National News
Plan to make firms pay more to train older workers than youth apprentices in England
Saturday 17th October 2026Exclusive: Ministers considering overhaul of apprenticeship funding scheme to tackle youth jobs crisisEmployers in England are to be forced to pay more to train an older worker than a youth apprentice under plans being drawn up by the government to tackle the youth jobs crisis...
Is women's health content being 'shadowbanned' on social media?
Friday 16th October 2026Creators say women's health content is getting them shadowbanned on social media...
Our business ads were taken down for saying 'pregnancy' on Instagram
Friday 16th October 2026Creators say women's health content is getting them shadowbanned on social media...
School's plan to use toilet chaperones puts pupils at risk, says campaigner
Friday 16th October 2026Some pupils will have to be escorted to the toilet over vandalism and attendance problems...
Snapchat and Instagram grooming becoming 'easier'
Friday 16th October 2026Online grooming is rising, with children as young as five targeted, prompting calls for reform...
We are teaching children maths they will never use. Isn’t it better to help them speak fluently? | Simon Jenkins
Friday 16th October 2026The education secretary is right to focus on what students need most: the ability to express themselves...
'We got penalised for saying 'pregnancy' on Instagram'
Friday 16th October 2026Creators say women's health content is getting them shadowbanned on social media...
Is there a problem with standards in Wales' schools?
Thursday 15th October 2026Wales scores poorly on international test results but it is not clear a new curriculum will help...
Wales has a school standards crisis. Will plans to fix it actually work?
Thursday 15th October 2026Wales scores poorly on international test results but it is not clear a new curriculum will help...
‘Children are naturally drawn to beauty’: the head of the ‘Issey Miyake’ preschool on their pleated uniforms
Wednesday 14th October 2026Ms Lam Montessori’s head of school reveals teachers wear a different Japanese designer after their chic clothes drew online envy“Does anyone know what the deal is Ms Lam Montessori … and why all their employees wear Issey Miyake … every day … I’m confused and a bit jealous,” asked one commenter on the Williamsburg subreddit last week, sparking a unexpected viral moment for a chain of Brooklyn Montessori preschools...
France’s class action: inside the 16 October Guardian Weekly
Wednesday 14th October 2026What drove student protests? Plus: Duran Duran’s extraordinary world • Get the Guardian Weekly delivered to your home addressFrance has been rocked by huge youth protests in recent weeks over the state of high school education, bringing tens of thousands of people on to the streets...
Student protests in Albania turn violent as demonstrators clash with police
Wednesday 14th October 2026Government building and two banks set on fire as tens of thousands take to streets over education costs and corruptionTens of thousands of students have taken to the streets of Tirana, the Albanian capital, setting alight a government building and two banks and hurling stones at police during a protest over rising education costs and corruption...
'Young asylum seekers like me just want to access education'
Wednesday 14th October 2026Aspiring businesswoman Hani had to wait two years before a place became available on an English language courseRead full story...
‘Children are naturally drawn to beauty’: the head of the ‘fake’ Issey Miyake preschool on their pleated uniforms
Wednesday 14th October 2026Ms Lam Montessori’s head of school reveals teachers wear a different Japanese designer after their chic clothes drew online envy“Does anyone know what the deal is Ms Lam Montessori … and why all their employees wear Issey Miyake … every day … I’m confused and a bit jealous,” asked one commenter on the Williamsburg subreddit last week, sparking a unexpected viral moment for a chain of Brooklyn Montessori preschools...
Cut screen time in classrooms to avoid long-term health issues, clinicians urge
Tuesday 13th October 2026A group of clinicians warns technology use in English schools is driving a rise in health problems like short-sightedness...
Cut screen time in classrooms to avoid long-term health issues, government urged
Tuesday 13th October 2026A group of clinicians warns technology use in English schools is driving a rise in health problems like short-sightedness...
Bacon, eggs and Bowie: how year 12 English students tackled ‘human strength and vulnerability’ in HSC paper
Tuesday 13th October 2026Tens of thousands of high school students across New South Wales sit the first test of their final examsGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast“How does the composer of your prescribed text offer you opportunities to examine assumptions about human strength and vulnerability?”This was the bamboozling English question tens of thousands of year 12 students sat down to answer on the first day of their final school exams...
English councils warn of ‘catastrophic’ Send debts forecast to hit £10bn by 2028
Monday 12th October 2026Surge in EHCP applications poses risk to public finances and may lead to deteriorating levels of supportCouncils are warning of potentially “catastrophic” debts, which are forecast to reach a record £10bn over the next 18 months, as a result of rapid growth in demand for special educational needs and disability (Send) support in English schools...
Deadline review – shocking threat sends tremors through authoritarian school
Monday 12th October 2026Set in a dystopian private academy rife with surveillance and cut-throat competition, Kiwi Chow’s gripping drama cements his status as an important film-makerFilmed in Taiwan and set entirely inside a prestigious high school, Kiwi Chow’s gripping drama frames educational systems not merely as a preparation for the real world but as a microcosm of society at large...
Monday briefing: What will it take to turn around our struggling education system?
Monday 12th October 2026In today’s newsletter: With attendance and engagement declining and growing pressure on pastoral care, helping young people rediscover their love for learning requires a new lesson planGood morning...
Why are so many four-year-olds not potty-trained before school?
Sunday 11th October 2026A third of school starters in the West Midlands last year were not toilet-trained, a survey suggests...
France’s other schools problem – the teens violently smashing up their old primaries: ‘They think it’s not worthy of respect – so they trash it’
Sunday 11th October 2026The phenomenon of pupils wrecking equipment and setting fire to classrooms predates the current crisis...
Retrofit schools and consider moving exams to beat extreme heat, says teaching union leader
Sunday 11th October 2026NEU’s Daniel Kebede says earlier start times and longer summer breaks may be needed to help pupils and teachersSchools should consider changing start and finish times, reordering holidays and moving exams from the summer months in an effort to adapt to the UK’s increasingly severe heatwaves, according to the leader of the country’s biggest education union...
We sold everything and bought a one-way ticket to take our three children travelling
Saturday 10th October 2026The Woolridge family sold their south Wales home and are travelling the world with no plans to return...
Plans to turn Van Morrison's former primary into a special school delayed
Saturday 10th October 2026It was originally hoped that the former Elmgrove Primary School could re-open as a special school in September 2026...
Camden council was warned about paedophile nursery worker years before arrest
Saturday 10th October 2026Vincent Chan went on to abuse children after being cleared of ‘significant concerns’ following council-overseen inquiryA paedophile nursery worker was cleared by an investigation overseen by a local authority three years before he was arrested...
Angry French students take to the streets. British students don’t – and I think I know why | Kitty Sayers
Saturday 10th October 2026I grew up in France, where all children are taught about the revolutionary roots of their nation and what the state owes its citizens...
Create new pre-apprenticeship scheme to close youth unemployment gap, says Milburn
Saturday 10th October 2026Exclusive: Former minister’s review warns that dramatic action is needed over huge drop in youth apprenticeship startsA national apprenticeship readiness scheme should be introduced in England to close the gap for young people between leaving school and starting work, the government is to be told...
Ban school uniforms in porn, say pupils
Friday 9th October 2026The pupils from Bicester have launched a petition to end adult content featuring school uniform...
'Everyone hates the police' – what France's school protests reveal about a divided nation
Friday 9th October 2026Students taking to the streets in France have become a focal point in the country's increasingly polarised politics...
Ofsted faces fresh calls to halt graded school inspections in England
Friday 9th October 2026A second head teachers' union says it is "increasingly concerned" about members' "welfare and morale"...
French mayor teargassed after shielding student protesters from police – video
Friday 9th October 2026Saint-Denis's mayor, Bally Bagayoko, had to be evacuated from a protest in Paris after he was teargassed by police on Tuesday...
Headteachers threaten strike ballots after losing confidence in Ofsted
Friday 9th October 2026Unions tell government to fix ‘overbearing mess’ of inspection regime and its impact on staff wellbeing – or risk industrial actionTensions between England’s headteachers and Ofsted are developing into a crisis after school leadership unions said they had no confidence in the watchdog and would hold strike ballots unless “significant wellbeing issues” caused by Ofsted’s inspections regime were fixed...
‘Nobody is listening to us’: on the school protest frontline, I heard why France’s students feel disowned | Alexander Hurst
Friday 9th October 2026Fixing the broken education system will be just the start...
New Ofsted inspection regime damaging teachers, survey says
Thursday 8th October 2026Nine in 10 school heads who responded say inspections still ‘negatively affected’ staff mental healthSchool inspections in England continue to damage the mental wellbeing of teachers and senior leaders, according to a survey commissioned by Ofsted that casts doubt on efforts to reduce the stress caused by inspectors’ visits...
Campaigners led by Chris Packham urge prime minister to rethink Send overhaul
Thursday 8th October 2026Exclusive: Letter to government says changes will unfairly remove legal protections for children in EnglandLetter: Legal rights must be retained for children with SendCampaigners are calling on Andy Burnham to abandon the core elements of the government’s overhaul of special educational needs provision in England, arguing they unfairly remove children’s legal protections...
France’s teens versus the riot police – podcast
Thursday 8th October 2026Angelique Chrisafis on the pupils and students who are taking to the streets and closing down schools in FranceThousands arrested, hundreds injured...
University students say procrastination is biggest threat to their academic performance
Thursday 8th October 2026More than half of US students surveyed said the problem damaged their ability to do academic work, study findsProcrastination is the biggest problem that can harm students’ academic performance at university, according to a study of more than 65,000 young people who placed it above issues such as ADHD, anxiety or financial worries...
Labour Send changes at risk as parents rush to secure support, say experts
Wednesday 7th October 2026Overhaul of special education in England could unravel, thinktank finds, because of ‘use it before you lose it’ dynamicLabour’s flagship changes to special education in England are at risk of unravelling because parents are rushing to secure support for their children before the system changes, new analysis has found...
Badenoch announces £2.3bn proposal to cut employer national insurance for young workers – as it happened
Tuesday 6th October 2026The Conservative party leader said the party would halve employer national insurance on jobs worked by young peopleAsked if she will propose tax cuts in her speech tomorrow, Badenoch tells McCann that she will have to wait until her speech tomorrow at 11...
Riot police fire teargas as 250,000 take part in schools protests across France
Tuesday 6th October 2026Officers also carry out baton charges as students, staff and parents march in cities including Paris, Marseille and Lyon Europe live – latest updatesPolice have fired teargas at protesters as more than 250,000 pupils, teachers and parents demonstrated across France on the biggest day yet of a campaign for better high school conditions that has been marred by often violent clashes with police...
Badenoch suggests Tories would not reverse Labour’s pensions triple lock legislation – UK politics live
Tuesday 6th October 2026In his party conference speech last week, Andy Burnham said he wanted to change the triple lock uprating mechanism from 2030Asked if she will propose tax cuts in her speech tomorrow, Badenoch tells McCann that she will have to wait until her speech tomorrow at 11...
How dilapidated are French schools and how bad is inequality in the education system?
Tuesday 6th October 2026France’s prime minister has promised to address ‘legitimate’ complaints raised by those taking part in protestsEurope live – latest updatesHundreds of French high schools have been barricaded by teenagers and forced to close and hundreds of people have been injured amid clashes with police in the biggest youth protest movement in decades over the state of French lycées, where 15- to 18-year-olds are taught...
The Guardian view on sexual abuse in schools: teachers cannot deal with this alone | Editorial
Monday 5th October 2026Politicians must redouble their efforts to tackle a disturbing pattern of pupils assaulting classmatesThe Guardian’s findings about the extent of sexual abuse in schools require an urgent, calibrated response...
Burnham urged to ‘end cycle of harm’ after scale of child-on-child sexual abuse revealed
Monday 5th October 2026Nearly 90 organisations write to PM urging him to take decisive action to end violence against women and girls• From unwanted touching to rape: the scale of child-on-child abuseA coalition of nearly 90 organisations has written to the prime minister calling for “decisive action” on violence against women and girls after a Guardian investigation revealed the scale of child-on-child sexual abuse in schools in England and Wales...
To state school alumni starting university, I say this: be proud of your background | Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett
Monday 5th October 2026Accusations of classism chime with my experience 20 years ago...
Potty training scheme to roll out to 20 more areas
Monday 5th October 2026The government wants 75% of children to end their first year of school with a good level of development by 2028...
Children’s books with Black main characters down 8% in a year, study shows
Sunday 4th October 2026Only 150 of 2,189 titles published in UK for young children last year focused on minority ethnic, disabled or neurodivergent charactersThe number of children’s books featuring Black main characters fell by almost 8% last year, according to research into diversity in UK publishing...
The Guardian view on nurseries: some things are going right for under-fives | Editorial
Sunday 4th October 2026England’s strong results in an early learning study are a Sure Start legacy that ministers must build on Recognition of the importance of babyhood and early childhood continues to grow...
From unwanted touching to rape: the scale of child-on-child abuse in English and Welsh schools
Sunday 4th October 2026Ten years after full extent of problem was revealed, Guardian investigation finds schools facing uphill battle amid rapid societal changesThousands of child-on-child sexual offences reported at schools in England and WalesIt is 10 years since a report first revealed the epic scale of sexual bullying, harassment and abuse girls faced in England’s schools on a daily basis...
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