This took a long , long time to put together and it was great to see the (largely) sensible debate it prompted over the month after it was published a few months back. The scientific debate is still where it was, but the cultural debate has certainly become even more polarised.

Heads warn that mainstream schools opening specialist provision risk coming under pressure as ‘magnet schools’ – despite the government pushing more schools to open these resource bases

There will be no extra funding for next year's teacher pay award, the Treasury has confirmed. The DfE would have to fund any award from existing budgets. www.tes.com/magazine/new...

"If nearly 40 per cent of the reviews of marking discover and correct a marking error, how many marking errors are there in the 97.1 per cent of marks that were not reviewed?" Interesting take here from Dennis Sherwood on new Ofqual remarks data www.tes.com/magazine/ana...

Does the funding formula need to shift away from per-pupil to enable schools to survive falling rolls? Policy experts say no, and trusts in favour of a few different options, finds @jabedahmed.bsky.social Superb analysis here: www.tes.com/magazine/new...

Do you know why reading a screen and a physical piece of paper differs? Or why handwriting is processed differently to typing? Or how multiple-choice quizzes are poorer for memory than narrative answers? Neuroscientist Jared Cooney Horvath explains all www.tes.com/magazine/tea...

"My view is that England should have no more than 400 trusts and that we should try to achieve this by 2030" Agree with him or not, this is very thought-provoking indeed from Mark McCourt - many in policy circles do agree, but tend to whisper it... www.tes.com/magazine/ana...

A former schools minister has warned that a failure to ensure home-to-school transport policies cover breakfast clubs could mean the most in-need pupils miss out www.tes.com/magazine/new...

"The headteacher role is the most critical in education: on that we now seem largely agreed. But we’re failing to do the hard bit of creating a system that is geared to reflect that" Today's Tes briefing: email.tes.com/cr/AQiOjhAQu... Links to @vicgoddard.bsky.social @davemcpartlin.bsky.social

A lovely positive piece (with caveats) from @samgibbs.bsky.social on teacher training targets www.tes.com/magazine/ana...

"The policy improves the home environment for some children, but it doesn’t remove the pressures schools experience every day," says @vicgoddard.bsky.social Important analysis from @ellencph.bsky.social on the impact on schools of the two-child benefit cap removal www.tes.com/magazine/ana...

Is the flagship RISE school improvement initiative for ‘stuck schools’ at risk of running out of money without a significant new funding commitment? "it’s pretty clear the funding assumptions were off," one CEO tells @jabedahmed.bsky.social Exclusive analysis below www.tes.com/magazine/new...

Reading is not an easy skill to assess, says @alexjquigley.bsky.social, and so one type of test is unlikely to give the full picture

Getting accountability right is a "key" area being looked at as part of the government’s planned SEND reforms, schools minister Georgia Gould has said www.tes.com/magazine/new...

The English school system is awash with attendance data, but is the government using it responsibly – and does it tell us as much as we hope it can? @ellencph.bsky.social with an excellent deep dive analysis on attendance this morning - read below www.tes.com/magazine/ana...

"In my interview for my second headship, a woman on the panel asked me how I thought I could be both a mother and a headmistress" Searing honesty, challenging experiences, and beautiful reflections in this Julie Robinson How I Lead for December www.tes.com/magazine/lea...

The ever-present difficuly of the 'spend to save' paradox.

Superb analysis from @warrencarratt.bsky.social that tells schools leaders what they need to know about the fallout from the Budget regarding SEND. "Reforms will all require, in the short term, more funding, not less, if we are to turn this system into one our country can be proud of"

Parent allegations against teachers have risen by a third in just one year, according to data shared exclusively with @tesmagazine.bsky.social Story from @cerysturner.bsky.social www.tes.com/magazine/new...

"To a certain extent, you could say you have a policy and attach it, and it could be blank document" Big investigation into the LA safeguarding audits all schools have to complete - superb work from @ktorm-social1.bsky.social www.tes.com/magazine/new...

Even more important to read this after today's budget: why the Send crisis is a financial/funding crisis, not a crisis of levels of need.

All you need to know about the implications of today's budget for schools

Are EHCPs driving the SEND crisis or a symptom of it? Is SEND demand in 2025 any larger than it was in 2010? Will scrapping EHCPs actually achieve anything productive? One of the best analyses of the SEND crisis I have read from Margaret Mulholland www.tes.com/magazine/ana...

Breaking: NAHT loses appeal against rejection of its call for judicial review into Ofsted’s new school inspections www.tes.com/magazine/new...

🌏 Could more state schools look at launching schools overseas to bolster their finances? 'Don’t expect Grange Hill Singapore any time soon,’ one leader tells @emmaseith.bsky.social

The government is pushing these forms of partnership pretty hard, but as I wrote in the briefing this morning: is this about closer control of trusts, replacing them, or a smokescreen to back them? Or something different...

"We are constantly finding those gaps in the hedges, small spaces where we can reshape curriculum and pedagogy to meet the diverse needs of twenty-first century learners. Yet while our practice evolves, assessment procedures have not kept pace." www.tes.com/magazine/ana...

Resourced bases are expected to be a key element of the govt's drive for a more inclusive mainstream school system but some leaders have warned they can actually result in "exclusion in its worst sense." www.tes.com/magazine/new...

Schools already have the ability to cut exam times by switching exam boards, says Ofqual chief Sir Ian Bauckham in response to the curriculum and assessment review

Despite the majority of the school workforce being made up of women, teachers receive far less maternity pay than many others in the public sector, including Department for Education officials An essential investigation here from @cerysturner.bsky.social www.tes.com/magazine/new...

Fear appeals. We've all been guilty of them. I recognise I resort to them far too often as a parent. But as @mrenglishteach.bsky.social makes clear in a @tesmagazine.bsky.social piece today, they are not very effective in motivating people to change behaviours... www.tes.com/magazine/tea...

Great day chairing Day One of the main stage at Schools And Academies Show - the @tesmagazine.bsky.social team have filed numerous stories from the day including Ofsted, RISE, Funding and more... Check out tes.com/magazine for all - here is the Ofsted one below

I love that the @tesmagazine.bsky.social has more and more interviews with amazing scientists, explaining learning from the position of someone who spends their days immersed in it. This is the true “science of learning” bsky.app/profile/jons...

"If you get into a certain habit, you have expectations in relation to that habit, but that doesn’t mean your real ability has changed" Fascinating piece on the 'attention' crisis among pupils 👉Are pupil attention spans really decreasing? www.tes.com/magazine/tea...

🌍 Leaders at six international school groups talk to @emmaseith.bsky.social about how they manage teacher quality and outcomes across multiple countries, curricula and time zones

Mr Tice said: "the sight of children in classes wearing ear defenders - I’m sorry, this is just insane. It’s got to stop. The teachers want it to stop. Heads want it to stop. It’s not the right way forward.”

"Nearly a decade ago I highlighted the farce of comparing groups when I discovered that pupils living in even-numbered houses achieved less well than those in odd numbers. Of course it was a nonsense, but the gap in the statistics was greater than for boys and girls"

"No headteacher should ever have to consider the impact on the figures of accepting a pupil onto the school’s role - but a new target will inevitably make it a consideration." @michaelt1979.bsky.social on the AI attendance targets www.tes.com/magazine/ana...

"Young people eligible for pupil premium who went to just one co-curricular session experienced an average attendance boost of 4.4 percentage points (from 82 to 86.4 per cent) over the course of a term" V interesting case study from @ellencph.bsky.social www.tes.com/magazine/tea...

“The difficulty drawing the line between who is and isn’t on that SEND register is always going to be really challenging, because there is no line" The huge disparities in how SEND Registers are formed and used need urgent action, finds @johngroberts.bsky.social www.tes.com/magazine/new...

The DfE has announced the latest wave of attendance and behaviour hub lead schools, with 24 secondaries and 12 primary schools joining the programme

➡️ DfE sets AI-powered attendance targets for schools What a complex issue like attendance does not need is blunt measures driven by contextless data... www.tes.com/magazine/new...

"teachers convinced by the ‘boys are being corrupted by Andrew Tate’ narrative and unaware about what is really going on online, live in fear of the unknown. As a [result], boys who try to air their feelings often get closed down" www.tes.com/magazine/ana...

Made me chuckle in Bosham today so I took a picture of it

ICYMI: #Ofsted has been criticised for revealing new details about how inspectors will use data just days before its new school inspections are set to launch

Another one from @missgoodyear.bsky.social and I - why we think ‘the readiness is all’ when it comes to the CAR.

You've read the curriculum and assessment review and the government response - what next? Here are six steps for schools from @samgibbs.bsky.social and @missgoodyear.bsky.social www.tes.com/magazine/ana...

This is a very interesting development indeed - and unsurprisingly the most read yesterday

Can single-academy trusts survive? Labour wants schools to be in groups - but many SATs are financially stable with good results. So what will - or can - make them give up their autonomy? An excellent, thorough analysis from @jabedahmed.bsky.social www.tes.com/magazine/new...