Category Archives: Schools

A-level results 2023: students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland receive grades – live

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School leavers in the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man will also receive their results today

The number of students accepted on to UK degree courses has fallen this year, Ucas figures show.

Press Association reports:

Firstly, I want to say a huge congratulations to the hundreds of thousands of students up and down the country who are celebrating their results and next steps today.

I am delighted to see more than 200,000 UK 18-year-olds have secured their first choice, which is testament to their hard work and commitment to progress to higher education in a year that has seen many complex factors at play, such as geopolitics, the economy and job market, and cost of living.

Labour recognises the enormous effort that all of our young people have put into their studies over the past year.

Young people have achieved these results despite the challenges they’ve faced: with a Labour government behind them, offering them pathways to good prospects, there will be no limit on what they can achieve.

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Disadvantaged students to bear brunt of grade deflation, say experts

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Social Mobility Foundation says it expects GCSE and A-level attainment gap based on income to grow this year

Disadvantaged students are likely to bear the brunt of grade deflation when this year’s A-level and GCSE grades are published, according to experts, who said the government’s decision to impose pre-pandemic grading in England was premature.

This week hundreds of thousands of sixth-formers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will receive the results of their A-level, BTec and other exams. But a survey of students by the Social Mobility Foundation (SMF) found that those from disadvantaged or low-income backgrounds in England were less likely to have received the help they needed to restore learning lost during the pandemic.

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‘Twinverclyde’: 17 sets of twins to start school in one Scottish authority

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Inverclyde welcomes second largest number of twins on record to start primary education

Seventeen sets of twins will start primary school in one Scottish local authority next week, the second largest number on record.

Schools in Inverclyde will welcome the twins for the first time on Friday 18 August, in an area that has colloquially become known as “Twinverclyde”.

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Nearly 100,000 fewer top A-levels this year in grading plan, research suggests

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Tens of thousands of students face likely drop in As and A*s as ministers aim to return results in England to pre-pandemic levels

Tens of thousands of A-level students face disappointment on results day next week, amid warnings that nearly 100,000 fewer As and A*s could be awarded as the government seeks to return grades to pre-pandemic levels.

Up to 50,000 candidates this summer are likely to miss out on the top grades they might have expected last year, according to one estimate, throwing applications for the most competitive universities into doubt.

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Relief as teachers in England settle for 6.5% – but there may be battles ahead

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While many welcome the end of strike action, the campaign for fair pay and better funding for state schools looks set to continue

Ministers will have heaved a huge sigh of relief to see teachers and school leaders in England vote to accept a 6.5% pay offer and end strike action in state schools in England.

After months of disruption as a result of strikes by members of the National Education Union (NEU), there were real fears in government of an escalation of the dispute, with coordinated strike action in the autumn term by four unions.

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Khan dismisses Sunak’s attack on his housebuilding record in London as ‘desperate nonsense’ – UK politics live

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Mayor of London hits back at prime minister over ‘pathetic gesture politics’

Rishi Sunak has failed to give his full backing to Sir Howard Davies, chairman of NatWest, in interviews this morning, PA Media reports.

PA says that Sunak did not back calls for the resignation of Davies in a pooled interview this morning – but also that Sunak would not say whether he had confidence in him.

What I said right at the start of this was that it wasn’t right for people to be deprived of basic services because of banking, because of their views.

This isn’t about any one individual, it’s about values – do you believe in free speech and not to be discriminated against because of your legally held views?

As a result of this policy, a dozen classrooms of children, including some of the most traumatised and vulnerable children in the world, have gone missing and, sickeningly for us, 50 children are still missing from the hotel used in Brighton and Hove.

Importantly the high court also makes clear that the home secretary already has the power to require local authorities across the country to take children into foster care via a statutory rota system called the national transfer scheme.

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California school district fined $1.5m after rejecting curriculum with Harvey Milk

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Gavin Newsom, the state governor, said his office will provide new school textbooks and send a bill for violating state laws

A school district in southern California will be fined more than $1m after rejecting a curriculum that included Harvey Milk, the pioneering gay rights leader who the the school board’s president has called a “pedophile”.

Gavin Newsom, the California governor, announced on Wednesday that his office will send textbooks to the Temecula school district that include Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in the state, as well as fine the district $1.5m for failing to “adopt an updated social studies curriculum”.

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Private school funding increased twice as much as public schools’ in decade after Gonski, data shows

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Exclusive: Government funding since landmark education review released ‘has gone to those least in need’, says national convenor of Save Our Schools

Real government funding to private schools has increased almost twice as much as funding to public schools in the decade since the landmark Gonski review recommended changes designed to fund Australian schools according to need.

From 2012 to 2021, per student funding to independent and Catholic schools rose by 34% and 31% respectively, while funding to public schools increased by just 17%, according to parliamentary library data provided exclusively to Guardian Australia. In Queensland, the growth in government funding to independent schools per student has been nine times greater than to public schools.

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Labor’s refusal to extend school chaplaincy tax deduction will cause cuts, Christian group says

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Parents’ secular education group wants chaplains scrapped and student wellbeing officers employed instead

Australia’s largest supplier of school chaplains has labelled the Albanese government’s decision not to extend its eligibility to receive tax deductible gifts “disappointing and unexpected”.

Scripture Union Australia has warned the decision would probably result in cuts to chaplaincy services after Labor allowed its deductible gift recipient (DGR) status, previously granted by the Morrison government, to lapse.

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Teachers in England vote for strike action in autumn over pay

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Members of NASUWT give ‘largest mandate in a decade’ for action over pay, workload and working hours

Members of the NASUWT teachers’ union have voted in favour of industrial action over pay and workload, raising the prospect of mass strikes and widespread disruption across schools in England this autumn.

After months of stalemate with no progress over teachers’ pay, NASUWT members voted decisively for industrial action, with 88.5% of eligible members voting to support strike action and 94.3% supporting action short of strike.

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English teaching unions to strike during Tory conference if pay deal rejected

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Action could be directed at Rishi Sunak’s keynote speech, seen as vital in run-up to general election campaign

Teachers are preparing to target Rishi Sunak’s make-or-break Tory conference speech with strike action this autumn, amid growing cabinet support for a compromise to end months of public sector walkouts.

Should ministers fail to support a deal that would hand teachers a 6.5% increase this year, all major teaching unions in England are increasingly confident that their members will back more strikes when the new school year begins.

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New Ofsted report upgrades headteacher Ruth Perry’s school to ‘good’

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Perry took her own life in March after Caversham primary school was downgraded from outstanding to inadequate

Ofsted has replaced its “inadequate” rating that may have contributed to the death of headteacher Ruth Perry after a new inspection praised staff for addressing previous weaknesses at the school in Reading.

Perry died this year after an Ofsted inspection downgraded Caversham primary school in Berkshire from outstanding to inadequate, with Perry’s family saying the grading was a factor in her taking her own life.

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Pay rise of 6.5% would stop teaching strikes in England, union boss suggests

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Mary Bousted urges ministers to publish recommendation from pay body, thought to be 6.5%, and fund schools to pay it

Ministers could ward off potential teachers’ strikes in the autumn term in England if they accept a salary increase recommended by the teachers’ independent pay review body, the head of the biggest education union has said.

Teachers who belong to the NEU continued industrial action on Friday. Mary Bousted, the joint general secretary of the union, said: “This could stop. What the government must do is publish the independent pay review body recommendations.”

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Keir Starmer heckled by protesters during education speech – UK politics live

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Latest updates: group complains about Labour’s lack of commitment to green new deal as leader speaks about extending opportunity

Starmer is now being heckled by someone complaining about his lack of commitment to a green new deal.

He says he has already given a speech on this. He offers to speak to the protesters later.

Keir Starmer asked two protesters holding a banner saying “Green New Deal now” to “let me finish” as they interrupted his speech.

The Labour leader told the pair he would “speak to you after” as they accused of him of U-turning on his £28bn green prosperity plan before being led off stage by security.

I promise you this, wherever there are obstacles to opportunity, wherever there are the barriers to hope, my Labour government will tear them down.

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Keir Starmer refuses to commit to free school meals pledge

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Labour leader says ‘money is a big factor’ as he also declines to promise 6.5% pay rise for teachers

Keir Starmer has refused to commit to supporting free school meals for all primary school children, as he stuck to a tough fiscal position despite pressure from inside and outside of his party.

The Labour leader also declined to commit to a 6.5% pay rise for teachers as he urged the government to resolve the dispute at the centre of strike action.

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‘I needed to see’: victims’ families tour site of Parkland massacre five years on

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Bloodstains and broken glass remain where 17 students and staff were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Florida

For more than five years, the bloodstained halls and classrooms where 17 people died in the Parkland school shooting has remained locked away and mostly untouched – not even the victims’ families had been allowed inside.

That changed on Wednesday, as heart-wrenching private tours began for relatives of the 14 students and three staff members who died on 14 February 2018. The 17 wounded and their loved ones will also be able to visit the 1200 building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school, now that it is no longer needed as evidence in the trials of the convicted killer and the deputy who was just acquitted of failing to stop him.

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Striking teachers in England accused of undermining pupils’ pandemic recovery

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Gillian Keegan says she ‘can’t think of a worse time’ for action by NEU members

The education secretary, Gillian Keegan, has accused striking teachers of undermining children’s recovery from the Covid pandemic, saying she did “pretty well” at winning extra funding for schools from the Treasury.

Keegan told a conference in Bournemouth: “Let me be clear, we should not be having these strikes in general, but certainly not now. Children have been through so much in the pandemic and I can’t think of a worse time to be willingly keeping them out of school.”

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Sexual harassment of girls is a scourge at schools in England, say MPs

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Commons committee’s report calls for government strategy to engage with young boys to tackle problem

Sexual harassment of girls is “a scourge” in England’s schools, according to MPs, who have called for a government-led strategy to focus on boys who are failing to engage with relationship and sex education.

MPs on the women and equalities committee said in a report that there should be training for all teachers to help them hold conversations with boys and young men about sexual harassment and gender-based violence, in a way that challenges prevailing gender norms and ideas of masculinity.

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Labour considering graduate-led nurseries to fight inequality

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Exclusive: Bridget Phillipson says early-years education key to improving life chances

More graduate teachers would be parachuted into nurseries under plans being considered by Labour to improve education for under-fours, the Guardian has learned.

There could also be more nursery places in primary school settings as the opposition works up proposals to drive up standards and formally integrate early years into the English education system.

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Disruptive behaviour leaves excluded pupils’ units in England ‘full to bursting’

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Referral unit providers warn of overwhelming demand from unprecedented poor behaviour after pandemic lull

Referral units for children who have been excluded from mainstream schools are warning that they are full to bursting because of unprecedented levels of disruptive behaviour across the country.

Providers that take children excluded from mainstream schools say that after a lull during the pandemic, the situation has deteriorated, and they have seen permanent exclusions rising across the country in the past year. The situation had appeared to be improving with the latest government data on permanent exclusions in England showing that they fell in the spring term last year to 2,200 from 2,800 in 2019.

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