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...

To kick off our new bite-size series covering education policy, we start with Sex and Relationship Education (SRE). This is a timely topic in light of a new bid to force the government to make personal, social and health education (PSHE) compulsory in schools. What is SRE? Sex and relationship education (SRE) is aimed at helping and supporting youn...

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...

When three East London schoolgirls fled Britain to join Islamic State in Syria in February 2015, the education world was forced to ask itself some difficult questions. The government's counter-terrorism strategy, Prevent, had been in place since 2011, but many teachers and school leaders found the guidance vague and hard to enforce. It's better und...

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...