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18 April 2026

Author: Nicky Phillips

Uphill battle for Freya

A 12-year-old pupil from Salisbury has completed a gruelling seven-hour bike ride to raise money for Sport Relief, which this year raised almost £57 million. Freya Miller, from Sarum Academy, took on the challenge after she heard that her school was fundraising for the charity. With her dad, Julian (pictured), she planned a ride from […]

Three-day course lifts pupil scores

A new study has revealed pupils taking the controversial European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL) qualification on average score the equivalent of an A grade, despite achieving an average score of below a C across their GCSEs. Data experts Education Datalab published a blog this week revealing the average point scores of pupils from 2015 in […]

Skills or knowledge: which is more important?

Skills and knowledge are often viewed as separate ingredients of the learning cake, like eggs and flour, added in different proportions depending on the recipe. But, says Heather Fearn, you need one, then the other becomes possible I have a question. When planning what to teach do you: A – Aim to teach mainly knowledge B – […]

ECDL lifts GCSE grades, but Ofqual uneasy

A new study has revealed pupils taking the controversial European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL) qualification on average score the equivalent of an A grade, despite achieving an average score of below a C across their GCSEs. Data experts Education Datalab published a blog this week revealing the average point scores of pupils from 2015 in […]

Will small schools be able to breathe a big sigh of relief?

In a week of big news – threatened strikes, parent boycotts, backbenchers shouting about academies – there has been one quiet sigh of relief. And one awkward question. Buried in the middle of her speech at the weekend’s union conference, Nicky Morgan promised that “no good small school will close” due to “structural changes” – […]

Mystery of the missing expert reports

Expert reports commissioned in the run-up to the last general election are still nowhere to be seen – despite a promise from the government that many would be released by “early 2016”. Their non-appearance follows the suppression of the report from experts into teaching assistant (TA) standards, with one researcher warning that the Department for […]

Oldham College pulls out of academy sponsorship

A college has severed its ties with two academies because it says it is no longer “feasible” to sponsor them. Oldham College (pictured) is relinquishing control of Waterhead Academy and Stoneleigh Academy, also in Oldham, from the summer break, saying that a move away from vocational education in schools is one reason for the decision. The […]

New national scheme will place ‘interns’ in classrooms

Unions fear that a national scheme to place teaching interns into classrooms will be used as a cost-cutting device. The graduate teaching internship (GTi) scheme, run by new company TryTeaching, plans to give potential teachers the experience of working in a school for between one and three terms before they embark on an initial teacher […]

Headteachers expose government school funding claim

Headteachers are taking to Twitter as part of a campaign to expose as false the government’s claim that school funding is protected. While the government has pledged to maintain per-pupil income, heads currently preparing next year’s budgets are having to factor in rising costs such as increased pension and national insurance contributions. Now they are […]