Progress 8 reform delayed as vocational GCSEs are announced (3 October 2026)

Rows of single exam desks and blue plastic chairs laid out in a school sports hall
Exam desks set out in the sports hall at Epsom College, Surrey. The photo is for illustration and does not show any school or event named below. Photo: Exam tables in sports hall, Epsom College - geograph.org.uk - 1892882 by David Hawgood (CC BY-SA 2.0), via Wikimedia Commons.

The last fortnight changed what secondary schools in England will be judged on, and when. Vocational GCSEs are coming, the Progress 8 rewrite has slipped, the education secretary is preparing Ofsted changes, and the DfE has set out the shape of school funding for 2027 to 2028.

Vocational GCSEs will replace technical awards

The government announced on 23 September that new, nationally set "vocational GCSEs" will replace the technical awards most schools now offer. They will be the same size as GCSEs, with content, grading and assessment set nationally and regulated by Ofqual. The first subjects could arrive as early as 2029. The DfE listed possible options including business management and finance, creative media production, digital tech, child development, and building and construction. A consultation on what the qualifications will look like is due later this year, alongside a separate push to create 200,000 work experience placements.

The scale of the change is the point for parents. In 2024-25, 45 per cent of students in state-funded schools took at least one technical award, and Schools Week found around nine in ten mainstream schools offered them. League table measures will be adjusted to recognise the new GCSEs and give schools a reason to offer them. ASCL called the reform "well-intentioned" but warned that schools would need the staff and resources to deliver it.

Source: Schools Week, 23 September 2026.

No date yet for the Progress 8 decision

The consultation on reforming Progress 8, the headline secondary league table measure, ran until May. It proposed new "buckets" for science and for breadth subjects (humanities, creative subjects and a language), and dropping public comparisons of schools against the national average. The government had promised a response in the summer term, so schools could plan options for pupils starting GCSEs in September 2027. The DfE has now told Schools Week the response will come "in due course".

That cohort is today's year 9. Tom Middlehurst of ASCL said most schools start year 9 options early in the spring term, so a response is needed "in the coming weeks". If your child is choosing GCSE options this year, expect schools to give advice that may change once the measure is confirmed. FFT Education Datalab's earlier analysis found the proposals would make little difference to most schools' scores but would likely change which GCSEs pupils are entered for.

Source: Schools Week, 1 October 2026.

Ofsted changes expected "within the next few months"

Education secretary Lucy Powell is preparing changes to Ofsted inspections in the "next few months", Schools Week reported on 24 September, citing a senior government source. The scale of the changes is not yet known. The NAHT has asked the DfE to pause graded inspections, saying members find the renewed framework more stressful than the last. Ofsted said it will not pause them.

A National Education Union survey of 1,900 members, carried out in June, found 86 per cent reported a negative effect on stress levels from inspection under the new framework, while 67 per cent agreed the inspection team had been professional and respectful. For parents, nothing changes yet: Ofsted says graded inspections continue, and no detail of the planned changes has been published.

Source: Schools Week, 24 September 2026.

2027-28 funding: teachers' pension rate falls to 17.6%

The DfE published its schools national funding formula summary for 2027 to 2028 on 2 October. The formula keeps the same factors as this year, with factor values and allocations due later in the autumn. The biggest single change is to pensions: from April 2027, employer contributions to the teachers' pension scheme will fall from 28.6% to 17.6%. School funding will be reduced to match, so the DfE says the sector's overall spending power will not fall, and the pensions teachers receive are not affected.

Two other points matter for budgets. Councils will get extra money in December's dedicated schools grant to cover the rise in pupils eligible for free school meals since eligibility was extended to all Universal Credit households in September 2026. And councils must still move their local formulae at least 10% closer to national values, with disapplication requests due by 16 November 2026.

Source: Department for Education, 2 October 2026.

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