NEWS

Inset: DUP Upper Bann MP Carla Lockhart Questions over the sourcing and labelling of chicken served in Northern Ireland schools remain despite fresh assurances from the Education Authority that halal-certified poultry is not being provided as a blanket policy, an MP has said. Upper Bann DUP MP Carla Lockhart is calling for greater transparency for parents and increased use of locally produced food in publicly funded catering, as she prepares to meet Education Authority (EA) o

The Education Authority has agreed to accept a number of school taxi bids it considers excessively expensive to ensure children can continue getting to and from school — but has warned some families could ultimately be offered payments to make alternative transport arrangements themselves. The decision follows a major tendering exercise involving more than 1,200 school taxi runs ahead of the new academic year. The EA says early analysis shows tendered mileage rates have falle

Families across Northern Ireland are being urged to check school travel arrangements now, with more than 60,000 pupils expected to use bus and rail services each day when school services return from Tuesday 1 September. Translink says the beginning of the new school year is one of the busiest periods on the public transport network and is advising pupils and parents to check timetables in advance, allow extra time during the first few weeks and make sure pupil Smartpasses are

Parents and carers across Northern Ireland are being urged to check the support available ahead of the new school year, with help covering everything from school transport and admissions to free school meals, uniform grants and special educational needs. The Education Authority (EA) says dedicated helplines and online information are available as families prepare for the return to classrooms, including those whose children are starting a new school or travelling independently

The Education Authority has said planned changes to classroom support for pupils with Special Educational Needs will be introduced gradually, with the first phase focused on schools already ready to move towards a new model. The reassurance comes after more than 3,000 responses were received to a public consultation on the future of SEN classroom support in Northern Ireland. The proposed reforms centre on the Enhanced Support Model, which aims to move towards more flexible, n

The Education Authority (EA) has confirmed more than 4,400 school places for children with special educational needs (SEN) ahead of the new academic year, but has warned that Northern Ireland’s current approach to meeting rising demand is “running out of road”. Officials say intensive work throughout the year has enabled thousands of children changing educational settings for September 2026 to receive confirmed placements, with work continuing over the summer to finalise the

The risk of schools being forced to close because of deteriorating buildings is growing across Northern Ireland, with the Education Authority warning that years of underfunding have left the schools estate facing a maintenance backlog estimated at between £600 million and £800 million. The stark warning comes as the Education Authority (EA) says it is rapidly approaching a point where schools – or parts of schools – may have to close on safety grounds because essential repair

Pupils due to sit public exams across Northern Ireland this afternoon have been urged to travel to their examination centres as early as possible amid growing concerns over potential disruption linked to recent protests and street disorder. The warning comes as education officials monitor the fallout from ongoing unrest and unverified social media claims about further planned demonstrations later today, raising fears that some students and school communities could face travel

EA’s Chief Education Officer, Eve Bremner is pictured with Shane O’Neil, EdIS Lead; Nettlefield Primary School Principal, Simon McLean; and St. Comgall’s Primary School Principal, Jim Matthews. Schools across Northern Ireland are set for one of the biggest digital overhauls in years as a new cloud-based management system begins rolling out across every school sector, promising faster communication with parents, improved pupil safeguarding and less administrative pressure on t

Almost 2,500 teachers and classroom assistants across Northern Ireland were injured or assaulted by pupils in the space of a single year, according to figures released by the Education Authority. The scale of the violence was laid bare after Ulster Unionist Party Leader Jon Burrows raised the issue in the Assembly, warning that attacks on school staff have become a “taboo issue” that too many people are unwilling to confront. Newly released figures show 598 teachers and 1,974

The Education Authority has launched a new leadership support programme aimed at strengthening specialist special educational needs (SEN) provision in mainstream schools across Northern Ireland, as pressure continues to grow on education services supporting children with additional needs. The new initiative comes after more than 6,000 additional SEN places have been created since 2020, reflecting what EA described as rapidly changing educational needs among pupils and increas

The Children’s Law Centre CEO John O'Doherty, alongside Rachel Hogan BL, SEND Specialist Legal Adviser and Kathryn Stevenson, Head of Legal, pictured at Parliament Buildings after presenting to the education committee on the proposed SEN Regs. The Children’s Law Centre has warned Stormont’s Education Committee that proposed new SEND regulations could weaken legal protections for vulnerable children, reduce the role of parents in decision-making and leave parts of the new fram

Families across Northern Ireland waiting for confirmation of school places for children with special educational needs are being offered direct one-to-one support through a new series of online drop-in sessions hosted by the Education Authority. The initiative comes amid growing pressure on the region’s SEN system, with demand for specialist placements continuing to rise sharply and thousands of additional places projected to be needed over the next decade. Parents and carers

SDLP MLA for East Londonderry Cara Hunter Growing cross-sector backlash as Children’s Law Centre and 14 organisations raise concerns over impact on vulnerable pupils, schools and families Mounting opposition to proposed special educational needs (SEN) reforms has intensified, with SDLP MLA Cara Hunter calling on the Education Minister to immediately halt the plans amid warnings they could place already overstretched schools under further strain and negatively impact vulnerabl

The future of non-statutory pre-school provision in North Antrim has been thrust back into the spotlight after TUV MLA Timothy Gaston warned in the Northern Ireland Assembly that community playgroups could be forced to close their doors by September without urgent intervention from the Education Minister. Speaking on Monday (13 April) at Stormont, the North Antrim representative said the long-running issue surrounding pupil allocation numbers (PAN) for non-statutory settings

The Education Authority has confirmed that personal data linked to a small number of schools in Northern Ireland was compromised in a targeted cyber attack on the C2k school network, marking a major escalation in an incident that has already caused widespread disruption across the education system. The development emerged on Wednesday 15 April, just hours after detectives from the PSNI’s Cyber Crime Investigation Team arrested a 16-year-old boy in connection with the ongoing

A major conference aimed at reshaping how children with special educational needs are supported in classrooms across Northern Ireland will take place in Belfast this week, as the Education Authority pushes ahead with plans to move away from what it describes as a rigid “one size fits all” system. The keynote event, being held at the Balmoral Hotel, Belfast, on Thursday, April 16, forms a central part of the EA’s public consultation on its proposed Enhanced Support Model, a s

North Antrim MP Jim Allister and Cloughmills Early Years playgroup The growing dispute over nursery places in Cloughmills has now widened into a broader North Antrim row after MP Jim Allister accused the Education Authority of failing pre-school children across the constituency. In a sharply critical statement, Mr Allister said the EA’s “inflexible and dogma driven policy” is leaving children without suitable local places in communities including Cloughmills, Armoy and The

Schools across Northern Ireland are being urged to ensure their C2k accounts are fully reconnected before the start of the new school term, as the Education Authority (EA) moves to reduce ongoing disruption caused by last week’s cyber attack. In an update issued today, Thursday 9 April 2026, the EA warned that schools which do not complete the required reset process before classes resume are likely to face limited or no access to core C2k services at the start of the school d

Cloughmills Early Years, County Antrim Nine families in Cloughmills have been left without a place at the village’s only nursery setting, triggering growing anger among parents, staff and elected representatives who say children are being forced out of their own community despite space being available locally. The dispute centres on Cloughmills Early Years, the only local nursery provision serving the village outside Ballymena, where demand for places has outstripped the numb