Study finds pupils who take part in organised sports and physical activities are more likely to achieve higher results. After-school clubs can improve the academic performance and social skills of children from disadvantaged backgrounds, research shows. The study of 6,400 children in England found that those who took part in organised sports and physical activities at the ages of five, seven and 11 were almost one and a half times more likely to reach a higher than expected level in their Key St...

Offspring of lone parents are an overlooked group in widening participation, study suggests. The children of single parents are marginalised and must overcome expectations of failure to succeed in higher education, according to a study. Research by Jessica Gagnon, who recently completed a PhD at the University of Sussex, suggests that the offspring of lone parents are an overlooked group in widening participation and student support. While US studies have found that such children are less likely...

Annual Report into the state of English education by Centre Forum (independent think tank). The report charts progress towards a series of world-class benchmarks in Early Years, Primary and Secondary education Key findings  Attainment is improving, but over 60 per cent of secondary and over 40 per cent of primary pupils are still failing to achieve a world-class benchmark. As a result of the new, more challenging, GCSE examinations in 2017, we expect the number of pupils achieving a ...

Commenting on today’s Higher Education Statistics Agency performance indicators for non-continuation in higher education in academic year 2014-15, Professor Les Ebdon, Director of Fair Access to Higher Education, said: “Universities and colleges have made significant progress in improving student retention in recent years, and retention rates in this country are very high by international standards. So I am disappointed to see that the trend of improvement has not continued in 2014-15. Read More...

A new four-year outreach programme will help meet the Prime Minister’s challenging goal to double the participation of students from disadvantaged backgrounds entering higher education by 2020, as announced today by HEFCE. Read more.

Chancellor George Osborne has used his Budget speech to say all schools in England will become academies and extend the school day. Schools must become academies by 2020 or have official plans to do so by 2022, he told MPs. Read More.

NEON’s Summer Symposium, on the 9th and 10th of June at the University of Leicester, is themed around “Rethinking Widening Access: How do we improve outcomes across the student lifecycle?”. This topic is of particular importance in light of the Green Paper, BIS’ Ministerial guidance and OFFA’s strategic guidance on access agreements, all of which placed renewed emphasis on ‘outcomes’ and a ‘broad view of widening participation encompassing a student’s entire lifecycle’. For more information on t...

The Social Mobility Index compares the chances that a child from a disadvantaged background will do well at school and get a good job across each of the 324 local authority district areas of England. It examines a range of measures of the educational outcomes achieved by young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and the local job and housing markets to shed light on which are the best and worst places in England in terms of the opportunities young people from poorer backgrounds have to succeed...

Where children grow up in England is more likely to determine success or failure at school than in previous generations, a study suggests. The Social Market Foundation has examined test results of cohorts born in 1970 and 2000 and found regional differences have become much greater.Pupils' results are highest in London and lowest in Yorkshire and Humber. "Where you live has become much more important," said think tank director Emran Mian. The comparisons between the generations, based on school ...

Women outnumber men in 112 of 180 degree subjects, with females from poorer backgrounds 50% more likely to go to university than their male counterparts. Women now outnumber men in almost two-thirds of degree subjects, and the gender gap in British universities has almost doubled in size since 2007, figures show. The statistics, published by the university admissions service Ucas, show that men still dominate in areas traditionally seen as male, such as engineering and some sciences. Read More.