Any child in England whose parents receive Universal Credit will be able to claim free school meals from September 2026, the government has said.
Parents on the credit will be eligible regardless of their income. Currently, their household must earn less than £7,400 a year to qualify.
The government says the change will make 500,000 more pupils eligible, which the prime minister said would "help families who need it most".
Labour has faced scrutiny over plans to tackle child poverty, and is yet to decide whether to scrap the two-child benefit cap.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson told the BBC ministers were "working as quickly as we can" on next year's plans to extend free school meals.
Ministers said the changes to free school meals would save parents £500 a year and "lift 100,000 children out of poverty".
On the two-child benefit cap, which prevents most families from claiming means-tested benefits for any third or additional children born after April 2017, Phillipson was asked if there were plans to change this policy.
The education secretary told BBC Breakfast it was not a "silver bullet" but "it was on the table."
She has previously said the government is looking at scrapping it but that it would cost a lot of money.
On free school meals, the Department for Education has set aside £1bn to fund the change up to 2029.
They have also pledged £13m to a dozen food charities across England to "fight food poverty", by redistributing food from farms.
Sir Keir Starmer said: "Feeding more children every day, for free, is one of the biggest interventions we can make to put more money in parents' pockets, tackle the stain of poverty, and set children up to learn."...read more
The Department for Education (DfE) has launched an AI powered tool for schools in England to benchmark their attendance records against similar schools.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson announced the launch last week, among with a handful of other measures to support the use of AI in schools.
The attendance reports tool has been made available to schools and responsible bodies through the View Your Education Data platform.
It uses AI to search the DfE’s datasets and identify 20 schools with similar characteristics, such as pupil demographics and location, and provide reports on their attendance figures. This enables the user to benchmark their own school’s performance and see where they are following good practice or need to improve.
The tool has been used in pilots before the full roll out and Phillipson said it is believed to be among the first of its kind in the word.
“Every mainstream school in the country can access reports right now to benchmark their performance against 20 similar schools,” she said. “They highlight what the schools are doing well, and where they need targeted intervention and support.
“That’s the kind of cutting edge insights schools need to get attendance moving.”
This follows her announcement early this year that the Government expects a big increase in the use of AI in schools, and a round of funding by the DfE to support developers in creating prototypes.
But Phillipson said last week that there is a need to build a larger evidence base on how AI can best support education.
She referred to the Government’s support for the EdTech Hub and the AI Observatory and Action Lab, and announced that it is funding the development of global guidelines for the use of generative AI in the sector...read more
Children’s Laureate Frank Cottrell-Boyce has called for urgent action to tackle “indefensible” reading inequality among young people.
The author and screenwriter wants the “invisible privilege” of being read to from a young age to be turned into a “universal right” for all children.
Hundreds of thousands of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are set to benefit from a national programme to improve access to PE and school sports.
Backed by an initial £300,000 for the first year, the Inclusion 2028 programme will work with a network of 50 Youth Sport Trust lead schools to provide expert training to teachers to help them create and deliver lessons that meet the diverse needs of all pupils - including those with physical, sensory, cognitive, communication or social and emotional needs.
In doing this, the programme encourages more varied and creative teaching methods that engage all learners – in turn, improving attendance and creating a school environment where all children can achieve and thrive. It will also provide leadership opportunities for 1,500 pupils who will develop activities for their peers as part of the programme, with schools across the country set to host events inspired by the Paralympic Games and Commonwealth Games. Alongside this, it will see 600 new extra-curricular clubs established offering pupils, including those with diverse needs, the opportunity to take part in a range of sports such as tennis, boccia and archery after the school day.
Taking part in physical exercise can support muscle and motor skills, as well as a sense of achievement, confidence, social connection and better mental health.
The programme supports the government’s Plan for Change in breaking down barriers to opportunity and ensuring every child and young person can achieve and thrive. It expects to work with over 8,000 schools supporting more than 240,000 pupils and 10,000 teachers and practitioners in England across the three years...read more
The UK government will encourage more diversity in AI with an £8.2m investment to support girls entering the sector.
Delivered by the Department for Education as part of Labour’s ‘Plan for Change’ strategy, the funding aims to encourage 7,500 girls across hundreds of disadvantaged secondary schools to pursue advanced maths and science to be ready to enter careers in AI.
The scheme will fund teacher training and student enrichment courses to give more opportunities for girls in education to study core skills related to AI.
Women make up half of the UK population, however, only represent 22% of AI and data professionals, according to figures from the Alan Turing Institute.
The move from the government aims not only to balance the gender makeup of the sector, but also to plug a gap in AI skills that the government has repeatedly warned could prevent its ambitions for the country to lead the sector globally...read more
The Bank of England is backing a drive to put more economics teachers into state schools, as a report has revealed young people from disadvantaged backgrounds are the least likely to study the subject.
Targeting students in the north-west of England in its first year, the scheme will aim to overcome huge shortages of teachers across the state sector with the skills to teach economics.
The central bank said economics was taught as an A-level subject in just over half of non-selective state schools in England last year, compared with 90% of selective schools and 82% of private schools.
Pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds were half as likely to take an economics GCSE as those from more privileged households, where disadvantage was classed as having registered for free school meals at some point in the six years before sitting the exam.
To overcome the disparity, secondary school teachers will be offered training to deliver A-level economics teaching alongside their core subjects.
Clare Lombardelli, who studied economics at a sixth-form college in Stockport and is now a deputy governor at the Bank, said: “Economics is an increasingly popular subject. But it is not available to enough young people across a range of backgrounds.
“An economics qualification can be a gateway for young people to a highly rewarding career – both intellectually and professionally. It also gives people a better understanding of how money works, which is a vital life skill that can benefit all of us.”
The study by FFT Education Datalab for the Bank found that school pupils in London were more than twice as likely to study economics as those in north-west England.
It also found that, despite a 60% rise in the number of pupils enrolling in A-level economics classes since 2012, schools had struggled to recruit staff to replace those nearing retirement...read more
Planned changes to school uniform policy will affect over four million pupils across England, according to new estimates from the Department for Education (DfE).
The government says seven in 10 secondary schools and 35% of primary schools in England will have to reduce the number of compulsory branded items to three, plus a branded tie for secondary students.
The new rule is part of the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which still has several parliamentary stages to go through before becoming a law.
The government says families will save money, but school wear manufacturers warn the plans could end up costing them more.
The average cost of a full school uniform and PE kit for a child at secondary school is £442, and is £343 for a primary school pupil, according to the latest DfE data.
Existing statutory guidance, introduced by the previous government, requires schools to consider the cost of their uniform so that it is not a deciding factor for parents when choosing schools.
The current government wants to go further, by limiting the number of items unique to a school that have to be bought from designated suppliers.
The government claims parents will save around £50 per child through the school uniform measures, which it hopes to introduce in September 2026.
But uniform retailers warn that the planned changes might increase costs for families. The Schoolwear Association says the plans could mean parents spend more on replacing lower-quality generic garments which might not last as long as branded items.
They say branded uniforms also play a role in reducing inequality in schools and improving behaviour.
Many parents rely on uniform exchanges to afford the full list of items required by their children's schools...read more
As children return from the Easter holidays today (April 22), 750 schools in England will open new free breakfast clubs, providing 30 minutes of morning childcare.
The new clubs which launched on Tuesday, are part of a trial that will run until July ahead of an expected national roll out promised in last year’s Labour manifesto.
In total, it’s thought the programme will help parents get up to 95 hours back a year and save them £450 annually, if their child attends every day.
The movement also means parents will no longer be “hamstrung by rigid school hours”, the Prime Minister has said.
Sir Keir Starmer explained: “The rollout of free breakfast clubs is a truly game-changing moment for families in this country.
“They mean parents will no longer be hamstrung by rigid school hours and have the breathing space they need to beat the morning rush, attend work meetings and doctors’ appointments, or run errands. And crucially, it means better life chances for children.
“By making these clubs free and universal, we’re doing something that previous governments have never done.
“We’re going further and faster to deliver the change working families deserve. That’s the change this government was elected to deliver.”
The government has said the 750 free breakfast clubs are a “key tool” to tackle barriers to learning in schools, with 500,000 primary school pupils missing at least one day of school every fortnight last year, one in every three pupils not ready to start school at age five and one in every 50 pupils suspended at least once...read more
