Education minister Jacqui Smith said the move would create “a clear legal requirement for schools”.

Approximately 22,000 weekend students had been told their courses were never eligible for student finance.

Office for Students plans new complaints system as Bridget Phillipson says academics too often are being silenced

Universities in England that fail to protect free speech could face fines of £500,000 or 2% of their income, and in some cases risk losing public funding, under a new complaints system, the government has said.

The Office for Students (OfS) will run a “first-of-its-kind” scheme...

Former minister leading review into young people and work cites survey showing most teachers decry lack of ‘soft skills’

An “exam-obsessed” school system is leaving young people unprepared for work, Alan Milburn has said, as new polling suggests teachers believe pupils are leaving education without the skills they need for adult life.

Milburn, a former cabinet minister under Tony Blair and now...

I was a newcomer, negotiating all of the usual classroom difficulties for the first time. Throwing AI into the mix felt like downing a coffee in the middle of a panic attack

By Peter C Baker. Read by Adam Sims

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Universities could face fines of £500,000 or 2% of their income if they are found to have failed to protect free speech.

Higher nutritional standards are a good idea. But ministers, like hungry pupils, must avoid looking for ‘grab-and-go’ fixes

For growing children, lunchtime is a vital moment in every day. Full-time education is demanding. Afternoon lessons only work because they come after a break – and food. And children, like adults, often mind a great deal about what they eat. So school menus are...

Sale of vocational training brand and million-pound executive pay deals now subject to Charity Commission inquiry

When electrician Charlie Butler was contacted by City & Guilds last autumn, he received a shock.

He had branched out to launch a new company schooling future sparkies in Essex, offering City & Guilds-affiliated courses and qualifications. When the representative from the training...

Many teachers say they struggle to balance the pressures of their job with the demands of being a parent.

Though welcomed by chefs and campaigners, many schools say the government’s plan to remove ‘grab and go’ options from the menu is a step too far

It is lunchtime at Richard Challoner school, a Catholic comprehensive for boys in New Malden, south-west London. The familiar smell of school lunch is beginning to waft around the corridors.

In the canteen, there is a moment of calm as the kitchen team...

Capital’s schools hardest hit in England and Wales by rising housing costs and falling birthrate, with further falls predicted in coming years

Schools in London continue to be hardest hit by housing costs and the falling birthrate. Further closures and mergers of primary schools are expected after a sharp fall in the number of children entering reception classes in the capital.

London’s...

The skewed perspectives in my A-level curriculum are staggering. Until that changes, harmful ideas about race and migration will live on

Astrid Barltrop is the winner of the 2026 Emerging Voices award (16-18 category) and a year 13 student in Oxfordshire

“Lord Cromer was a successful consul-general of Egypt. To what extent do you agree?” I read this essay prompt in my A-level history class,...