And quality of education is now CEOs’ top strategic priority for this academic year, writes Schools Week.
Support from colleagues is the single biggest reason cited by school staff for remaining in post, outstripping pay, leadership and career progression, a survey has revealed.
Edurio’s survey of 110,673 staff in England also revealed that passion for the profession and feeling valued are among the top reasons staff choose to stay in their roles as well.
Support from colleagues was cited by 68% of staff, followed by passion for the profession (59%), feeling valued (51%), financial stability and a supportive line manager (both 48%). When asked about factors that made them want to leave, 44% cited feeling undervalued, while 42% said overwhelming workload.
The survey results also showed that only 8% of staff considering resignation blamed a poor relationship with their line manager.
“It’s noteworthy that while a good relationship is a key driver of retention, a poor one may not be as big of a factor in someone’s decision to resign.” Overall, resignation risk held flat at 41% for the second year running. It had fallen from 43% two years ago.
Source: Colleagues’ support key to keeping school staff in post (schoolsweek.co.uk)
Our recently published national reports on staff, pupil and parent experience contain the latest national data and trends on belonging, wellbeing, retention, engagement and interest in learning in the 2025/26 academic year.
Download the reports here →The education secretary commits to further reforms to the schools watchdog and defends Labour’s planned expansion of technical education, writes Tes.
Lucy Powell confirmed that there will be reforms to the school watchdog amid increased concern about its latest inspection framework. Speaking at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool, Ms Powell said she wanted to see a “much stronger” focus on school context from Ofsted. This comes after she had branded the current Ofsted inspection system “high stakes and low trust”.
In a letter to the Association of School and College Leaders last week, Ms Powell said she wanted to move to an Ofsted system that recognises the context that school staff are working in.
But she went further on the panel at the conference, telling delegates: “I want to see a much stronger emphasis in the current inspection system on context, much stronger than it is at the moment.”
She added that she also wants to see a greater focus on “what is happening in schools…rather than a tick-box exercise”. “I want to see an end state, if you like, of a self-inclusion, self-collaborative and supported school improvement model,” the education secretary continued.
While Ms Powell said that “there will be change on Ofsted”, she did not confirm what aspect of the accountability system she will prioritise first.
Source: Powell: Ofsted needs ‘much stronger’ focus on school context
Financial sustainability has fallen from being trusts’ top strategic priority, findings reveal, while SEND is a big priority for leaders in the year ahead, writes Tes.
Nearly half of academy trust leaders plan to reduce teacher staffing as financial pressures persist, a survey has found.
The Confederation of School Trusts survey shows that 49% of chief executives planned to reduce teacher full-time equivalent (FTE) staffing to mitigate financial pressures in 2026/27.
And 52% planned to reduce teaching assistant FTE staffing, the polling with Edurio found. Financial sustainability has also fallen from being trusts’ top strategic priority, with 47% naming it among their five priorities, down from 64% the previous year.
But three-quarters of trust CEOs still say balancing budgets will be a financial focus this year, and 55% say they need to focus on cost reduction.
Just under two-thirds say they were very or quite confident about their trust’s financial sustainability – the highest proportion since 2022 – despite half expecting their reserves to fall over the coming year.
Falling pupil numbers were the most commonly cited financial risk (59%), followed by special educational needs and disabilities costs (43%) and teaching staff costs (35%). More than a third of CEOs also say they lacked important information needed to set an accurate budget.
Quality of education was the most commonly selected strategic priority (63%), followed by inclusion (61%) and pupil outcomes (48%).
Among trusts prioritising education quality, three-quarters said inclusion and SEND provision would be a focus ahead of attendance (61%).
And more than three-quarters were considering additional SEND training for staff ahead of the government’s flagship reforms, with just over half wanting to build specialist resource bases in their schools.
Source: Half of trusts plan teacher staffing cuts, finds CST survey (tes.com)
The fifth annual National School Trust Report, published with the Confederation of School Trusts (CST), draws on survey responses from hundreds of trust CEOs across England, sharing their priorities and plans for the year ahead.
See the CEO's top priorities for the year →DfE says it will be ready at the end of the academic year in time ‘to feed into planning’ for next September, writes Schools Week.
A new government framework that will help schools to measure pupils’ sense of belonging and engagement has been delayed.
The schools white paper, said it expected all schools to “monitor pupils’ sense of belonging and engagement” by 2029, adding that a “pupil engagement framework” would be ready to launch in the summer.
But the DfE has confirmed the framework is still undergoing development and aims for it to be published before the end of this academic year, “in time to feed into school planning for next September”. “We are continuing to work with schools and measurement providers to develop a standard set of well-evidenced questions for pupils to provide a basis for this understanding, and an associated guidance that builds on existing practice to support schools to use the information effectively.”
The framework will help schools measure, understand and improve the key factors that determine pupils’ engagement in education. It will include a “standard set of well-evidenced questions for pupils” as well as guidance for schools to “use the information effectively”.
According to the DfE, about 60% of schools currently measure factors around belonging, but there is no consistent way of recording the data.
Source: Framework to measure sense of belonging is delayed (schoolsweek.co.uk)
Draft documents set out examples of what might be seen as ‘reasonable’ and ‘unreasonable’ adjustments for pupils with SEND, as part of the government’s drive to increase inclusion in mainstream schools, writes Tes.
The Department for Education has set out examples of what could be seen as reasonable and unreasonable adjustments that schools could make for pupils with SEND.
The government is currently working on producing new reasonable adjustment guidance after committing to this in SEND reform plans aimed at making mainstream schools more inclusive.
It is seeking views from the sector and has produced examples of how schools might respond to pupils’ needs in draft documents, which it has shared with trust leaders. These documents, which are marked as not being government policy, set out case study “user journeys” and also give an indication of how schools might use the national inclusion standards that are in development.
The government has not yet published its planned national inclusion standards, which will be developed by a panel, chaired by academy trust chief executive Tom Rees.
Source: DfE tests what it is ‘reasonable’ to expect of schools on SEND
6 October, 2026
New OECD figures show teachers in England resign 70% more often than the international average. Our data from 110,673 school staff shows why they leave, what keeps them, and what school and trust leaders can do about it.
Read more
2 October, 2026
•
Keeping up with the news can be a challenge. See our summary of must-read news stories in education from the last two weeks to stay informed and empowered.
Read more
25 March, 2026
•
At Edurio, we're constantly looking for ways to improve the surveying experience for our community. Here's a roundup of our latest releases and updates.
Read more
Share 
Share 
Share