The Latest Breaking News from Ofsted

The number of complaints to the education watchdog following school inspections has risen by 60% over three years, figures suggest.

An 11-year-old at a school in Essex was recently reported to have been given a detention for not achieving 90% on his maths homework (he got 81%). This measure by his school comes in an environment when schools in England seem to be increasingly reaching for severe methods of punishment:…

In 2010 I debated Ed Balls on Newsnight about the Conservatives’ education plans. “The danger is that there will be winners in this policy,” he warned, a line later quoted by David Cameron to ridicule Labour’s attitude to his government’s education reforms.

Across England, schools are running food banks to help the children and their families. Research suggests that 21% of schools in England now offer some form of food charity.

The headteacher of Stewards Academy in Essex has defended the strict policy

Letters: Inspectors should be supporting and guiding schools, but the new grading system is just more of the old aggression, writes Liz Thompson, while Ruth Lewis seeks a return to pre-Ofsted-style inspections

Ofsted, England’s education inspectorate, has proposed changes to the way it assesses schools, colleges and universities that offer teacher training. The suggested changes include the move to a report-card system rather than a headline judgment.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union, has called on the watchdog to reconsider its ‘ill-thought-through plans’.

Waterloo Road season 15 welcomes a new head, new students... and lots more anarchy as the drama returns for a new series.