Weekly round-up: New KS4 data and online GCSEs

Catch up on all your must-read Tes news and analysis right here:

• KS4 performance data: Disadvantage gap widest since 2011
  The disadvantage gap is “heading squarely in the wrong direction” after reaching its widest point since 2011, leading to calls for urgent government intervention to help schools tackle the impact of poverty on educational outcomes.
• Why Progress 8 improvement isn’t necessarily progress
  In response to the new key stage 4 performance data this week, Becks Boomer-Clark, CEO of multi-academy trust AET, says she would rather see an improvement in attendance this coming year than an improvement in Progress 8.
• AQA plans for digital GCSE exams from 2026
  Exam board AQA has set out its first steps towards digital exams, with GCSEs potentially moving online from 2026.
• Why it’s time to start the move to digital exams
  The chief executive of AQA explains why the exam board believes the time is right to start offering digital exams - but explains that the transition will be a slow and steady process.
• DfE strike plan ‘a hostile attack’ on teachers’ rights
  The education secretary has been accused of launching an attack on teachers’ “basic democratic rights” with a plan to bring in minimum service levels in schools to curb strike disruption.
• DfE rejects union funding calls over £370m mistake
  Schools minister Nick Gibb has rejected calls from unions to restore per-pupil funding rates to levels calculated before an error was discovered.
• Gibb faces call to resign over DfE funding mistake
  A Labour MP this week called on schools minister Nick Gibb to resign, accusing him of overseeing the “demoralisation of the education centre of our country”.
• Ofsted inquiry: six things we learned
  Ofsted inspections of multi-academy trusts will carry “huge risks”; scrapping one-word judgements would have the “biggest impact” - here are the main points raised in the first evidence session of an MPs’ inquiry into Ofsted’s work with schools.
• Israel-Hamas conflict: ministers urge ‘sensitivity’ in schools
  The government has told schools to ensure that any political expression from pupils in response to the Israel-Hamas conflict does not create “an atmosphere of intimidation or fear”.
• 214 schools now confirmed to have RAAC
  A total of 214 schools are now confirmed as having potentially hazardous reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete after the Department for Education updated its list of affected settings.
• Sharp rise in severe pupil absence and unauthorised holiday
  The number of pupils who were severely absent and the number of days missed through unauthorised holiday rose sharply in England last year, new DfE data shows.
• SEND: One in five primary teachers have ‘nowhere near’ enough support
  One in five primary school teachers say they have “nowhere near the help they need” to support pupils with special educational needs and disabilities, new data reveals.
• Three in four Reception teachers find baseline test ‘unhelpful’
  Only 3 per cent of Reception teachers think the Reception Baseline Assessment provides accurate information, a new poll suggests.