Hundreds of thousands of children growing up in the north of England are falling behind their southern counterparts because of a stark educational divide, according to research by the office of the children’s commissioner for England. The statistics show that where in the country a child goes to school has a marked effect on their attainment. Children in major northern cities do markedly worse than those in London or the south-east: in the Thames Valley Berkshire region, where the prime minis...

The government's proposed national funding formula for schools fails to recognise the "double disadvantage" faced by pupils from poor homes in deprived neighbourhoods, according to the Sutton Trust and the Education Endowment Foundation. In a joint submission to a consultation on the government's proposals two bodies have expressed concern that the formula "seems to advantage schools with low prior attainment ahead of schools with high deprivation". The government plans to use "additional ...

Theresa May’s personal crusade to expand the number of grammar schools is in serious jeopardy today as senior Tory, Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs unite in an unprecedented cross-party campaign to kill off the prime minister's flagship education reform. In a highly unusual move, the Tory former education secretary Nick Morgan joins forces with her previous Labour shadow Lucy Powell and the Liberal Democrat former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg to condemn the plans as damaging to social mob...

The government’s flagship education policy announced in the budget, to spend £320m creating 70,000 free school places, is likely to deliver only about a fifth of that number, according to the Labour party. An analysis by Labour found that the money committed last week by Philip Hammond is meant to bring 70,000 places and around 140 new schools. However, the party’s education team say, this works out at just under £4,800 per place. Department for Education (DfE) figures given to the Nationa...

The Government should scrap the 11-plus test to determine which children go to grammar schools – or force all pupils to take it – if it wants to improve social mobility, according to one of the Department for Education’s main champions for new schools. Toby Young, the director of the New Schools Network (NSN), which plays a key role in delivering free schools and grammars, said the decision for which children go to grammar schools could be handed over to primary headteachers. Simply letting e...

There’s been a murder in the medical school, a year eight class is told. A respected professor at the University of Southampton has been shot dead in the lab and the students of Hounsdown School must work out who did it. They can interrogate researchers, take fingerprints, collect DNA samples, and study bullets shot from a gun to catch the culprit. This fictitious crime scene has been set up as a way to involve pupils in hands-on research. The class learns about forensics, while researchers c...

Theresa May will pave the way for a new generation of grammar schools on Wednesday, as her chancellor uses the budget to push ahead with a controversial policy that is seen as a key priority for the prime minister. Philip Hammond will plough £320m into expanding the government's free school programme, creating 70,000 places in 140 schools, which will be free to offer selective education after the government passes legislation. May's pledge to end the ban on grammars during this parliament ...

Students could miss out on sixth-form places while schools and colleges could lose funding due to confusion over the new GCSE grading system, a school leader has warned. There is a lack of clarity over the change, according to the next general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), with many still in the dark over what will be considered a "good" pass. Supporters have argued the move is necessary to allow more differentiation between students. But Geoff Barton, ...

The natural order of the classroom has always been for pupils to sit. Whether this involves, talking, discussing, working in groups, or listening to the teacher, most of the time this is all done from the comfort of a chair. Most primary school children spend on average, 70% of their classroom time sitting down. Outside the classroom, the number of children walking to school has decreased and, at the same time, many more children are spending longer staring at screens. Children aged five to 1...

Schools in England are facing the first real-terms cuts to their funding since the mid-1990s, a leading thinktank has warned. Spending per pupil is to fall 6.5% by 2019-20, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), although it added that school funding had been well protected over the past two decades. Sixth-formers have been facing a continuing squeeze on budgets, with spending per further education (FE) student falling by 6.7% between 2010-11 and 2015-16 and a further drop of ...