The National Education Union (NEU) has warned of industrial action over pay and workload unless the Government responds to its concerns in the next few months. By Emma Yeomans, The Times.

Writing in The Telegraph, Nadhim Zahawi, the education secretary, said that the rail strikes this week have had a significant impact on young people sitting exams, adding that any potential teacher strikes "would be unforgiveable and unfair" on young people who have "suffered more disruption than any generation".

According to The Telegraph, officials are working to draw up plans for an army of supply teachers to keep schools open in response to the NEU's threat to ballot for a strike. By Camilla Turner, Hayley Dixon and Ben Riley-Smith.

A poll from TeacherTapp has revealed that almost four in 10 teachers would support strike action if offered a pay deal of 3 per cent or less. By Matilda Martin, Tes.

A study by the National Foundation for Educational Research has suggested that the DfE is likely to significantly miss initial teacher training recruitment targets in shortage subjects over the next four years due to teachers in the UK being offered lower pay rises than the average worker. By Tom Belger, Schools Week.

Speaking during Prime Minister’s Question Time yesterday, Boris Johnson called for exam boards to show understanding when marking the papers of students whose journey was disrupted by rail strikes. By Patrick Sawer, Lizzie Roberts and Camilla Turner, The Telegraph.

During a House of Lords debate on the Schools Bill, Lord Lexden, president of the Independent Schools Association, questioned Labour's proposal to remove independent schools’ charitable status and highlighted that for over 400 years independent schools have delivered "wider public benefit through bursaries, partnership projects with local state schools, and participation in local community projects”. Hansard.

The OCR exam board is making changes to its GCSE poetry anthology as part of efforts to make the syllabus more diverse. From September, works by John Keats, Thomas Hardy, Wilfred Owen and Philip Larkin will be replaced with 15 new “exciting and diverse” poems. By Nicola Woolcock, The Times.

The Times interviews Mouhssin Ismail, headteacher of the Newham Collegiate Sixth Form Centre (NCS), who will be moving up north to help Eton College and Star Academies with the launch of three new selective state sixth forms in in Oldham, Middlesbrough and Dudley. By Nicola Woolcock.

The Department for Education (DfE) will rebrand its “Compare School and College Performance” website to “reduce the emphasis on comparison”, after school leaders criticised the decision to resume league tables despite the impact of the pandemic. By Tom Belger, Schools Week.

Ministers have warned that students are showing “shocking growth in support for censorship” after a survey by the Higher Education Policy Institute found that many students favour safety and avoidance of discrimination over unrestrained free speech. By Richard Adams, The Guardian.

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