24 April, 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. 17 leaders named regional chairs of KS3 alliance

School leaders from councils and trusts to identify best practice to boost the sector’s ‘forgotten middle’, writes Schools Week.

Seventeen academy trust and council bosses have been named the regional leads for the ministers’ push to improve children’s transition into secondary school.

The announcement is part of the next phase of the government’s key stage 3 alliance.

When the programme was unveiled last month, prominent school trust CEOs Becks Boomer-Clark of Lift Schools and Lesley Powell of the North East Learning Trust were appointed as its national chairs.

And now the pair has revealed that the likes of Outwood Grange chief Lee Wilson, Dixons leader Luke Sparkes and Windsor Academy Trust’s Dawn Haywood will chair its local teams.

“Key stage 3 has become the forgotten middle of our school system, yet it is where too many young people lose their sense of belonging and engagement begins to dip,” Boomer-Clark and Powell said.

“If we are serious about improving outcomes and narrowing gaps, we need a much sharper focus on these years. This alliance brings together leaders to do exactly that.”

They added that the alliance will operate over a three-year “trajectory”.

The first 12 months will be devoted to establishing a “shared purpose, confirming priorities and launching regional networks.” Then it will “test and evaluate effective practice”, before scaling and embedding “what works across the system” in the third year.

Source: 17 leaders named regional chairs of KS3 alliance (schoolsweek.co.uk)

The KS3 experience: what the data tells us

The transition from primary to secondary school is one of the most significant shifts in a child’s educational journey. Edurio data reveals a consistent trend: Year 7 often begins with a “honeymoon period” of high engagement and happiness but these metrics frequently decline as pupils move into Years 8 and 9.

2. DfE set to make school phone ban guidance statutory

But school leaders warn a legal ban ‘doesn’t really change much’, writes Schools Week.

The DfE is set to introduce a statutory mobile phone ban in schools, to give “legal force to what schools are already doing”.

Skills minister Jacqui Smith told the Lords last week the government will issue an amendment to the children’s wellbeing and schools bill to put existing guidance on a statutory footing.

This will mean the guidance “must be followed unless there is a legally justifiable reason for schools not to do so”, she said.

Research by the children’s commissioner, Rachel de Souza, found last year that 90% of secondary schools and 99.8% of primary schools already have policies in place that stop the use of mobile phones during the school day.

A DfE spokesperson said the amendment will give “legal force to what schools are already doing in practice”.

“It builds on the steps we’ve already taken to strengthen enforcement, with Ofsted considering schools’ mobile phone policies as part of inspection from this month.”

This comes days after early years minister Olivia Bailey told the Commons that government had “already solved the problem of banning phones in schools”. The government is currently consulting on technology and its impact on children, including whether the school phone guidance should be made statutory.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said statutory guidance “will give school leaders the clarity they need to implement a ban, and will remove any ambiguity or differences between how schools approach smartphone policies.

“Schools will only then need to decide how to implement and enforce a ban across their school community, and the government must provide any support they require to do so effectively.”

Source: DfE set to make school phone ban guidance statutory (schoolsweek.co.uk)

Gather views on phone use from your community

Use our phone use surveys for staff, pupils and parents to understand behaviours, attitudes and the required support for phone-free learning.

3. Two in five school leaders ‘cutting back on SEND support’

Research into the cuts schools are having to make reveals the ‘mismatch’ between the government’s ambitious plans and the funding being provided, writes Tes.

More than 40% of school leaders have cut back on support for students with special educational needs and disabilities as schools experience a squeeze on finances, a new survey suggests.

Four in five senior leaders expect to make further cuts next year, particularly to teaching assistants and tutoring, the survey of 1,105 teachers and leaders from 958 state schools in England, which was conducted by the National Foundation for Educational Research, found.

Furthermore, 43% of school leaders reported cutting support for pupils with SEND, with primary schools significantly more affected than secondaries.

The government set out sweeping reforms to the SEND support system in February.

These planned reforms are backed by £1.6 billion over three years to help schools and colleges become more inclusive, £1.8 billion to create a bank of SEND specialists in every area, and £200 million for SEND teacher training.

Despite this, the survey shows that 71% of senior leaders have had to cut back on teaching assistants, up from a figure of 50% in a similar survey last year. Nearly half of senior leaders said other support staff had been cut, and 30% said teaching staff had been reduced.

Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of ASCL, said: “Although the government has made some additional funding available, this is unlikely to be sufficient to support reforms on the scale envisaged or address existing funding shortages.”

Source: Two in five school leaders ‘cutting back on SEND support’ (tes.com)