When the British Government ordered all schools to close to the majority of pupils on March 20th, 2020, they were asked to provide on-site education for vulnerable pupils and the children of keyworkers (such as those working in public health, transport and supplying food). Since then, the level of school attendance for both vulnerable pupils and…

This article draws on findings from the first cross-national study of school exclusions in the four jurisdictions of the UK. It sketches factors associated with the past research with reductions in exclusions. It then reports interview data gathered in England in 2018 from five specialist officers working in two Local Authorities and a senior…

This article analyses policy and practice in social and cultural education for adults in England in the post Second World War era, beginning with the flowering of municipal adult education and the expansion of university extra-mural provision. It tracks the emerging policy focus on extending participation to under-represented groups, and on…

Since 1997 there have been two concerted attempts to expand the number of medical school students in England: by increasing the size of existing medical schools, and by creating new medical schools. These initiatives have been a direct result of government policy, although policy implementation was delegated to the state apparatus. They also led…

The Government has a target of three million apprenticeship starts in England by 2020, and is introducing an Apprenticeship Levy on the payroll of large employers to fund this increase and to encourage greater employer engagement with apprenticeships. Concerns have been raised about whether there should be a delay to get the details right;…

This article explores the governance structures that cover vocational education and training (VET) in England. The English VET system is highly fragmented, complex and unstable, and has tended to oscillate between centralised command and control, and attempts at marketisation. Its governance arrangements reflect this situation. The various…

"FORUM" has marked the progress of the Cambridge Primary Review by three previous articles from Robin Alexander, the Review's director, and by critiques and responses from several others, notably "FORUM"'s Michael Armstrong. In 2013 the Review was superseded by the Cambridge Primary Review Trust, and this article is the text of…

Students are bingeing on large amounts of information and then, in government induced bouts of vomiting otherwise known as national tests, they spew it all out. This is how Frank Coffield introduces the term Bulimia Academica, which he treats every bit as seriously as its medical counterpart. Students resort to bulimic learning to cope with a…

Background: Changes in England's education policy have increased the autonomy of schools, thus substantially altering the nature of the role played by local government. Concurrently, a sharp rise in referrals to children's social care services, together with budgetary pressures, have led local authorities to seek to manage demand by emphasising…

This study, jointly conducted by the University of Warwick Institute for Employment Research (IER) and SQW Ltd., discusses the UK Government's intention to accelerate the process of ceding more responsibility for delivering a range of services to the local level. The logic is that local actors are better placed to identify local priorities. This…

This article argues for an early childhood professionalism based upon notions of professional community and professional knowledge. Professionalism is conceived here as shaped by the relation between the social and the epistemic, with certain types of professional knowledge given precedence in accordance with the involvement of different…

In October 2015 the Department for Education (DfE) permitted a grammar school in Tonbridge, Kent, to open up an annexe in Sevenoaks, 10 miles away. Amidst claims that the annexe was essentially a new grammar school, the decision reignited an old debate about the value of academically-selective "grammar" schools in England. The intensity…

Part-time undergraduate study is an important vehicle for social mobility, offering an opportunity for those whose work or family responsibilities make full-time study impractical and providing a 'second chance' for mature students who may not have followed the traditional route in school. This report investigates the dramatic decline in part-time…

This article reviews the influence of liberal ideas on the capacity for Religious Education (RE) to consider religions critically in a climate of increasing government intervention in education. It finds that criticality in some areas of RE is absent or limited but that in key areas criticality is evident if not always deeply embedded. It…

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact on all areas of society, including education. On 20 March 2020, schools closed their gates to all pupils apart from vulnerable pupils and children of keyworkers. In June, primary schools opened to selected year groups (Nursery, Reception, Year 1 and Year 6) and secondary schools invited pupils in Years 10…