongs to the many, not the few”. However, she did not outline any significant new schools policies […]

Conference, last year I said it was a surprise, but a great privilege, to stand before you as Shadow Secretary of State for Education.  And what a year it has been. Theresa May started it by warning of a coalition of chaos. Now she leads it. And her education ministers have spent the last few […]

The Labour Party has explained more about its proposed National Education Service, in a draft charter that all schools would be required to sign up to. Angela Rayner, the shadow education secretary, will launch the charter during her speech at the party’s annual conference in Brighton this afternoon. The National Education Service is Labour’s umbrella […]

Labour would return existing PFI contracts to government control, its shadow chancellor announced today, though some have warned that this could be difficult considering international firms are often involved in the financial structures. Speaking at the party’s annual conference in Brighton, John McDonnell said that, if elected, he would act to put an end to the […]

A woman is being treated in hospital after she was stabbed at a school in Scunthorpe. The 61-year-old, a welfare officer at Winterton Community Academy, is said to have sustained serious but non-life-threatening injuries after the incident that took place this morning. A 16-year-old pupil at the school has been arrested on suspicion of attempted […]

The vast majority of English schools still face real-terms cuts to their budgets under revised government funding plans, teaching unions have warned. Justine Greening last week unveiled plans to guarantee primary and secondary schools a minimum amount of per-pupil funding. However, even taking these changes into account, 88 per cent of schools will effectively lose money […]

Angela Rayner has said she wants to change the way grammar schools work, and indicated that proposals to “change” the system in selective areas will feature in her Labour Party conference speech. The shadow education secretary told a fringe event in Brighton this evening that she wanted to make changes that would help parents currently […]