News, research & insights
w/c 26 May 2025
Government delays publication of child poverty strategy
The strategy for tackling child poverty nationally has been delayed. The government were due to publish it this Spring, but it could be postponed until the Autumn.
Teachers and doctors to receive pay rise
Ministers have announced a 4% pay increase for teachers and doctors in England as part of the latest public sector pay review.
Students facing disadvantage encounter ‘Year 7 dip’
A major study of over 100,000 pupils reveals early signs of disengagement in secondary school. More on this in the research and insights section.
Breakfast clubs cutting back to serve more
Some schools in a free breakfast pilot dilute juice and skip fruit due to funding gaps, according to TES.
Exams underway for thousands of pupils
The 2025 GCSEs run from 5 May to 25 June, with students again allowed formulae and equation sheets in maths and science exams.
Find out key dates of exams and results day here.
Research & Insights
Mind the Engagement Gap:
A national study of pupil engagement in England’s schools
[Jerrim; ImpactEd, 2025]
This research report was commissioned by ImpactEd Group and the Research Commission on Engagement and Lead Indicators.
The study of 80,000 pupils shows a sharp decline in trust, enjoyment, safety, and agency during the move from primary to secondary school, with disengagement most severe among girls and disadvantaged pupils.
Notably, engagement drops significantly during the transition from Year 6 to Year 7 and continues into Year 8, with average scores falling from 8/10 in primary to around 5.5 in Year 8.
According to Jerrim et al, engagement 'never fully recovers throughout secondary school.
Pupils eligible for Free School Meals report lower levels of trust, enjoyment and belonging; with the gap widening through secondary.
Girls are more likely to feel unsafe or worried, particularly in Years 7–9, despite showing higher academic drive than bos
(Source: ImpactEd, 2025)
Secondary pupils in the top 25% of engagement scores in November 2024 are 10 percentage points less likely to be persistently absent than those in the bottom 25%.
Less engaged pupils are also more likely to arrive late to school.
When asked about feelings of safety, pupils reported lower engagement in the early years of secondary school than in primary and also experience a further decline between the Autumn and Spring term in secondary school.
Data shows that feeling safe in schools falls from 7.21 in Year 7 to 5.89 in Year 9 for female pupils, and from 7.40 to 6.55, respectively, for male pupils
(Source: ImpactEd, 2025)
This raises questions and challenges about how educators can support the critical transition period of Year 7 to ensure pupils remain engaged for the long-term. Especially for pupils facing poverty-related barriers to learning.
Period Equality:
A plan for toilet access
[PhS & Irise International; 2025]
Period inequality in schools is growing issue. Furthermore, research shows that this can be made further complex by poverty-related barriers too.
This report investigates how school toilet policies affect students who menstruate, focusing on barriers to toilet access during school hours.
It also explores the impact of these restrictions on students' mental health, academic participation, and dignity.
65% of secondary schools restrict toilet access during the day. Only 35% allow students to use toilets freely at any time.
16% of teachers admitted to denying students on their periods access to toilets, and 30% believe students should wait until lessons end.
(Source: PhS Period Equality, 2025)
One in four teachers (26%) have witnessed students bleed through their uniforms due to being denied bathroom access.
Students miss an average of 3 school days per term due to menstrual issues.
Although 96% of schools have signed up for the DfE-funded period equality scheme, many do not place free products in washrooms:
40% make them available only at reception or nurse’s office.
27% provide them directly in washrooms.
The DfE spent £5.5 million on products in 2023/24, yet access remains inconsistent.
Recommendations & resources
Irise International has developed a Toilet Policy Toolkit to help schools create inclusive and accessible toilet policies.
A 16-page guide to period equality has been released by Phs Group to support schools.
Advocates stress that toilet access is a basic right and that teachers need training and support to navigate policy while protecting students’ dignity.
Everyone Included:
Transforming our education system to be ambitious about inclusion
[Centre for Young Lives & Mission 44; 2025]
This latest installment from CfYL, supported by Mission44, is helpful highlighting how the education system is failing to serve all children effectively, especially the most vulnerable.
The report calls for transformational change to make inclusion a central goal across all levels of the education system.
It shows that around 1 in 5 children leave school without basic qualifications.
40% of young people feel they don’t belong at school.
Rising rates of absence, exclusion, off-rolling, and lost learning signal deep systemic problems.
Accountability pressures and league tables disincentivise schools from supporting vulnerable pupils.
Barriers to inclusion include fractured services, poor data sharing, and an accountability system that rewards exclusionary behaviour.
Key quote:
“The barriers to learning don’t sit with the children, they sit within the system”
School leader: Everyone Included, 2025
Those of us interested in place-based approaches will notice that London shows higher inclusion performance, likely due to better funding, long-term reforms, and stronger community infrastructure.
Rural, coastal, and semi-rural areas are overrepresented in the lowest-performing areas, often due to scarcer resources and funding inequalities.
There are a host of clear and coherent recommendations in the report such as
DfE publishing a Green Paper on wholesale reform with inclusion at the core
Creating statutory guidance on inclusion, including for SEND and racially inclusive practices.
Track school roll data publicly to hold schools accountable for excluding pupils.
Expand the RISE Teams remit to monitor school roll data and inclusion.
Review admissions policies, especially in Academies, to ensure they are inclusive.
Reform the Pupil Premium to better support long-term disadvantaged pupils and extend it to ages 16–19. This latter one I believe is especially vital.
Do Children Who Were Preschool Picky Eaters Eat Different Foods at School Lunch When Aged 13 Years Than Their Non‐Picky Peers?
[Kemp at al; Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics, 2025]
This recent study led by the University of Bristol suggests that school dinners may help reduce picky eating behaviours in teenagers, especially those who were fussy eaters as preschoolers.
The research suggests that 13-year-olds who were picky eaters were more likely to eat a wider variety of foods when having school dinners compared to packed lunches.
Using data from over 5,300 children in the long-running Children of the 90s study, researchers observed that children who were allowed to choose their meals at school were less likely to avoid meat, fish, and fruit than when eating packed lunches.
(Source: FIGURE 1 Kemp et al 2025; The longitudinal classification of picky eating children in the ALSPAC birth cohort study from ages 2 to 5.5 years. Adapted from Taylor et al.)
In both packed lunches and school dinners salad and vegetables were more likely to be avoided by children who had been categorised as a picky eater in preschool years.
Picky children were more likely than non‐picky children to avoid meat, fish and fruit in their packed lunches whereas in school dinners meat, fish and fruit were not eaten less often.
Family norms could have a stronger influence over packed lunch content than over school dinner choices where the child has more autonomy and may be influenced by their peers
The findings suggest that school environments, where young people exercise more autonomy and are exposed to peer behaviours, may positively influence dietary variety too.
While picky eating tends to peak at age 3, this study shows that some children retain these habits into adolescence. However, school meals may offer a valuable opportunity to support more balanced eating patterns.
The research team plans to explore how picky eating affects adult health outcomes using the same longitudinal dataset. So it’s worth signing up for updates via the open access journal.
Responding to the AI deepfake threat:
A call to action for school leaders
[Mulholland; ASCL and SecEd, 2025]
This article from Margaret Mulholland, ASCL, is a call to action urging school leaders to take the emerging threat of deepfakes and synthetic media seriously.
As AI-generated content becomes increasingly difficult to detect, it poses growing risks to student safety, mental health, and school communities.
She carefully explores the impact of digital disinformation, bullying, and manipulation, highlighting how these harms are already affecting young people.
Mulholland outlines what schools can do to respond, including embedding digital literacy, supporting staff and students, engaging parents, and using safeguarding tools.
She also calls for curriculum reform and stronger government policy to ensure schools are not left to face these challenges alone.
The piece argues that equipping young people with critical thinking and resilience is essential for their wellbeing in a rapidly changing digital world.
Opportunities
FREE Resource Hub:
Poverty Proofing the School Day©
Children North East have produced lots of free Poverty Proofing© resources available for schools on how to improve the experience of the school day for pupils facing poverty-related barriers to learning.
There are a range of practical guides from top tips on subjects such as sports day, uniform and fun, to research reports sharing the voices of pupils living in poverty.
Remember, you can find out more about Poverty Proofing© by reading Tackling Poverty and Disadvantage in Schools.
There is a whole chapter dedicated to the research that sits behind this approach, case studies of it in action and free access to an online resource of downloadable activities to use with colleagues in schools and other settings.
I’ve also written here about Poverty Proofing: Ten questions to ask about poverty and hardship in schools
Tackling Poverty and Disadvantage in Schools
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