Teacher Katherine Birbalsingh received a standing ovation at the 2010 Conservative Party Conference, when she said: "The [education] system is broken because it keeps poor children poor." She went on to condemn a "culture of excuses, of low standards"; "the chaos of our classrooms"; and a "sea of bureaucracy". Birbalsingh has since regretted her co...

In the latest international Pisa tests, carried out by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 22% of 15-year-olds in the UK performed at the lowest level of mathematics proficiency. In practice, this means they may be unable to carry out simple tasks, such as recognising that travelling four kilometres in 10 minutes means going...

Financial literacy education became part of the National Curriculum for the first time in September 2014, as part of citizenship education in key stages 3 and 4 (ages 11-16). The Citizenship programmes of study make provision for pupils in key stage 3 (aged 11-14 years) to be taught about: the functions and uses of money the importance and practice...

Common sense suggests, scientific research tells you, and Pisa proves it; what makes the biggest difference to student outcomes is the teacher in front of the class. That means if you really want to improve the school system, you need to focus on teacher training and professional development. Teachers need the core knowledge to plan, deve...

Since September 2013, local authority maintained schools have been under a duty to provide impartial careers guidance to pupils from Years 8 to 13 (ages 12-18). The Department for Education (DfE) has published statutory guidance (most recently updated in March 2015) for maintained schools on their duty to provide careers guidance. The statutory dut...