Compliance

Find the latest statutory guidance and understand how it affects your school, from updates to key DfE documents to brand-new legislation

Monday

12th Jan 2026

Warning over students ingesting copper sulphate
DfE issues health alert after a helpline supporting safe science practical work warns of students ‘deliberately’ consuming the chemical compound
Copper sulphate

Thursday

18th Dec 2025

DfE issues guidance on use of restraint in schools
School staff have a ‘legal power’ to use ‘reasonable force’ to prevent students from causing injury, damage or disorder, or committing a crime, the updated DfE guidance says
Restraint in schools

Monday

15th Dec 2025

Exam board fined a record £2m for ‘serious breaches’
Ofqual says the size of Pearson’s fine for three separate cases reflects the ‘serious nature’ of its failures, which affected ‘tens of thousands’ of students
Fines

Friday

28th Nov 2025

Warning over ‘unchecked’ safeguarding audits
Trust leaders tell Tes that the process of submitting safeguarding audits to councils is ‘like marking your own homework’, and putting unnecessary pressure on school staff
Safeguarding audits
Exclusive

Friday

31st Oct 2025

DfE urged to probe ‘persistent disruptive behaviour’ exclusions
Some pupils are being wrongly excluded from school because this vague ‘catch-all’ category is creating inconsistency in the system, warn PRU and AP leaders
The DfE are being urged to look at use of persistent disruptive behaviour exclusions.
Exclusive

Tuesday

28th Oct 2025

Minister rejects call to allow term-time holidays
Schools minister Georgia Gould says the government will not allow pupils to miss 10 days of school without good reason
Schools minister Georgia Gould has pushed back on calls to allow pupils to take ten 10 days of holiday without facing a fine.

Wednesday

3rd Sep 2025

Information security: avoiding the release of ‘hidden data’
New guidance by the Information Commissioner’s Office offers advice about how to avoid accidental data breaches due to hidden data in files
Marker pen scribble

Monday

28th Jul 2025

DfE leaked personal data of up to 84,500 people
School leaders’ union calls for full transparency over the people affected
Oil tanker leak

Thursday

10th Jul 2025

‘Sensitive’ school files stolen in cyberattack on local authority
‘Extra vigilance’ advised at the affected schools in Scottish local authority, as criminal investigation continues
Computer hack

Tuesday

24th Jun 2025

How our school built a culture of allergy awareness
A primary head explains how they knew it was time to establish a more robust ‘allergy-safe’ approach – and how they did it
Bumblebee in playground

Monday

16th Jun 2025

How to make EDI work in practice
For an academy trust board, an equality, diversity and inclusion policy is far more than a box-ticking exercise and it takes work to put it into practice, trustees tell Tes
TREE with different hands for leaves

Tuesday

20th May 2025

6 safety priorities schools should know about
These are the areas that school leaders often overlook when thinking about health and safety, according to a school-based accident expert
6 safety priorities life buoy