Ed Miliband’s pledge that Labour, if elected, would limit school classes for five, six and seven-year-olds to 30 pupils reignites a core question about how best to spend money to improve education. In…
Can you help me with my homework, Carol?
Chris Radburn/PA Archive
Science and mathematics subjects have traditionally been seen as the forte of high-achieving, white, middle-class pupils. And, in an effort to boost the number of scientists and engineers in the UK, over…
There’s this much evidence for our academies policy.
Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire
It is not yet possible to tell whether the government’s flagship academies policy has been “a positive force for change” in the English education system. That’s the finding of a long-awaited report by…
Measuring progress on tackling the impact of poverty.
Dominic Lipinski/PA Archive
Overcoming educational disadvantage is not easy. Even before they enter the school gates for the first time, a variety of factors including inheritance, social class, parenting style and family income…
I wish … I was born a few months later.
Boy with birthday cake via Ilya Andriyanov/Shutterstock
Is your birthday in June or December? An irrelevant question for most adults, but for children whether they were born in the summer or the winter can have a real impact on how well they perform at school…
Unfair advantage?
tutoring by v.schlitching/Shutterstock
Private tutoring is used by many parents around the world to supplement their children’s education and boost their chances of success at school. In England, several surveys have estimated the prevalence…
Faster out of the blocks.
Boy runners via racorn/Shutterstock
Children who do more physical activity are likely to improve their health and it might also help them improve their school grades. Those are the findings of recent research from Sweden which suggest that…
What are my options?
Student via gpointstudio/shutterstock
We ask young people to make a lot of life-changing decisions. At 13 or 14 you choose GCSE subjects. Make the wrong choice and you could be ruling out your chance to pursue medicine or a number of other…
What role do genes have to play?
Student test by wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock
The idea that children can inherit the ability to get good results at school can spark heated debate. But, put simply, all this means is that children differ in how easy and enjoyable they find learning…
Widening the achievememt gap.
Dave Thompson/PA Wire
The streaming of children at primary school by their ability is actually widening the achievement gap between low and high-attaining pupils. Our research has shown that streaming in primary school leads…
Mind the gap.
Teaching via Shutterstock/michaeljung
It doesn’t matter if a school is outstanding or struggling, or if the majority of pupils are well-off or not – it’s likely that there will be a gap between how well poorer pupils perform compared to their…