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6 June 2026

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Opinion

Girls in STEM: A cause for celebration, not complacency

GCSE and A level results give grounds to rejoice about girls’ success in STEM subjects, but there is a long way to go before gender imbalance in the sciences is undone, writes Jo Foster No matter your background, location or interests, we’ve all come to appreciate how important science is in our lives over the […]

Supporting students to take control of leaked explicit images

A new tool helps young people remove explicit images of themselves from the internet, but it is only a final step in the safeguarding process for victims, writes Suzanne Houghton Recently, the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) and Childline announced the creation of a ‘world first’ service that allows minors to request leaked nude images or […]

Alternative Provision: A results day like no other

Gerry Robinson reflects on her first results day as a leader in Alternative Provision, and the heightened sense of momentousness for students who felt they’d been left to fail When it comes to key stage 4 outcomes, there is an expectation that young people in Alternative Provision are destined to fail. A 2020 report from […]

To be fair, we can do better than exams

Ministers’ clamour to return to our pre-pandemic exams system is founded on an impoverished idea of fairness, writes Jo-Anne Baird Schools Minister, Nick Gibb, said on a BBC interview yesterday that comparing this year’s GCSE results with pre-pandemic outcomes was like comparing apples and oranges. He also believes that exams are the fairest and best […]

Appeals can’t be allowed to fuel further disadvantage

Misinformation could lead to mass dissatisfaction with this year’s results and the best remedy is an appeal to reason, writes Yvonne Williams The media run-up to this week’s results days has put teachers and students under greater pressure than ever. In an already high-stakes system, the stakes have just kept rising, not least because higher and […]

Next year’s exams could be statistically contentious if we don’t act now

Clear conversations about next year’s exams are needed right away, writes Sharon Witherspoon The last two years have been a rollercoaster when it comes to exams. While last year the government abandoned their poorly considered plans to use an algorithm to award individual grades, this year they took a different approach and delegated responsibility to […]

Ahead of results, let’s remember how hard everyone’s worked

Both the workload and the level of responsibility staff have shouldered in providing accurate results need to be duly recognised, writes Julie McCulloch With A-level and other results imminent, let’s just remind ourselves how we got here. Because this is, of course, a results day like no other. The global pandemic and the educational disruption […]

Our proposals on home education need not be intrusive

MPs understand that if council powers are used inappropriately it will negatively impact relationships, writes Robert Halfon This week, cross-party colleagues and I on the House of Commons education select committee were delighted to see the release of our report, Strengthening Home Education. This report brought together the input of experts such as former children’s […]