Author: Freddie Whittaker

Opposition to Theresa May’s planned grammar schools is already growing, with a petition already gathering signatures as Conservative MPs are preparing to work with Labour to vote against their own government. A petition set up by the Fair Education Alliance is opened immediately after the prime minister  detailed her plan for selective school reforms in […]

The government will spend £50 million a year on the expansion of existing grammar schools, Theresa May has announced. The prime minister confirmed in a speech this morning that the money would be spent on helping good and outstanding selective schools to grow, and would kick-start a raft of reforms which could eventually see new grammar […]

An “ambitious package of education reforms” including new grammar schools and measures to force top universities to sponsor schools will help make the country “a true meritocracy”, the prime minister will claim this morning. In a major speech, Theresa May will launch the new government’s green paper, including plans to scrap the “arbitrary rule” which […]

Grammar schools attempting to show they can reform by taking more pupils from low income families could be “put off” by higher levels of teacher turnover, it has been warned. New analysis of school workforce data shows ongoing issues with staff retention and higher proportions of unqualified teachers at schools taking the highest proportion of poor […]

Teach First is to replace its current programme with a two-year postgraduate diploma (PGDE), giving its paid participants two thirds of a master’s degree and leaving them more qualified than those who fork out up to £9,000 to do a university-based Postgraduate Certificate of Education (PGCE). Graduates with the charity currently spend a year doing […]

The education secretary Justine Greening has confirmed education policies based on a “pragmatic look” at grammar schools will be announced “in due course” – but she stopped short of saying new ones will be allowed to open. Responding to an urgent question in Parliament, Greening said the government are reviewing “a range of options” focused […]

Ofqual has confirmed it will adopt a new “fairer” approach to GCSE top grades after its proposed method won the backing of education professionals. The exams regulator announced today that it will proceed with a proposal set out in April which uses a formula to determine the proportion of pupils receiving grade 9s in each subject. The method […]

The government is under pressure to clarify its plans for new grammar schools after a memo photographed in Downing Street appeared to show proposals to work with existing grammar schools to prove they can be “expanded and reformed” ahead of a move to open new ones. The Department for Education has confirmed that the memo signed […]