Those from the lowest income families are now up to 19 months behind peers by the age of 16.

Free school meals in Wales should be “healthier and more climate friendly”, a leading academic says.

Plans to axe a fifth of the workforce at Dundee University have drawn attention to problems in the sector.

Home Office told Manikarnika Dutta to quit Britain for spending too many days abroad for study

A high-achieving academic has been threatened with deportation from the UK because the Home Office says she has spent too many days conducting her research requiring access to historic Indian archives stored in India.

Manikarnika Dutta, 37, a historian, conducted the research as part of her academic...

School leaders attacked as ‘an unaccountable elite’ after years of below-inflation pay rises for teachers

A record 775 heads of school academies in England were given pay packages worth more than £150,000 in 2022-23, sparking allegations of an unaccountable “gravy train”.

Figures published last week by the Department for Education (DfE) reveal that nearly a third of academy trusts (30.8%)...

Curriculum chair satisfied with tests in year 6 and year 2 and says system performing well despite Covid setbacks

National tests for primary school pupils will be backed by the government’s curriculum review but it is likely to call for an end to a policy introduced by Michael Gove for students taking GCSEs, the head of the review has suggested.

Prof Becky Francis, the chair of the curriculum...

With regular teaching hours unavailable, agency tutors must compete for lessons

The British Council has been accused of exploiting hundreds of agency teachers on zero-hour contracts forced to compete for lessons in a “feeding frenzy” every week.

An open letter from teaching staff reveals the prestigious government-funded public body does not offer regular hours to tutors on its popular English...

Salford University findings show gulls are predators – not just opportunists snatching people’s snacks

In pictures: Octopus? Ice cream? Is there anything gulls don’t eat?

Gulls are renowned for snatching chips from tourists’ hands, but a scientific project has revealed the greedy birds also like to tuck into moles and quench their thirst with seal milk.

The discovery was among several...

After John Harris’s son was diagnosed, conversation always seemed focused on the things he would struggle with. But a shared passion for playing music grew into something James could do – brilliantly

I start playing songs to my son James from the moment he is born. If I’m given the job of rocking him back to sleep, I usually put on reggae: Junior Murvin’s Police and Thieves and Dawn...

Campaigners welcome decision saying Home Office acted unlawfully

Downing Street has declined to comment on claims that half the cabinet would like Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, to rethink the proposed cuts to disability benefits. (See 9.23am.)

Asked about the report at the Downing Street lobby briefing, the No 10 spokesperson would not comment on what happened at cabinet this week – which is...

The Ripley mother’s campaign is eligible for a House of Commons debate.

NFER says pupil behaviour, stagnant pay and inflexible working practices contributing to exodus from workforce

Teachers in England are abandoning the classroom over worsening pupil behaviour, stagnant pay and inflexible working practices, leaving vacancies at their highest rate on record, according to a report.

It warned that this month’s spending review was the government’s “last...

Kim Johnson tells parliament lessons must be learnt from poor treatment of children at institutions in 1960s and 70s

The historic injustice of a scandal in which black children were incorrectly labelled “educationally subnormal” and sent to schools for physically and mentally disabled pupils must be addressed with a public inquiry, an MP has said.

Kim Johnson, the Labour MP for Liverpool...

Many of us believe that cognitive decline is an inevitable part of ageing, but a new study looking at how our skills change with age challenges that idea. Ian Sample talks to Ludger Woessmann, a professor of economics at the university of Munich and one of the study’s authors, to find out how the team delved into the data to come to their conclusions, and what they discovered about how we can...

More than 1,300 dismissals seem first step toward quashing US agency entirely as education secretary touts ‘efficiency’

The Trump administration has decimated the US Department of Education, firing more than 1,300 employees in a single day in what looks to be the first step toward abolishing the agency entirely.

The mass dismissal – delivered by email after most staff had left for the day on...