It's a case of the regulator not doing its job properly. These colleges don't appear consistent with the OfS requirements on academic freedom and freedom of expression, so they shouldn't have been registered in the first place. The lack of transparency is striking. If institutions are built around enforcing a confessional worldview rather than academic freedom, then they shouldn't be registered by the OfS or receiving public funds.
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has urged the government to clarify, as a matter of urgency, how it plans to support councils facing ongoing SEND deficits and the high costs of transporting children to school in taxis, coaches, and buses. This intervention follows ministers' unveiling of sweeping reforms to the SEND system, intended to make it more inclusive for children with additional needs and, in the long term, reduce costs for local authorities.
By asking pupils to conceal their identities through the use of fake names and/or fake email addresses, and by instructing them not to tell the school, Rai acted in a way that lacked the integrity expected of a teaching professional.
We acknowledge that the measure may have a serious impact on the group one claimants if they are unable to afford private education which accords with their religious convictions, but it is important to bear in mind that they have the option of home schooling if free education in the state sector is not acceptable to them.
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Ministers have asked the exams watchdog, Ofqual, to extend current arrangements, providing GCSE maths, physics, and combined science students with formula sheets. Ofqual is consulting on extending this until current GCSEs are reformed following a curriculum review. The government will then consider if memorisation is required for new qualifications.
One in three graduates who are out of work and claiming benefits say poor health is preventing them from finding employment, as new analysis highlights mounting concern over the value of some university degrees and the UK's approach to skills training. Research by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) shows that 707,000 graduates are now claiming benefits, a 46 per cent increase since 2019.
Schools should be phone-free throughout the entire day, the education secretary has told headteachers in England, stressing that pupils should not use the devices even as calculators or for research. Bridget Phillipson wrote to schools to underline updated guidance issued by the government last week, according to the BBC. Schools should make sure those policies are applied consistently across classes, and at all times and we want parents to back these policies too, Phillipson said.
But as schoolage audiences of Matilda the Musical or the Harry Potter films can testify, UK classrooms usually have more children in them than fictional ones. What these young people probably do not know is that their classrooms are also fuller than many real ones abroad. A report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development found that the UK has some of the largest primary groups in the industrialised world.
It is, officially, just a small part of wider guidance for schools and colleges, titled Keeping Children Safe in Education, which covers everything from the basics of safeguarding, checks on staff and dealing with harassment. The section on students who might question their gender covers about five of the document's 201 pages, guiding institutions about what they should do in such circumstances. Unlike the previous guidance it is statutory it must be followed. It is currently being consulted on, and so will not come into force until September. The DfE says it will then be reviewed annually.
One in six autistic pupils have not been to school at all since the start of this academic year, according to a new survey which found that mental health issues were often behind high levels of school absence. Nearly half (45%) of the parents and children who responded to the UK-wide survey by the Ambitious About Autism charity said they felt blamed by the government for the absences.
A record 459,288 school holiday fines were issued in England last year, according to new figures from the Department for Education (DfE). The number of term-time holiday fines rose by 4% in 2024-25 when compared with the previous year, and accounted for 93% of all fines issued for unauthorised school absence. It is the first set of data issued which includes a change in the rules on holiday fines from 2024, which increased the value of each fine from 60 to 80 per parent, per child.
A major row between government departments has broken out after the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) proposed cutting all its funding for physical education in schools, the Guardian understands. The DHSC is now intending to restore the funding despite insisting privately for weeks that it would end its contribution, until the Guardian contacted the department. Ministers are understood to have overruled the cuts.
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