• Spending watchdog opens inquiry into national free school meal voucher fiasco

    The public spending watchdog is to investigate the government’s free school meals voucher scheme following wide-ranging problems that left parents and children to go hungry. The National Audit Office said the investigation will “set out the facts” about the voucher scheme, including probing the Department for Education’s “objectives and choice of contractor to run the…

    15.52 Jul. 23rd, 2020 | News

  • DfE U-turn on half-term free meal vouchers is 'far too late'

    The government’s u-turn to fund free school meal vouchers during the half-term comes “far too late” and has caused “worry and confusion” for families living in poverty, Labour has said. Schools minister Nick Gibb revealed during an education committee hearing this morning that the government would now fund free meal vouchers over the May half-term.…

    14.08 May. 27th, 2020 | News

  • The working class: Poverty, education and alternative voices

    As a senior leader who has been championing equality for disadvantaged pupils since stepping into education, you can imagine how excited I was to get my teeth into this book. There I sat, one cloudy afternoon, marking a set of year 11 assessments, when I heard the distinctive sounds of a delivery driver wrestling a…

    5.00 May. 27th, 2018 | Reviews

  • Disadvantaged pupils' maths attainment sees England fall behind

    England needs to double the number of disadvantaged pupils who achieve the top GCSE grades in maths to catch up with the best-performing countries around the world, according to new Education Policy Institute (EPI) research. Just one in 10 disadvantaged pupils in England achieve a grade 7, 8 or 9 in GCSE maths, while nearly twice…

    0.01 Apr. 19th, 2018 | News