A Russian businessman & his daughter tried to buy a lake district golf course next to the railway line that serves Sellafield nuclear waste site & submarine shipyard at Barrow. UK security officials intervened. @financialtimes.com scoop from @ramshodgson.bsky.social & me www.ft.com/content/19a3...

Russian oilman tried to buy land on railway to British nuclear site ft.trib.al/f18URkZ

‘Mansion tax’ valuation appeals will flood government agency, experts warn on.ft.com/4iqy8Sn

The tax-efficient wheels of British government on.ft.com/49kjud8

Wheeler dealers. on.ft.com/4r15HOK

vital public interest stuff from me & @ramshodgson.bsky.social a gov figure told FT that the Cycle to Work scheme was "tax breaks to high earners buying £4,000 e-bikes for weekend rides in the Surrey Hills" so for fun here's some charts on the £120 to £2,996 bikes being bought by gov employees

UK military top brass mix with defence executives at luxury Alpine event on.ft.com/43jIcqa

AI ‘hit squad’ set up to drive Whitehall efficiency struggles to hire top talent on.ft.com/465q312

🚨My first front page exclusive for @thetimes.com after several months of investigation. Labour and 3 of its MPs accepted more than £40k in donations during the 2024 election from a convicted criminal it had expelled as a member in 2022.

Labour and three of its MPs accepted more than £40,000 of election campaign donations from a convicted criminal the party expelled as a member three years ago

Is climate change making summer exams in England unsustainable? Tes investigates calls to move GCSEs and A levels to avoid students' grades suffering because they are sweltering in exam halls

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 In Scotland, @sqanews.bsky.social is to pay out £2.44 million in holiday pay to thousands of appointees – including exam makers and invigilators – after an employment tribunal ruled they were 'workers' and entitled to paid leave

Families who want to delay their summer-born child from starting primary school are facing an ‘unfair’ postcode lottery, with some councils refusing more than half of parents’ requests, data reveals

The DfE has named 38 council areas where new early years staff will be eligible for £1,000 sign-on payments

Schools need more teachers to stop the decline in languages – and the government should reinstate relocation payments for languages teachers coming from overseas, says @hepi-news.bsky.social report

Exam board WJEC is set to be hit with a heavy fine for breaches of exam rules, including giving 1,500 students the wrong GCSE grades

New for @tesmagazine.bsky.social - the DfE has admitted it leaked the personal data of as many as 84,532 people last financial year. The breaches are “likely to result in a risk to the rights and freedoms of individuals” including: discrimination, damage to reputation and financial loss.

The DfE potentially leaked the personal data of more than 84,500 people last financial year, it has admitted, sparking calls for transparency over who was affected

Shadow schools minister Neil O'Brien asks Phillipson why the appointment of behaviour and attendance ambassadors has been delayed, as @ramshodgson.bsky.social first revealed. No specific answer from the education secretary: www.tes.com/magazine/new...

Exclusive: The number of assaults on adults that have led to suspensions or exclusions has more than doubled in the past 4 years, DfE data reveals

Record highs for suspensions and perm exclusions in 2023-24. Suspensions near 1 million and are up 31.6% for those eligible for free school meals (573,538 total). Exclusions above 10k for 1st time. Suspensions for pupils with EHCPs above 100k for 1st time, up 31.7% to 101,381.

The number of suspensions and exclusions reached record highs in England’s state schools in 2023-24, according to the latest DfE data

On the school meals headlines Any DfE spokesperson or Minister saying Free School Meals are “fully funded” is lying Schools are forced to subsidise FSM from teaching budgets Part of the issue is, thanks to Micheal Gove who cut funding, we no longer capture the actual cost of School meal provision

The DfE today published a new ‘phonics-inspired’ primary writing framework to give teachers tools and guidance in teaching writing

Government must block the mass rollout of digital exams because it could result in handwriting disappearing from schools, says former education secretary Damian Hinds

Covering the upcoming debate in parliament on the use of AI in schools for @tesmagazine.bsky.social - follow this thread for updates or watch live here: www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/...

The Sats results are out – and they show improved scores on last year and a narrowing of the gap to pre-pandemic results

Caroline Voaden MP (Lib) asks what the resistance is to moving away from insisting on GCSE grade 4s & whether another qualification might be available for those who consistently fail to get those grades. A bit of confusion ensues, before Francis insists: “I’m not ruling anything out”…

Picking up Becky Francis' live evidence to the Education Committee now for @tesmagazine.bsky.social on the Curriculum and Assessment Review

Handing over to @ramshodgson.bsky.social who is now following this session for Tes.

It has been one year since Labour came to power in a landslide election victory – but how much progress has the government made on its education pledges since? ➡️ Read our in-depth analysis here: www.tes.com/magazine/new...

The DfE has failed to appoint its new attendance and behaviour ambassadors by its own publicly stated deadline

Some big shifts, some long reviews, and some stalled non-starters - the @tesmagazine.bsky.social news team has tracked Labour's pledges one year into power.

A year after Labour came to power, how close is it to fulfilling its education manifesto pledges? We look in detail at its progress on schools policies ⬇️

All errors in exam papers are ‘unacceptable’, warns Ofqual chief regulator Sir Ian Bauckham, after concerns were raised about some of this year’s A-level papers

Exclusive for @tesmagazine.bsky.social with @cerysturner.bsky.social: only 19 expressions of interest for DfE’s attendance and behaviour ambassador jobs. Concerns raised that the job was "buried" & that the process "borders on farce". Still no news on who's been appointed with just 2 days to go...

“DfE appears intent on stacking the outcome so that we end up with the same tired, unproven model as before.” Given the importance of the attendance & behaviour roles, you’d hope for a flood of enquiries. Excl by @ramshodgson.bsky.social and @cerysturner.bsky.social www.tes.com/magazine/new...

Excl from @ramshodgson.bsky.social: The DfE has admitted that it doesn't know how many children on free school meals will lose out under planned eligibility changes to the scheme, leaving ministers "flying in the dark”. www.tes.com/magazine/new...

Exclusive by @ramshodgson.bsky.social on why it's hard to see how the government can say its Free School Meals expansion will benefit 'more than half a million' children. www.tes.com/magazine/new...

Exclusive: Transitional protections (TP) end in September 2026 for free school meals (FSM), but the DfE has admitted in an FOI response to @tesmagazine.bsky.social that it doesn't know several important pieces of data about the impact of the change.

Exclusive for @tesmagazine.bsky.social: OCR has apologised to all teachers and students impacted by errors in its A-level physics papers. Institute of Physics to write to OCR and AQA (for 2nd year in a row) “urgently seeking reassurances”

The exam board is investigating its processes and “acting to ensure it does not happen again”. Exclusive by @ramshodgson.bsky.social

Scottish education reform should fuel a reimagining of the history curriculum, says @drpham.bsky.social www.tes.com/magazine/ana...

Do exam halls need in-person invigilators? England’s biggest exam board sees AI invigilation as the future for GCSEs and A levels. But, in practice, could this really work? @ramshodgson.bsky.social explores

In percentage terms, the increase in popularity of GCSE statistics is the largest of any subject across all GCSEs and A-levels … A surprising find from diving into subject-level Ofqual provisional exam entries data from 2021 to 2025 for @tesmagazine.bsky.social

Exclusive: Entries for GCSE statistics have soared over the past four years, making it the subject with the biggest increase in take-up across all GCSEs and A levels

How would an AI camera deal with fire alarms, illness, toilet breaks & disruptive behaviour during GCSE exams? And how might students with SEND be affected? Fascinating read by @ramshodgson.bsky.social‬ www.tes.com/magazine/new...

Would AI invigilation of exams be “putting the integrity of the exam system in jeopardy”? And would it hit children with SEND hardest? This is an excellent analysis from @ramshodgson.bsky.social on AQA suggestions that AI invigilation could be the future. www.tes.com/magazine/new...

Following up on my interview for @tesmagazine.bsky.social with @aqaeducation.bsky.social CEO Colin Hughes, I’ve looked into some of the concerns teachers and school leaders have about the potential for digital invigilation of GCSEs and A-levels using AI-enhanced cameras. Have a read!

Entries for GCSE statistics almost double in 4 years. 96% increase in take-up since 2021 – the largest for any GCSE or A-level subject – welcomed amid fears of a growing maths attainment gap. More from @tesmagazine.bsky.social @ramshodgson.bsky.social buff.ly/1lWPlhF #education #educationnews