Hundreds of thousands of members of the National Education Union will walk out over seven days in February and March to escalate their pay row. As many as 23,400 schools could be affected by the decision. There are no guarantees that in-person learning will go ahead during the days teachers go on strike. During this…
What students think about the services they receive has not typically attracted the attention of the education system. The decisions are made by policymakers, educators, parents, and administrators. Asking children about the value of education, their experiences with it, or their suggestions for improving it has been criticised as being naive or tokenistic because it…
A-Level results day is one of the most nerve-wracking experiences in a student’s life – and it’s finally here. This year’s A-Level students saw the biggest drop in top grades on record. Around 600,000 fewer A and A* grades have been awarded this year as the Government tries to calm down on record grade inflation….
A recent study investigated potential links between students and how their schools influence the likelihood of them staying in school or leaving prematurely: teacher support, connectedness to school, and the use of detentions, suspensions and expulsions were all found to be relevant. The central question was “how can the school system improve schooling from…
GCSE and A-Level pupils will be given a choice of topics and advance information in order to “maximise fairness”. According to the Department for Education (DfE) the decision was influenced by the learning disruption caused by Covid. After a consultation that amassed over 6,000 responses, the decision is that for GCSE English literature, history and…
New advice has been published by Ofsted with instructions on how to gather evidence on thorough investigations of individual subjects, as well as assess schools’ catch-up work. Here are some of the key features Ofsted’s inspections teams will be looking out for: Assess the Quality of Catch-up Tutoring Tutoring is a significant part of the…
According to a recent Tes poll, 8 in 10 teachers believe that the workload for grading GCSEs and A Levels has been too intense. Two thirds of teachers have reported that they have lost at least a week of their own time to grading work. A Tes survey conducted of 2,800 teachers suggested that 64 percent worked…
This year’s teacher assessed GCSE and A-Level grading system has put immense pressure on both teachers and students. Students particularly feel overwhelming pressure due to the amount of mock exams and assessments they have had to perform in order to generate evidence for their grades. Unfortunately, this has taken its toll on the mental health…
After a new study reviewing the experiences of 21 SEND pupils in mainstream primary and secondary schools, Ofsted claims that some of these pupils are not receiving sufficient support. Many of the schools and families that took part in the research had experienced long waiting times and high levels of bureaucracy in the Education, Health…
In the first instalment of its research review series, Ofsted has determined what it believes to be the key principles of good science teaching. Through their inspections they are planning to closely examine how science is being taught in schools. Thorough subject investigation will be used to gather evidence concerning the quality of education in…
