The company also said it had made a solid start to the year, although as its trading is aligned with the school year, it is a quiet period for the group.

Pearson, which owns the Financial Times newspaper, said ahead of its AGM that it continued to expect to report adjusted earnings per share of 75 to 80 pence for the full year, unchanged from its forecast for 2015 when it published its last full-year results in February.

(Reporting by Paul Sandle; editing by Jason Neely)