News

GCSE results 2026: English and maths pass rates down for fifth straight year

This year’s GCSE results also reveal that the regional divide in England in attainment continued to widen while the gender gap narrowed

Recent
Most read
Most shared
Recent
Most read
Most shared

Investigate period product shortages, heads tell DfE

Concerns raised after one in three girls say they cannot access products at school or college

School closures on cards over local government pay dispute

Scottish schools and nurseries poised to close for strike action after local government workers vote to reject pay offer

£1bn support-staff pay rise could ‘break’ school budgets

School leaders have warned that their finances are becoming 'unsustainable' without extra funding owing to news that support staff are to receive pay increases of up to 10.5 per cent

Ofsted doesn’t know how many deep dives each subject gets

Exclusive: 'Astonishing' that Ofsted can't say how much scrutiny individual subjects received this year, says former inspector

Sunak wants every Ofsted inspection to rate PE lessons

Former chancellor also vows to 'tighten up' rules on what PE and sports premium can be spent on

Why every school leaver should have experience of Gaelic

Scottish secondary schools ‘rarely’ offer Gaelic as a modern language – that must change, says Bòrd na Gàidhlig director

Staff pay: special schools ‘on fast track to unviability’

Job cuts, bigger classes and deficits are among 'disastrous' effects of 'unfunded' pay rises, warn special school leaders

NTP: Give schools higher subsidies for better-quality tutors, DfE told

A report from youth charity Impetus suggests a series of reforms to the National Tutoring Programme but a professional body for tutors has questioned their feasibility

School support staff offered pay rise of up to 10.5%

Schools need more support staff but another 'unfunded' pay rise could force heads to make cuts, warns leaders' union

Sats: More than 3 in 4 parents oppose statutory tests in primary

Exclusive: 90% of teachers surveyed also said they are not satisfied with the current assessment arrangements, a new survey finds

Covid disruption ‘has left new teachers needing CPD support’

Researchers set out how the Covid pandemic has 'significantly disrupted' teacher training for early career teachers between 2019 and 2021

Provide funds to protect schools before next Covid wave, say unions

Coronavirus restrictions in schools ended earlier this year, but in a letter to the education secretary, unions have requested action to limit the impact of a future wave of the virus

SQA staff to consider strike action over ‘insulting’ pay offer

Union says strike action could hit students' exam appeals process, while SQA states that results are on track for 9 August

Schools can only use ‘quality-assured’ tutoring providers from September

The move has been broadly welcomed by heads, though the DfE has been urged to ensure there are enough providers available

Summer-born admissions plans dropped by DfE

Proposed legislation to allow the parents of summer-born children to automatically admit them to a Reception class at the age of 5 has since been shelved

KS2 Sats: Only 1% of schools achieved DfE’s national 2030 target, study finds

Exclusive: New analysis also reveals the regions experiencing the biggest fall in those reaching the expected standard at key stage 2 Sats during the pandemic

School energy costs data delayed by ‘political events’, says DfE

Exclusive: Schools finished filling in a survey setting out how much they are paying for gas and electricity in June, but they are yet to see the results

Teacher recruitment: Why ‘nothing is going to save us’

How much worse could the teacher recruitment problems possibly get? Matilda Martin digs into the latest ITT data to reveal the outlook for September and beyond

DfE ‘has put schools on the brink of a full-blown funding crisis’

Five education unions issue a joint statement condemning the government's handling of teacher pay rises for 2022-23

Primary schools won’t have to publish 2022 Sats results

Heads welcome clarification following the DfE's decision not to produce key stage 2 performance tables this year

Key stage 1: Decision to scrap Sats from 2023 ‘welcome’, say heads

Schools told Covid pandemic has led to a delay in key stage 1 Sats becoming non-statutory

Welsh teacher pay to rise by 5% across the board this year

A further rise of 3.5% is planned for next year, but teaching unions react angrily

‘Unfunded’ teacher pay rise will put schools in deficit, warn leaders

Experienced teachers will be given a 5 per cent pay increase in September – but this is higher than many school leaders had budgeted for

Exclusion charter could expose pupils to ‘harassment’, says behaviour tsar

Southwark Council has encouraged teachers to take a 'trauma-informed' approach to pupil behaviour, but Tom Bennett has criticised the policy