Show Notes
I think most people would agree that England’s rise up the international education league tables over the past decade or so has been a welcome sign of progress. But when government funding is now in such short supply and is likely to remain so for some time yet, sustaining this recent progress may become increasingly challenging. A new report from IPPR and Ambition Institute, written by Loic Menzies and Marie Hamer, argues that the way in which we support and invest in the teaching workforce ...
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September saw the launch of the results from the 2025 Programme for International Student Assessment, or PISA for short. Run by the OECD, PISA includes maths, reading and science tests for 15-year-olds across 90 countries as well as a survey about pupils’ education. At first glance, England appears to have done very well in the latest PISA tests, rising to 10th place in maths, 9th place in reading and 8th place in science. This led Shadow Education Secretary Laura Trott to say that “countries...
As the new academic year kicks off across the country, there will inevitably be a lot of attention on whether enough people have chosen to embark on a new career in teaching to hit the Government’s teacher recruitment targets. However, a new book called 'Love the One You’re With: Why teachers stay and what we can learn from them' argues that teacher retention matters just as much as teacher recruitment despite the latter typically stealing the political spotlight, and even within teacher rete...
So here we are, with a new Prime Minister in place two years on from the General Election. In my last podcast, we had two expert guests join us to explore what an Andy Burnham premiership might mean for schools in England. In this episode, I have brought together two policy experts to help us take a look at what could happen in post-16 education, consisting of universities, colleges, apprenticeship providers and many other organisations. So, will universities be top or bottom of the pri...
“The days of a school system configured entirely around the university route will be brought to an end.” Our likely next Prime Minister Andy Burnham did not hold back in his speech at the end of June, adding that “we need a complete rethink of how we support the next generation to succeed”. The question now is what do these sorts of comments mean for pupils, teachers, school leaders and those working on schools policy in Westminster and beyond? In the first of two podcasts on what an Andy Bur...
“Labour will end the VAT exemption for private schools to invest in our state schools.” So said the Labour Party election manifesto in 2024, and in the Budget later that year the addition of VAT to school fees was enacted. This was soon followed by predictions of a dramatic fall in the number of pupils attending independent schools, with some claiming that we would see a 25% drop as a result of this policy. In June 2026, the Department for Education’s official data showed that the drop in pup...