20 March, 2026

Top education news stories

Explore this week’s news roundup to uncover the key challenges and priorities for schools across the country.

6 min read

1. NFER: School Teacher Labour Market

This eighth annual report shows significant signs of improvement in key areas, writes NFER.

NFER’s annual Teacher Labour Market report monitors the progress towards meeting the teacher supply challenge by measuring the key indicators of recruitment, retention and working conditions.

It found that recruitment is improving, even in some subjects which have seen persistent shortages. Teachers were less likely to leave the workforce last year compared to any year since 2010/11, outside of the pandemic. Some progress has also been made in the competitiveness of teachers’ pay.

However, secondary recruitment overall remains below target, with the forecast indicating it may be at 86% of target this year. The state of the wider economy being a key driver means that trends could reverse if the labour market improves.

The report also found that recent teacher pay growth has narrowed the gap with average earnings slightly, but competitiveness remains lower than in 2010/11. However, the Government’s proposal to increase pay by 6.5% over the next three years would probably mean teachers’ earnings fail to keep pace with wider earnings growth.

Teachers’ working hours and workload perceptions have improved modestly in recent years, but remain less positive than for similar workers.

Source: School Teacher Labour Market in England Annual Report 2026 (nfer.ac.uk)

2. Special schools over capacity by 11,000 pupils

DfE says around two-thirds of special schools are still over-capacity, writes Schools Week.

Special schools in England are over-capacity by around 11,000 pupils, new government data shows, despite an increase in the number of settings year-on-year.

DfE school capacity data shows that as of May 2025, there were around 160,000 places in 1,100 special schools.

But there were around 170,000 pupils in total, which “means that there are approximately 11,000 more pupils on roll in special schools than reported capacity”.

The numbers are rounded, which is why the over-capacity figure seems larger than it should be.

The figure of 11,000 marks a 37.5% increase on the figure for 2024, 8,000. It comes despite there being a net increase in the number of special schools of 12 over the period.

The data also reveals how councils forecast 260,000 pupils with an EHCP will need a specialist provision place in 2025/26. This includes independent units in mainstream and alternative provision, but was collected before DfE announced its SEND reforms.

Councils forecast annual growth to “gradually slow” from 6.8% in 2025/26 to 4.2% in 2029/30.

Overall data on school capacity shows the continuing impact of falling rolls. It shows the proportion of primary schools at or over capacity fell from 16% in 2023/24 to 14% in 2024/25, and there was an even larger drop in the proportion of secondaries at or over capacity (from 24% to 19%).

Source: Special schools over capacity by 11,000 pupils (schoolsweek.co.uk)

3. Ofsted recruits unpaid inspectors as part of pilot scheme

Inspectors recruited under the scheme will not get an inspection fee, with Ofsted instead contributing to their employers’ costs, writes Tes.

Ofsted is recruiting unpaid inspectors as part of a new pilot scheme to include more serving education leaders in school inspections.

There will be no separate inspection fee for these recruits, the school watchdog confirmed, with Ofsted instead contributing to employers’ costs.

This will mean staff can become an Ofsted inspector as part of their professional development pathway.

Ofsted chief inspector Sir Martyn Oliver announced this plan for recruiting new inspectors at the Association of School and College Leaders’ annual conference in Liverpool.

The pilot scheme involves inspectors joining Ofsted as groups of peers drawn from professional organisations and networks that they are already part of. This includes multi-academy trusts, local authorities, Church dioceses, local school networks, independent learning providers and general further education colleges.

The first participants in the pilot began inspector training in January and are now taking part in shadow inspections. They are expected to be ready to participate in live inspections later this term.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union, welcomed the aspiration to better match inspectors with the schools they are inspecting.

However, he warned that it is “far from clear whether existing school leaders will have the time and capacity to be involved in inspections, given the enormous workload expectations they are facing”.

Source: Ofsted recruits unpaid inspectors as part of pilot scheme (Tes.com)