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29 April 2026

Author: Laura McInerney

£26m up for grabs to run breakfast clubs in 1,500 schools

The hunt is on for an organisation to deliver breakfast clubs in 1,500 schools located in disadvantaged areas as part of a £26 million package from the government. Funded breakfast clubs were a pledge in the Conservative manifesto for the general election earlier this year – with £60 million originally set aside to deliver a […]

Jamie Oliver: Delayed ‘healthy schools rating’ should be compulsory

A voluntary rating system for healthy schools which the government has committed to rolling out in primary schools should be made compulsory, according to the influential television chef Jamie Oliver. Last year, the Department for Health’s childhood obesity plan included a series of policies with implications for schools, including the a voluntary healthy rating system for […]

Greening’s taking education back to the 80s

This time last year, education was going back to the 1950s with grammar schools as the idea in vogue. This week, Justine Greening is taking us back to the 1980s, with her Youth Training Scheme for teachers (okay, apprenticeships), and back to the 2000s with her “social opportunity” areas. Let’s time-travel a little: it’s summer […]

Lewis Iwu, former director, Fair Education Alliance

Last year, when the grammar schools policy flooded media channels, Lewis Iwu stepped up to speak on radio, television and in campaign halls. It was a moment he had prepared for most of his life and, having coincidentally become the head of Fair Education For All a few months earlier, he was perfectly positioned to […]

Greening reveals projects in first 6 ‘opportunity areas’

Independent partnership boards will be set up to boost children’s attainment in six of the government’s ‘opportunity areas’, according to new plans set out by Justine Greening today. Children in the six areas —  Blackpool, Derby, North Yorkshire, Norwich, Oldham and West Somerset — will also be given at least four ‘encounters’ with the world of […]

Leeds Trinity and Hertfordshire University to create teacher ‘degree apprenticeships’

Two universities will receive government funding to develop a teacher ‘degree apprenticeship’, as hinted by Justine Greening in her speech on Sunday. A press release today named Leeds Trinity and the University of Hertfordshire as recipients of a slice of a £4.9 million cash pot for 27 projects. Both universities were named as developing ‘teacher’ […]

Mark Lehain, Director of Parents and Teachers for Excellence

Standing in line at the Café Nero one street down from the Department for Education, a message pops onto my phone. “I’ll have an Americano… a full on Trumpian alt-right coffee, sorry, patriotic coffee.” It was sent by Mark Lehain, a former headteacher who now leads the Parents and Teachers for Excellence campaign, an unusual […]

Why Teaching Apprenticeships are a mess — and how to solve it

Will the government’s new teaching apprenticeships be ‘degree level’ or ‘a degree’? The distinction may not be simple, explains editor Laura McInerney   Teaching apprenticeships are on the way whether the profession wants them or not. We first reported on them almost two years ago — in a front page that people called alarmist at […]