Each of Pearson’s divisions is entering the group’s busiest quarter “ahead of, or in line with, previous guidance,” the publisher of the Financial Times and FT.com said yesterday as it guided investors towards the upper end of its forecasts for the core education division.

“We still have a lot of trading ahead of us, but every part of the company is doing well,” Dame Marjorie Scardino, chief executive, said in a trading update.