Author: Freddie Whittaker

More than £530 million will be set aside in this week’s budget to create new free schools and improve existing school buildings. But the announcement has raised questions about the government’s pledge to open 500 new free schools by the end of this parliament. Tomorrow’s budget is expected to include a funding announcement of £216 million […]

Disadvantaged pupils will be offered free transport to grammar schools up to 15 miles from their home under new government plans. The chancellor Philip Hammond is set to announce in tomorrow’s budget an extension of a scheme which currently gives free transport to certain schools for pupils eligible for free school meals or whose families […]

Schools in England will split a new £215 million funding pot to adapt their premises for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities, the government has announced. The Department for Education says each council will get at least £500,000 in funding for specialised classrooms, lifts and other modifications in schools over the next three years as […]

The Muslim Council of Britain has defended church schools’ record on the admission of Muslim pupils amid claims the schools are “not as inclusive as is claimed”. The British Humanist Association (BHA) has released analysis claiming that only a third of Church of England and Catholic schools in areas where most young people identify as Muslims […]

The “blanket right” of parents to withdraw their children from sex education lessons is being reviewed by the government as it is no longer consistent with English or international law. Ministers say they will consult on whether pupils above a specific age should instead be allowed to choose for themselves whether or not to take part in sex […]

Colleges should visit schools once a year to promote vocational options for pupils under a new scheme designed to force schools to open their doors to other providers, according to Lord Baker. The former education secretary told Schools Week he envisaged such visits happening “once a year during the key times in September, October and November”, and […]

The government will extend compulsory sex education to all secondary schools and introduce relationships education for all pupils from age four. Justine Greening, the education secretary, told Parliament today that she plans to put sex and relationships education “on a statutory footing”, stating the current curriculum has become “outdated”. Pupils will be taught about safe and healthy […]

MPs have questioned the government’s capacity to cope with the growth of the academies programme, amid predictions of “further pressures” for its departments and agencies. The commons education committee says it is “far from clear” if the Department for Education and Education Funding Agency can cope with the expansion of multi-academy trusts over the next five […]