• Pupils who were not white British told to send in birthplace data

    Schools are demanding copies of pupils’ passports, and asking parents to confirm if their children are asylum seekers or refugees amid confusion over a new legal duty requiring the collection of nationality data. Schools Week revealed in June that the Department for Education (DfE) had expanded the census details schools must collect from this month…

    5.00 Sep. 23rd, 2016 | News

  • Education 'super-union' talks move to final stages as NUT and ATL plan special conferences

    Talks about the formation of a new education super-union with members of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers and the National Union of Teachers will move into their final stages in November after both organisations voted to hold special conferences to debate the move. Delegates from both the NUT and ATL will now meet separately…

    14.23 Aug. 26th, 2016 | News

  • Schools expected to provide 30 minutes of daily exercise for pupils under new government obesity strategy

    The government has said primary schools should provide at least 30 minutes of physical activity every day for pupils under a new strategy to tackle child obesity. The Department of Health today published its “Childhood obesity: a plan for action” which includes a raft of implications for schools. The strategy states primaries should deliver 30…

    18.24 Aug. 18th, 2016 | News

  • Justine Greening linked to 63 schools closed by Uganda government

    A firm running “low cost” private schools in Africa, financially backed by an investment scheme launched by Justine Greening while she was international development secretary, will close all its schools in Uganda for failing to meet basic education standards. The Ugandan government announced on Friday that the 63 schools run by the for-profit commercial private school chain Bridge…

    6.00 Aug. 14th, 2016 | News

  • Government u-turn on early years foundation stage profile after baseline scrapped

    The early years foundation stage profile, due to be scrapped as a mandatory assessment measure, will remain statutory for the next academic year, it has emerged today. An email from the Standards and Testing Agency (STA) sent to school staff today, weeks after they have broken up for the summer holidays, tells leaders that “having looked carefully”…

    14.22 Aug. 11th, 2016 | News

  • DfE denies 'achieving excellence areas' policy has been delayed

    The government has denied its ambitious plans to provide extra support for schools in struggling areas have been delayed while Theresa May considers whether to lift a ban on grammar schools. Achieving excellence areas was a key policy unveiled in the recent white paper that pledged to inject extra cash and support into priority areas identified as…

    17.21 Aug. 10th, 2016 | News

  • Forget opening more grammars, get PRIVATE schools to open up instead

    There are more imaginative ways to improve social mobility than opening more grammar schools, explains former political advisor Adam McNicholas I’m 30. In the not too distant future, I might have kids. Friends of mine are starting. Soon, when we get together, discussions will shift from plans for weekends away to plans for dealing with…

    15.18 Aug. 8th, 2016 | Opinion

  • Education committee chair joins growing opposition to May's grammar schools plan

    Education select committee chair Neil Carmichael has joined the growing ranks of politicians, policy experts and academics opposing Theresa May’s reported plan to lift the ban on grammar schools. The backlash against the proposal, revealed by the Sunday Telegraph over the weekend, has been fierce, and has crossed party political and ideological lines. There is…

    10.11 Aug. 8th, 2016 | News

  • Free school bid changes pave way for more studio schools - despite spate of closures

    New rules governing the opening of free schools could pave the way for more studio schools, it has been claimed, despite question marks over their viability after scores of failed projects had to close. The new guidelines for would-be sponsors of free schools have already prompted fears that it could spark a “free-for-all” as the government…

    10.09 Aug. 4th, 2016 | News

  • MP relaunches compulsory PSHE bid as police boss calls for education to tackle child abuse

    A new bid to force the government to make personal, social and health education (PSHE) compulsory in schools has been launched amid claims by a senior police commissioner that sex education is the only way to tackle child abuse. Caroline Lucas (pictured), the Green Party MP for Brighton Pavilion, has re-tabled her PSHE bill, which demands formal lessons on…

    11.03 Aug. 2nd, 2016 | News

  • Teacher top-ups: a solution to under-performance in Northern schools?

    Ofsted’s annual report for 2014/15 highlighted an educational gap, not only between primary and secondary, but also between the north and south of England. Duncan Sim offers some concrete proposals to address the discrepancies in both funding and attainment. The north-south divide starts young. This is, at any rate, what the statistics about the relative performance of secondary…

    5.00 Jul. 30th, 2016 | Opinion