In 2022, the government announced a commitment to improve literacy education as part of its levelling up agenda. The ambition to eradicate issues by 2030 has seen a tight focus on literacy skills and mandated curriculums – which neglect to acknowledge the local and individualised contexts in which teachers teach. A lack of resources, funding […]
School attendance law in the High Court: term-time holidays despite the legal fog?
Parents of school-age children know all too well that family holiday prices have a tendency to sky rocket during school holiday periods. Most also know, or thought they did, that they could be fined if they took their children out of school without good reason. So there was huge public interest in the recent case […]
Socio-economic inequalities widening again in English schools: The story behind the 2014 GCSE results.
Publication of the 2014 GCSE results has highlighted a worrying decline in academic performance by poorer children, say Ruth Lupton and Stephanie Thomson from The University of Manchester. Yesterday’s release of the 2014 GCSE results, showing a fall in overall achievement and a doubling of the number of schools not meeting the government’s floor target, […]