The Association of Teachers and Lecturers' (ATL) annual conference revealed that almost two-fifths of teachers quit within a year of finishing their training, as nearly 11,000 qualified teachers never enter the profession.

Schools would do better scrapping student progress and focussing instead on school improvements, according to Russell Hobby, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT).

Despite the government funding £150 million a year on PE and sport premium funding, research revealed by the British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA) has shown that 38 per cent of primary schools have a poor provision of play equipment.

A new History GCSE syllabus from exam board AQA will for the first time include topics covering the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan alongside the more familiar topics of Elizabethan England and the World Wars.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has agreed to support the construction of seven new secondary schools within the Home Counties, as part of the second wave of the government's Priority School Building Programme (PSBP).