Pete Henshaw

5 days ago | headteacher-update.com | Pete Henshaw

A review by researchers at University College London and Anna Freud found that sessions based on CBT – a technique that helps students to recognise and challenge negative thoughts and behaviours – were more effective at reducing anxiety symptoms than mindfulness sessions or other approaches. The analysis includes findings from 71 global research studies, including 51 involving secondary schools and 19 featuring primary schools. The studies involved more than 63,000 young people aged 8 to 18.

2 weeks ago | sec-ed.co.uk | Pete Henshaw

Research has reveals that 16% of teachers have prevented a student who has their period from using the bathroom during lessons and 30% of teachers believe girls should “wait until the end of a lesson”. One 15-year-old girl said: “If the toilets are locked when you have a period, you’re in trouble. A friend of mine bled through her uniform.”The findings show that concerns about issues such as truancy, vaping and bullying are preventing teachers from allowing students to leave their lessons.

2 weeks ago | sec-ed.co.uk | Pete Henshaw

The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) launched the toolkit in 2011 to help boost the progress of disadvantaged learners and to support schools with Pupil Premium spending decisions. It has become one of the most widely used educational evidence resources in England, with EEF polling showing that 69% of school leaders using the toolkit to inform their decisions.

2 weeks ago | sec-ed.co.uk | Pete Henshaw

Researchers warn that levels of engagement in education and school “drop dramatically” among year 7 pupils between autumn and spring and “never fully recover”. The study tracked more than 80,000 pupils from 200 schools across the 2024/25 academic year and looked at the impact of disengagement on attendance, attainment, and wellbeing.

3 weeks ago | headteacher-update.com | Pete Henshaw

Only eight of the top 50 constituencies for opportunity and social mobility are outside of London, while places in the North East and North West dominate the bottom of the table. Social mobility charity the Sutton Trust has compiled its first ever Opportunity Index (Holt-White et al, 2025), drawing upon data from more than 10 million young people across two decades to shine a light on “the geography of opportunity and social mobility”.