Unions

New guidance on communicating with parents about absence leaves schools with the ‘all but impossible’ task of improving attendance without being able to hold families to account, warn leaders

The government’s long-awaited enrichment benchmarks for schools have finally been published, encompassing areas such as civic engagement, the arts, nature and sport

Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and X will all be inaccessible to under-16s under government plans, but messaging apps such as WhatsApp will be permitted

Industrial action ballots have jumped by nearly two-thirds since 2023, the union’s latest accounts show, as redundancy disputes rise

Around half of secondary schools have already produced extra documents to prepare for the new inspections

GMB, Unison and Unite express ‘profound concerns’ over the direction of the School Support Staff Negotiating Body

Ofqual says schools can cut exam times by choosing different awarding bodies, but Tes analysis reveals that, in most cases, this isn’t an option – and school leaders are now calling for the number of exams to be reduced instead

Schools will be provided with new tools highlighting absence patterns over the year, and new communications guides to improve engagement with families

Consultation will result in guidance on children’s screen time in and out of school, and the government is also planning safety certification for AI products for schools

DfE advice seeks to allay fears that severe shortages of staff such as educational psychologists will put the brakes on its Experts at Hand service, on same day as it reveals members of key SEND panel

EIS teaching union sees more in-service days as crucial in helping teachers to adapt to the Curriculum Improvement Cycle

Schools must not be left with the ‘policing burden’ around social media, says school leaders’ union as it demands that tech companies are held to account