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30 May 2026

Author: Samantha Booth

Consider if promoting ‘white privilege’ breaches equality laws, MPs tell schools

Schools should consider whether promoting “politically controversial terminology” such as “white privilege” is in line with their duties under the Equality Act, the Parliamentary education select committee has said. The cross-party committee has today published its report on left-behind white working class pupils, after taking evidence from sector experts and ministers since April 2020. In […]

Exams regulator calls in Test and Trace firm Sitel to manage public enquiry phone lines

Exams regulator Ofqual is paying £225,000 to an outsourcing company used in the government’s much-criticised Test and Trace system to answer calls from students, parents and teachers. The regulator outsourced its public enquiries lines to Sitel to meet an expected rise in calls. Last year Ofsted staff were deployed to help in the height of […]

WJEC grades portal goes down as exam board scrambles to fix issues

Exam board WJEC Eduqas has been forced to temporarily take down its portal for submitting teacher assessed grades just hours before the deadline for schools, after problems displaying data. It is the third exam board to face issues with its website during the past two days. This morning, WJEC, which has entries from over 3,800 […]

Schools shut out from submitting teacher grades after exam board portal crashes

Schools are shut out from submitting teacher grades, just a day before the deadline, after an exam board’s submission portal crashed. OCR realised at lunchtime on Thursday that schools and colleges were unable to submit results to its grade submission system. A spokesperson said “urgent action” is being taken to resolve the problem, but they […]

Primary school applications drop 5 per cent in pandemic

Primary school applications fell by 5.1 per cent this year, which the government said could be in part due to an increase in home schooling and late applications due to the pandemic. This year, there were 580,771 applications to primary schools from parents, down from 612,146 for the 2020-21 academic year, according to new data […]

Ex-Ofqual chair: ‘Gross miscalculation’ caused 2020 exams fiasco

Last year’s exams fiasco resulted from a “gross miscalculation about what was a reasonable and acceptable way to treat people”, Ofqual’s former chair has said, as he admitted the regulator knew “that in many cases people would be given the wrong grade”. Of course we knew that it wouldn’t be wholly accurate and we knew […]

What teachers said in response to Pearson’s survey on the future of exams

Eight of out ten teachers believe high stakes exams should be taken throughout the year, and most want more autonomy over testing, an exam board survey has revealed. Pearson has published initial findings from its review into the future of qualifications and assessment in the UK. The company surveyed 5,000 people, including students, parents and […]

2021 grade appeals have ‘very high’ threshold to meet, says Ofqual chief

Appeals to exam boards over grades issued this summer will have a “very high” threshold to meet, and there will be no scope for “speculative appeals”, Ofqual’s chief regulator has said. This year, students can request that their school reviews their teacher assessment grade for procedural problems or administrative errors. If they are not satisfied, […]