18 2007-2010 Brown and Balls
27 June 2007 Gordon Brown (Labour)
2007 The Department for Education and Skills (DfES) split in two (28 June): Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF), and Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS).
28 June 2007 Ed Balls (DCSF), John Denham (DIUS)
2007 CESC Sustainable Schools: Are we building schools for the future? (9 August): report of the Commons Education Select Committee.
2007 Faith in the System (September): produced jointly by 'the Government and the providers of publicly funded schools with a religious character' to try to tackle the problem of faith schools and community cohesion.
2007 CPAC The Academies programme (18 October): report by the Commons Public Accounts Committee argued that academies were 'a relatively costly means of tackling low attainment'.
2007 Ofsted Annual Report 2006-7 (19 October): newly-appointed HMCI Christine Gilbert's report on the previous year's inspections and on Ofsted's new (broader) remit.
2007 2007 Further Education and Training Act (23 October): set out new arrangements relating to further education and the Learning and Skills Council for England.
2007 Ofsted Report Summerhill School (November) (see also 1999).
2007 DCSF Homophobic bullying (November): guidance for schools.
2007 Conservative Party Raising the bar, closing the gap (November): Policy Green Paper No. 1 - 'an action plan for schools'.
2007 Education and Skills Bill (29 November): became the 2008 Education and Skills Act.
2007 The Children's Plan: Building brighter futures (December): ambitious plan for all future government policy relating to children, families and schools.
2008 The Government's Response to the Commission on Integration and Cohesion (February): the government's reponse to Our Shared Future (see above).
2008 National Union of Teachers (NUT) members staged one-day strike over pay (24 April).
2008 CSFC Testing and Assessment (13 May): report by the Commons Children, Schools and Families Committee expressed concerns about England's testing regime.
2008 Ofqual (Office of the Qualifications and Examinations Regulator): launched on 16 May, led by Kathleen Tattersall.
2008 SATs fiasco: widespread IT problems (May).
2008 White Paper Back on Track (May): set out the government's proposals for the education of children excluded from school.
2008 National Challenge launched by Ed Balls on 10 June: targeted 360 of the 638 state secondary schools said to be 'failing'.
2008 Green Paper Excellence and fairness: Achieving world class public services (June): set out the government's proposals for increasing social mobility.
2008 SATs fiasco: delayed and inaccurate results (July).
2008 2008 Sale of Student Loans Act (21 July): allowed the government to sell student loans to private companies.
2008 2008 Special Educational Needs (Information) Act (21 July): amended the 1996 Education Act in relation to the provision and publication of information about children with special educational needs.
2008 Ofsted Using data, improving schools (August): aimed to help schools to make use of data but also to understand its limitations.
2008 Academies: 51 opened in September.
2008 Ofsted Report Mathematics: understanding the score (September): presented evidence from inspections of mathematics between April 2005 and December 2007 in 192 maintained schools in England. Two follow-up documents were published in March 2009 - one for Primary schools and one for Secondary schools.
2008 Michael Gove (shadow children's secretary) announced in September that a Conservative government would create 'free schools'.
2008 CPAC Preparing to deliver the 14-19 education reforms in England (7 October): report by the Commons Public Accounts Committee expressed reservations about aspects of the government's diploma proposals.
2008 2008 Children and Young Persons Act (13 November): made new provisions about the care of children and young persons, including the enforcement of care standards in children's homes and arrangements for fostering and adoption.
2008 National Audit Office Mathematics Performance in Primary Schools: Getting the Best Results (November): evaluated the extent to which the National Strategy for Mathematics had succeeded in raising performance levels.
2008 NUT/NCSL Successful leadership for promoting the achievement of white working class pupils (November): report by Denis Mongon and Christopher Chapman for the National Union of Teachers and the National College for School Leadership.
2008 Cabinet Office Strategy Unit Getting on, getting ahead (November): discussion document analysing the trends and drivers of social mobility.
2008 2008 Education and Skills Act (26 November): replaced the school leaving age of 16 with an education leaving age of 18 and made a variety of provisions relating to the education or training of young adults.
2008 IRPC Interim Report Interim Report of the Independent Review of the Primary Curriculum (December): first report of the 'Rose Review'.
2008 SATs fiasco: Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) chief executive Ken Boston resigned (December).
2008 Green Paper 21st Century Schools: A World-Class Education for Every Child (December): DCSF consultation paper, part of The Children's Plan.
2008 School Admissions Code (December): new Admissions Code came into force on 10 February 2009.
2009 Liberal Democrats Equity and Excellence (January): paper setting out education policies for discussion at the party's spring conference.
2009 White Paper New opportunities: Fair chances for the future (January): set out the government's vision of post-recession Britain.
2009 Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill (4 February): became the 2009 Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act.
2009 Cambridge Primary Review Towards a New Primary Curriculum interim reports (February): Past and Present and The Future.
2009 Stonewall Homophobic bullying in Britain's schools (March): results of a survey of teachers and non-teaching staff in primary and secondary schools.
2009 MSIC The cumulative impact of statutory instruments on schools (13 March): House of Lords Merits of Statutory Instruments Committee urged the DCSF to reduce the number of regulations affecting schools.
2009 DCSF Breaking the Link between disadvantage and low attainment (March): the first of two documents aimed at breaking the link between children's circumstances and their achievements (see also 2010).
2009 CSFC National Curriculum (April): report by the Commons Children, Schools and Families Committee said the National Curriculum was in 'urgent need of significant reform'.
2009 IRPC Final Report Final Report of the Independent Review of the Primary Curriculum (April): final report of the 'Rose Review'.
2009 Steer Report Learning Behaviour: Lessons Learned (April): follow-up to the Steer committee's first report Learning Behaviour (2005).
2009 SATs (April): National Union of Teachers (NUT) conference voted to boycott the tests; National Association of Schoolmasters/Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) conference voted to strike if the tests were abolished.
2009 Macdonald Report Independent Review of the proposal to make Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) education statutory (28 April): published by the DCSF.
2009 Report of the Expert Group on Assessment (May): commissioned by Ed Balls to make recommendations about England's testing regime.
2009 Nuffield Foundation Education for All: The future of education and training for 14-19 year olds Summary, Implications and Recommendations (June): final report of the Nuffield Review of 14-19 education and training.
2009 Ofsted Report Planning for change: the impact of the new Key Stage 3 curriculum (June): evaluated the progress being made in implementing the new Key Stage 3 curriculum, based on visits to 37 schools between May 2008 and March 2009.
2009 DIUS abolished after just two years (June): responsibilities transferred to new Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) led by Peter (Lord) Mandelson.
2009 White Paper Your child, your schools, our future (June): wide-ranging proposals, including the abandonment of the National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies; formed the basis of the Children, Schools and Families Bill.
2009 Milburn Report Unleashing Aspiration (July): Final Report of the Panel on Fair Access to the Professions (for the government's response, see 2010 Unleashing Aspiration below).
2009 Eleven plus abolished in Northern Ireland (September), but grammar schools (mostly Roman Catholic) vowed to set their own tests.
2009 Higher Ambitions - The future of universities in a knowledge economy (2 November): the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills set out its 10- to 15-year strategy.
2009 2009 Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act (12 November): created a statutory framework for apprenticeships, and established the Young People's Learning Agency for England (YPLA), the office of Chief Executive of Skills Funding, the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual) and the School Support Staff Negotiating Body (SSSNB).
2009 Children, Schools and Families Bill (19 November): intended to become the 2010 Children, Schools and Families Act, but a general election meant that most of its provisions were lost.
2009 Parental choice of primary school in England: what 'type' of school do parents choose? (November): report by Simon Burgess, Ellen Greaves, Anna Vignoles and Deborah Wilson of the University of Bristol.
2009 Ofsted Annual Report for 2008-2009 (November).
2010 CSFC School Accountability (7 January): report by the Commons Children, Schools and Families Committee on school self-evaluation, inspection, league tables etc.
2010 Unleashing Aspiration: (January): the government's response to the Final Report of the Panel on Fair Access to the Professions (see 2009 Milburn Report in above).
2010 Ofsted Report The National Strategies: a review of impact (February): evaluated which aspects of the National Strategies' programmes had been effective and which less so.
2010 Steer Report Behaviour and the role of Home-School Agreements (15 March): advice on implementing changes to home-school agreements as specified in the Children, Schools and Families Bill.
2010 DCSF Breaking the Link between special educational needs and low attainment (March): the second of two documents aimed at breaking the link between children's circumstances and their achievements (see also 2009).
2010 2010 Child Poverty Act (25 March): set targets relating to the eradication of child poverty and provided for the establishment of the Child Poverty Commission.
2010 2010 Equality Act (8 April): the last major Act of Gordon Brown's New Labour administration. With many provisions relating to schools, it replaced nine previous Acts and almost a hundred sets of regulations which had been issued over several decades.
2010 2010 Children, Schools and Families Act (8 April): amended previous legislation relating to provision for children with disabilities or special educational needs, governing bodies' powers, and Local Safeguarding Children Boards; and made provision about the publication of information relating to family proceedings. It was less wide-ranging than had been intended because of the impending general election.
19 2010-2015 : Gove v The Blob
11 May 2010 David Cameron (Conservative) - Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition
12 May 2010 Michael Gove
2010 SATs: a quarter of all primary schools boycotted the tests in May.
2010 Academies Bill (26 May): the coalition government's proposals for speeding up the conversion of local authority schools into academies.
2010 Gove announced the scrapping of Labour's Building Schools for the Future programme (5 July).
2010 2010 Academies Act (27 July): Michael Gove's first Act provided for rapid expansion in the number of academies.
2010 Browne Review Securing a Sustainable Future for Higher Education (12 October): recommendations mostly ignored. (See also Robbins 1963, Oakes 1978 and Dearing 1997.)
2010 Cambridge Primary Review Children, their World, their Education (16 October): final report published (see my review of it here).
2010 White Paper The Importance of Teaching (24 November): wide-ranging document covering teaching, leadership, behaviour, new schools, accountability etc.
2010 Higher education: Vince Cable announced the tripling of university tuition fees (9 December).
2011 Education Bill (26 January): proposals included the abolition of the General Teaching Council for England, the Training and Development Agency for Schools, the School Support Staff Negotiating Body, the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency, and the Young People's Learning Agency for England.
2011 CESC Behaviour and Discipline in Schools (3 February): a report by the Commons Education Select Committee.
2011 Henley Review Music Education in England (7 February): a review by Darren Henley for the DfE and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. See also the government's response to the review and The Importance of Music: A National Plan for Music Education (25 November 2011).
2011 Tickell Review The Early Years: Foundations for life, health and learning (March): made recommendations relating to the EarlyYears Foundation Stage (EYFS).
2011 Green Paper Support and aspiration: A new approach to special educational needs and disability (March): proposed the abolition of statementing and advocated personal budgets.
2011 Wolf Report Vocational Education (March): made wide-ranging recommendations.
2011 DfE The National Strategies 1997-2011 (March): set out the education department's (positive) assessment of the impact and effectiveness of the National Strategies.
2011 Bew Review Independent Review of Key Stage 2 testing, assessment and accountability (June): called for a greater focus on progress and broader accountability measures, and recommended that the statutory assessment system should include both external testing and teacher assessment.
2011 White Paper Higher Education: Students at the Heart of the System (June): published by Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
2011 DfE Training our next generation of outstanding teachers (June): discussion document from new education secretary Michael Gove.
2011 APPGE Report of the Inquiry into Overcoming the Barriers to Literacy (July): report of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Education criticised the government's (phonics) approach to the teaching of reading.
2011 DfE Teachers' Standards (July): teaching reduced to one side of A4. Came into force in September 2012.
2011 CESC Participation by 16-19 year olds in education and training (19 July): report by the Commons Education Select Committee expressed concerns about the government's decision to abolish the Education Maintenance Allowance.
2011 CESC The English Baccalaureate (28 July): report by the Commons Education Select Committee warned that there was little support for the government's proposals.
2011 2011 Education Act (15 November): a retrogressive Act which dismantled many of the structures and arrangements put in place by the New Labour governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
2011 DfE Training our next generation of outstanding teachers (November): Gove's plan for teacher training - employ troops.
2011 National Curriculum Review The Framework for the National Curriculum (December): report of the advisory panel chaired by Tim Oates.
2012 DfE School Admissions Code (1 February) and Admission Appeals Code. (See also three Statutory Instruments: Admissions Regulations; Admission Appeals Regulations; and Admissions (Infant class sizes) Regulations.)
2012 Henley Review Cultural Education in England (29 February): review by Darren Henley for the DfE and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. See also the government's response to the review.
2012 Ofsted Moving English forward (March): report setting out proposals for raising standards in English. (For other reports on the teaching of English see Newbolt 1921, Bullock 1975, Kingman 1988, Cox 1989 and Warwick 1994.)
2012 Lingfield Report Professionalism in Further Education (27 March): the interim report of the Independent Review Panel.
2012 DfE Statutory Framework for the EYFS (27 March): set out the standards for learning, development and care for children from birth to five (see also 2014).
2012 CESC Great teachers: attracting, training and retaining the best (1 May): report by the Commons Education Select Committee advocating performance-related pay.
2012 CESC The administration of examinations for 15-19 year olds in England (3 July): a report by the Commons Education Select Committee.
2012 White Paper Reform of provision for children and young people with Special Educational Needs (September): its recommendations formed the basis of Part 3 of the 2014 Children and Families Act.
2012 Lingfield Report Professionalism in Further Education (October): the final report of the Independent Review Panel.
2012 National Audit Office Managing the expansion of the Academies Programme (20 November): warned that there had been a £1bn overspend on academies in two years.
2012 Standards and Testing Agency 2013 EYFS Profile Handbook (4 December): set out details of the profiles for five-year-olds.
2012 DfE Equality Act 2010: Advice for school leaders, staff, governors and local authorities: non-statutory advice for schools and local authorities.
2013 Academies Commission Unleashing Greatness: getting the best from an academised system (January): the self-styled Academies Commission presented a mixed picture of the academies programme.
2013 CESC From GCSEs to EBCs: the Government's proposals for reform (31 January): the Commons Education Select Committee criticised Gove's plans for an English Baccalaureate (which were abandoned a week later).
2013 National Audit Office Capital funding for new school places (15 March): warned of a 256,000 shortfall in school places by 2014.
2013 CPAC DfE: Managing the expansion of the Academies Programme (15 April): Commons Public Accounts Committee report criticising the DfE for its management of the academies programme.
2013 CESC School sport following London 2012: No more political football (22 July): report of the Commons Education Select Committee urged schools to offer both competitive and non-competitive sporting opportunities to their pupils.
2013 DfE The national curriculum in England: Framework document (July): set out the overall framework of the National Curriculum. See also:
Equalities impact assessment (July 2013);
Key stages 1 and 2 framework document (September 2013);
Consultation summary (September 2013);
Statutory Instrument (Attainment Targets and Programmes of Study) (2013, undated);
Key stages 3 and 4 framework document (December 2014).
2013 The School Food Plan (July): prepared for the government by Henry Dimbleby and John Vincent.
2013 Ofsted The framework for school inspection (September). (See also: School inspection handbook; and Subsidiary guidance.)
2013 DfE School uniform: Guidance for governing bodies, school leaders, school staff and local authorities (September): non-statutory, but the DfE expected schools 'to take full account of this guidance'.
2013 SMCPC Social mobility and child poverty in Great Britain (October): the first annual State of the Nation report by the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission blamed schools in deprived areas for their pupils' lack of progress.
2013 National Audit Office Establishing Free Schools (11 December): reported that the first 174 free schools had cost £1.1bn.
2014 APPGSM Character and Resilience Manifesto (January) report of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Social Mobility.
2014 DfE Behaviour and discipline in schools (February): advice for heads and school staff.
2014 2014 Children and Families Act (13 March) wide-ranging Act covering adoption, family justice, special educational needs and disabilities, childcare, welfare of children, the Children's Commissioner, statutory rights to leave and pay, time off work and ante-natal care, flexible working rights.
2014 DfE Statutory Framework for the EYFS (31 March): set out the standards for learning, development and care for children from birth to five (see also 2012).
2014 Blunkett Review Review of education structures, functions and the raising of standards for all: Putting students and parents first (April): Labour Party policy review prepared by David Blunkett.
2014 CESC Underachievement in Education by White Working Class Children (18 June): report by the Commons Education Select Committee.
15 July 2014 Nicky Morgan
2014 ULIE Conflicts of interest in academy sponsorship arrangements (16 September): report by the University of London Institute of Education for the Commons Education Select Committee.
2014 City & Guilds Sense and Instability (October): report examining how changing government policies had affected the skills landscape over the previous three decades.
2014 SMCPC Cracking the code: how schools can improve social mobility (October): report by the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission.
2014 National Audit Office Academies and maintained schools: Oversight and intervention (30 October): called for more coherent inspection regimes and systems for raising standards.
2014 National Audit Office Investigation into the Education Funding Agency's oversight of related party transactions at Durand Academy (13 November): report on the use of public money by Durand Academy Trust which had a 'large number of conflicts of interests'.
2014 DfE The national curriculum in England: Key stages 3 and 4 framework document (December).
2015 CESC Academies and free schools (27 January): report by the Commons Education Select Committee argued that academy chains should be as fully scrutinised as local authorities.
2015 CESC Life lessons: PSHE and SRE in schools (17 February): report by the Commons Education Select Committee said sex education should be compulsory in all primary and secondary schools.
2015 LDSC Make or Break: The UK's Digital Future (17 February): House of Lords Digital Skills Committee report argued for greater emphasis on the teaching of digital skills.
2015 Warwick Commission Enriching Britain: Culture, Creativity and Growth (February): warned that creativity, culture and the arts were being neglected in the school curriculum.
2015 CESC Apprenticeships and traineeships for 16 to 19 year-olds (9 March): report by the Commons Education Select Committee argued for better quality apprenticeships which would not be seen as a 'second class option'.
2015 CESC Closing the gap: the work of the Education Committee in the 2010-15 Parliament (16 March): report by the House of Commons Education Select Committee summarising its work.
2015 CESC Extremism in schools: the Trojan Horse affair (17 March): report by the Commons Education Select Committee warning the DfE to be alert to the risks of abuse of academy freedoms.
2015 Sutton Trust Subject to Background (March): ULIE report for the Sutton Trust looked at A Level results of children from disadvantaged backgrounds.
20 2015-2018 Postscript
11 May 2010 David Cameron (Conservative)
2015 Education and Adoption Bill (3 June): aimed to speed up the conversion of local authority schools into academies.
2015 Sutton Trust Missing Talent (June): Education Datalab report for the Sutton Trust looked at GCSE results of children from disadvantaged backgrounds.
2015 NFER A Guide to Regional Schools Commissioners: Schools Commissioners were part of the government's academisation policy, which aimed to make local education authorities redundant.
2016 2016 Education and Adoption Act (16 March): demonstrated the government's continuing obsession with 'failing' schools. It amended previous legislation relating to 'coasting' schools and other schools 'causing concern'.
2016 White Paper Educational Excellence Everywhere (March): set out the government's proposals for turning all schools into academies.
2016 CPAC Training new teachers (10 June): report of the Commons Public Accounts Committee expressed disappointment that the DfE had 'missed its targets to fill teacher training places four years running'.
13 July 2016 - 24 July 2019 Theresa May (Conservative)
14 July 2016 Justine Greening
2016 Green paper Schools that work for everyone (12 September): proposed the creation of new grammar schools and more faith schools.
2016 Rochford Review Assessment for pupils working below the standard of national curriculum tests (October): final report of the panel chaired by Diane Rochford for the Standards and Testing Agency.
2016 National Audit Office Financial sustainability of schools (14 December): noted that cost pressures would result in an eight per cent real-terms reduction in per-pupil funding for mainstream schools between 2014-15 and 2019-20.
2017 Ofsted Report on Kings College Guildford (January): inspection report on the first school to be privatised by New Labour in September 2000.
2017 CPAC Capital funding for schools (26 April): report of the Commons Public Accounts Committee described the system for funding new schools and new school places as 'increasingly incoherent and too often poor value for money'.
2017 2017 Children and Social Work Act (27 April): made provisions about looked-after children, the welfare of children, and the regulation of social workers. The implications for schools and local education authorities are dealt with in sections 4-7.
2017 2017 Technical and Further Education Act (27 April): there is little about education in this Act: it is almost entirely concerned with the procedures to be followed when a further education institution becomes insolvent. Gone are the days when education was seen as a public service ...
2017 2017 Higher Education and Research Act (27 April): provided for the establishment of the Office for Students (OfS) and United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UKRI) and abolished the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and the office of Director of Fair Access to Higher Education (DFA).
2017 Ofsted Bold beginnings (November): report on the Reception curriculum in a sample of good and outstanding schools visited by HMI in the summer term 2017.
8 January 2018 - 23 July 2019 Damian Hinds
2019 Disinformation and 'fake news' (14 February): final report of the House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee recommended that 'digital literacy should be a fourth pillar of education, alongside reading, writing and maths'.
2019 DfE Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education (25 June): Statutory guidance. The new curriculum to be mandatory from September 2020.
2021 Speak for Change (April): final report of the Oracy All-Party Parliamentary Group Inquiry made a range of recommendations aimed at improving education in oracy.
2022 DfE The reading framework (January): guidance in the teaching of phonics for primary schools, teacher trainers and others in England.
2023 National Audit Office Condition of school buildings (28 June): a comprehensive review of the state of the nation's school buildings in the light of concerns about reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC).
2023 DfE The reading framework (July): an expanded version of the 2022 framework.
Acknowledgements
Chitty C (2004) Education policy in Britain Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
Mackinnon D and Statham J (1999) Education in the UK: facts and figures (3rd edn) London: Hodder and Stoughton/Open University
Number 10 website British prime ministers
Chapter 20 | Glossary
Renewing public education: