🚨 Exclusive: In a parliamentary question, the Department for Education confirmed it had not assessed how benefit reforms would impact its school readiness target. Many teachers who spoke to me said it was "short sighted" to not do this. Read more: schoolsweek.co.uk/benefits-cut...

Former schools minister Sir Nick Gibb has been recruited as a strategic adviser by a company that sells pouches to lock away children’s phones. Read more below with @schoolsweek.bsky.social: schoolsweek.co.uk/ex-minister-...

A career first for me! Delighted to see myself and @fcdwhittaker.bsky.social appear in this afternoon's influential @politico.eu London Playbook newsletter for our story on primary schools dropping out of the government's free breakfast clubs

Great scoop here from @lydiach.bsky.social - Ofsted is considering whether to rename its proposed 'secure' grade There are concerns it's not obvious to parents what it means or where it sits on the five-point scale schoolsweek.co.uk/ofsted-looks...

ICYMI: School caterers warn a return to the school meal standards of the 1990s is on the cards as schools grapple with inflationary costs. Leaders who spoke to me say they are facing pressures from NIC rises and inflation costs. Read more below... schoolsweek.co.uk/outsourced-c...

🗣️ I’m here at The Speaking Summit in Bloomsbury with @schoolsweek.bsky.social. Come say hello if you spot me. @kateparadine.bsky.social tells the room Oracy is crucial in schools.

Looks like there are heated discussions between MPs and senior education leaders over Labour’s breakfast club scheme 👀

🏫 New from me: The odds of year 11 pupils achieving a grade five in English and Maths almost double if their attendance is over 95 per cent, government research suggests schoolsweek.co.uk/95-attendanc...

Spotted this evening in Birmingham

Day two of #ASCL2025 conference here in Liverpool and @pepediiasio.bsky.social draws laughs from crowd re: Ofsted. He says the last thing edu needs is an inspection system that “intensifies pressures." "It’s a far cry from the Nando’s-style five-point scale Ofsted is proposing." 🐔

Headteachers laugh at Sir Martin Oliver today at @ascl-uk.bsky.social for saying they shouldn’t be doing extra work for Ofsted 👀 He accused his critics of wanting lower accountability with the proposed new report card system 📚

👩‍🏫 I will be attending the ASCL conference tomorrow and Saturday in Liverpool with @schoolsweek.bsky.social 🗣️ Are you attending? Would you like to chat to me about something urgent in your MAT or school? Let me know as always: [email protected]. My DMs are open #SENDsky #edusky

Exclusive: Councils have been given ministerial approval to seize more than £82 million funding from their mainstream schools to prop up widening SEND deficits

Exclusive: School leaders are turning away SEND pupils and the practice ‘needs calling out’, the ASCL union head has said Bosses must adopt ‘ethical’ approaches and become ‘models for the next generation’ buff.ly/rF3YG5U

New from me: Jane Wilson will replace Rob Tarn as the new chief executive officer at Northern Education Trust (NET). “I feel tremendously honoured to be given the opportunity to lead the trust on the next stage of our journey,” she said. schoolsweek.co.uk/northern-edu...

ICYMI: Teaching has become more difficult because of a rise in pupils starting school with poor speech and language skills, according to a new poll. Teachers surveyed - 93 per cent - believe the public do not understand or comprehend the “crisis” in schools. schoolsweek.co.uk/more-childre...

✍🏻 I listened to today's parliamentary edu committee for @schoolsweek.bsky.social on solving the SEND crisis. MPs will be hearing from Annamarie Hassall, CEO of Nasen, and @mmulholland.bsky.social SEND & inclusion specialist at the ASCL, and other witnesses. Here are the top highlights...

I’ve been digging into the quality of EHCPs, plans that parents are dragged through court sometimes to obtain, and that are bankrupting councils What’s actually in them? Are they good quality? Personalised? Include interventions backed by evidence? Are they fully funded? The answer often is no

Let's be clear: the idea that breakfast clubs would adequately mitigate the impact of the two-child limit is absolute bollocks. The average household hit by the two-child limit loses out on roughly £3,800 a year. They're not currently spending that on coco pops.

ICYMI: Here's my first investigation with @schoolsweek.bsky.social. I found councils have children on huge waiting times to secure full-time education after being excluded. Seven councils had children waiting six months or more - 30x longer than the law demands. schoolsweek.co.uk/councils-fai...

Looking to speak to educators connected with Alternative Provisions (AP). Can you help me with a story I'm writing? Please email me on [email protected]. Many thanks! #edusky #SEND #SEN #EHCP #AP #KS3 #KS2

In the office today with @schoolsweek.bsky.social. If you're a headteacher or education leader with a story feel free to pop over a DM to me... #edusky #education #KS2 #KS3

Good to see the Beeb following up our stories about Stoke - the first big PFI schools contract to end, and it’s going terribly badly Does not bode well for these deals starting to wind down across the country schoolsweek.co.uk/pfi-disputes...

Good morning Bluesky! As always looking to speak to headteachers and education leaders about a few stories in the pipeline. Maybe you're the right person to ask? 🧑‍🏫 Get in touch: [email protected] #edsky #education #KS3 #KS2

Councils will soon get wide-ranging new duties to check pupils not in school are getting a suitable education But do they even have the capacity to do this? @rhistorer.bsky.social investigates …

This week the government launched its AI action plan to help boost growth and efficiency in public services. What does it mean for schools? Read more below: schoolsweek.co.uk/ai-plan-hack...

Looking to speak to an AI expert with views on AI in schools and public sector. Views on the UK government's AI plans, LLMs, and regulation are v welcome. For a news feature with Schools Week. Please email: [email protected] #edusky #schools #journorequest #education #KS3 #KS4

I'm delighted to announce I will be working as a Senior Reporter for @schoolsweek.bsky.social reporting on safeguarding, AI in schools, and home education. Please email me [email protected] if you have any story suggestions or ideas.

That was a goal at the end poor refereeing. We were robbed #villa

Good. It’s horrific how other platforms abused their reach to strangle local, independent, and national outlets alike. I WANT to see news and actual vetted work and I WANT journalists to get rewarded for it. Because I want to live in a thinking human world over some AI generated slop dystopia

I wrote my first story for the BBC today. My own byline! Take a look here: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Authors receive a payment every time you borrow a book, audiobook or ebook from libraries in 35 countries. Those countries include the UK, Canada, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Germany to name but a few. Borrowing a book helps the author’s pocket as well as yours.

I made a cheese toastie today with extra cheese and Henderson's Relish. I even added a drop (or two) of sesame oil It was a v good lunch 10/10 would eat again

I never imagined the road to dystopia would be so fucking boring. Look at these cunts. Never mind their output, they look like *they* have been generated by AI.

Just an average story I've written up over the weekend www.dailystar.co.uk/news/world-n...

A good Monday morning listen #vinyl

quite the cover from @politico.eu

Did you know that by substituting your morning coffee with green tea, you can eliminate up to 93% of what little joy you have left?

Working a late shift with @dailystar.co.uk with this record to keep me company #metalsky #vinyl

BLTQIA+

Word of this morning is ‘procaffeinate’: to put everything on hold until you’ve had sufficient amounts of coffee.

Another evening shift which means another record to pass the long winter nights #jazzsky

i love echo chambers, reverb chambers, tape echo, tape delay, delay pedals, loopers, convolution reverbs, tape loops, slapback, etc

In the midst of consumer frenzy and unseasonal heat, it's time we recognised that always Christmas and never winter is as bad as always winter and never Christmas.

New Week! New Opportunities! We keep fighting. To save the UK's oldest cinema. To save the birthplace of Black Sabbath & Heavy Metal. To save the neglected heart of Birmingham. For 115yrs Station Street has created global icons. We will fight for it to produce hundreds more.

Working a late Sunday shift with the Daily Star - send me your music recommendations to pass the time

Do the French really use “Être de Birmingham” to mean “being bored”? Also: how the Danelaw still haunts British politics. Some things from the summer, now out from behind the paywall

Picked this up for £2.50. Very good

Going past Yardley Cemetery.