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Heads could face £100k 'tax trap'
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Teacher pay
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<p>Headteachers and other public sector workers could soon be caught out by a £100,000 tax cliff edge as rising wages collide with frozen income tax thresholds, The Times reports. People who earn more than £100,000 a year after pension contributions start to lose their £12,570 tax-free personal allowance. It is lost at a rate of £1 for every £2 earned over the threshold until it is gone once they earn £125,140, creating a 60 per cent income tax rate for earnings in this bracket. Parents who earn more than £100,000 also lose their entitlement to childcare support, worth thousands per child every year. By Alice Wright.</p>
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Catholic boarding school to close after half term
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Independent sector
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<p>Leweston School, a co-educational school near Sherborne in Dorset, has told parents it will not reopen its doors after half term, with pupils to be offered places at alternative schools in the Inspired Learning Group. Anneliese Colwell, whose child attended the school, said: "It's an important part of the community and has been for a long, long time. It's going to be a huge loss." The news comes almost two years on from the imposition of VAT on school fees, which has seen the number of children at independent schools drop by 30,000. By Eric Williams, The Telegraph.</p>
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House of Commons written questions: VAT on fees and SEND
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Political
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<p>In a question for the Treasury, Liberal Democrat MP Alex Brewer asked the chancellor "<a href="https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2026-10-19/36040" target="_blank" title="questions-statements.parliament.uk" type="external">how much revenue was raised from the application of VAT to private school fees in the 2025-26 financial year</a>; and what assessment he has made of that figure relative to the revenue projections published by the Office for Budget Responsibility alongside the Autumn Budget 2024". James Murray, Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Paymaster General, responded, saying: "The measure introducing VAT on private schools was estimated to raise £460 million in 2024-25 and £1,505 million in 2025-26. HMRC does not publish outturn VAT receipts relating to specific policy changes. The Office for Budget Responsibility revised up the estimate of the revenue by an average of £40 million per year for their Autumn 2025 Economic and Fiscal Outlook, and stated that they will continue to monitor trends in the data." </p><p>Gregory Stafford, Opposition Assistant Whip (Commons) and Shadow Parliamentary Under Secretary (Health and Social Care), asked the education secretary "<a href="https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2026-10-20/36695" target="_blank" title="questions-statements.parliament.uk" type="external">what assessment she has made of the potential impact of movement of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities from independent special schools into mainstream schools on that sector</a>". In response, Paul Waugh, Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education), said: "The department does not track which pupils individually are moving out of the private school sector. The latest school census data, as of June 2026, reveals pupil numbers remain firmly within historical patterns seen for over the last 20 years." Hansard.</p>
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Women and girls 'let down' by poor maths teaching, survey suggests
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Teaching and learning
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<p>A poll of more than 2,000 people has found that men outperform women when it comes to everyday maths questions, though both male and female participants struggled to answer questions suitable for secondary school pupils. Only 47 per cent of women reached the correct answer on all the questions, compared with 60 per cent of men. The survey also found that fewer than half of women thought school had properly prepared them for the maths needed in adult life, compared with 62 per cent of male respondents. Dr Nikki Dean Marshall, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Nottingham, said: "Much of the evidence points towards the role of stereotypes, confidence and whether people see mathematics as something that is 'for people like them', rather than innate differences in ability. When they are younger, there's no difference in ability in the research in primary school, and then we see those stereotypes coming in at around secondary school." By Cameron Henderson, The Telegraph.</p>
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Call to expand Prevent scheme to tackle extreme violence
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Security
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<p>Kate Dixon, director of pupil wellbeing and safety at the Department for Education, has called on the government to expand its counter-terrorism scheme to tackle the rise in the number of children fixated with extreme violence but without ideology. Addressing the Southport inquiry, which was ordered in January 2025 following the murders of Bebe King, six, Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, Ms Dixon warned the existing Prevent system is "not working for education settings". She said the duty was "a lot more clear cut" when it was first introduced in 2015, but figures from 2024-25 showed 71 per cent of children referred had "no clear ideology". By Ruth Lucas, Schools Week. </p>
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The Independent Schools Council (ISC) monitors the national and educational press in order to keep independent schools up-to-date with relevant education news. The DNS is a service primarily for schools in membership of ISC associations, although other interested parties can choose to sign-up. We endeavour to include relevant news and commentary and, wherever possible, notable public letters. Where capacity allows, we may include links to ISC blogs, press statements and information about school or association events. News stories are selected based on their relevance to the independent sector as a whole. Editorial control of the DNS remains solely with the ISC.
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