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3 May 2026

Tag: DfE

School repairs derailed by ‘inexplicable’ CIF delays and material shortages

Schools have been forced to delay building repairs by up to a year after the government awarded condition improvement funding almost two months later than usual. Some of the 1,199 schools which received CIF awards last month face an anxious wait to hear if contractors and the DfE will agree to defer projects no longer […]

National funding formula: Extra cash for 1,300 remote schools

The government has more than doubled a funding pot for small schools in remote areas, with up to 1,300 more schools eligible for the cash next year. The Department for Education outlined on Monday how NFF cash will be allocated in 2022-23, including what individual schools would receive if every council adopted the “hard” NFF. […]

DfE boss won’t say if SEND review will be out by next April

The Department for Education’s top civil servant has refused to confirm when the government’s long-delayed SEND review will be published, even declining to say if it will be out by the end of the financial year during a grilling by MPs. Permanent secretary Susan Acland-Hood was questioned by the commons public accounts committee this morning […]

New chair appointed to teachers’ pay body as controversial pay freeze looms

A new chair will take over the School Teachers’ Review Body from September, amid controversy over the upcoming public sector pay freeze. The STRB advises the prime minister and education secretary on teachers’ pay and responsibilities in England, but unions have recently accused the government of undermining its independence. Dr Patricia Rice, a senior research […]

DfE U-turns on masks for pupils travelling to school

The DfE has made a rapid U-turn over plans to relax face covering guidance for pupils on public transport and school buses. Guidance for schools about step four of the relaxation of Covid restrictions was revised on Tuesday, just eight days after it was published and before the changes even take effect next week. The […]

Pupils three times more likely to be self-isolating in north-east than London

Secondary pupils in parts of northern England are more than three times as likely to miss classes while they self-isolate as their peers in London, according to new figures. The average pupil between year 7 and year 10 in a sample of north-east schools missed more than a third of their time in school last […]

Schools sent Covid tests with ‘incorrect instructions’

The Department for Education has clarified that ‘Orient Gene’ brand Covid test kits sent out to schools can be used by older pupils after admitting some contained “incorrect instructions” suggesting the contrary. In an email sent to school leaders, seen by Schools Week, the DfE said a “small number of boxes of Orient Gene test […]

Downsizing trust ‘failed to balance books quickly enough’

The Department for Education has slapped strict spending controls on an academy trust accused of failing to balance its books rapidly enough after it was stripped of a school. The Castle Trust, which is now preparing to close, has been issued a financial notice to improve after it “failed to act quickly enough to make […]