Agh...a new term approaches+ a new round of anxiety arrives via "computer says no" pupil attendance communications. These take no meaningful account of children's circs and thus destroy trust between parents and schools. Will @bphillipsonmp.bsky.social look at impact of these letters in the round?

New: School linked to world-famous children’s hospital sacks union rep, as long-running dispute with staff becomes even more fraught educationuncovered.co.uk/news/school-... Latest concerning-sounding developments at Great Ormond Street Hospital school.

New: Catholic Church should “put its hand in its pocket” to help out schools which have slumped millions of pounds in the red on its watch, unions say educationuncovered.co.uk/news/catholi... Three unions concerned about situation at two academy trusts controlled by Catholic Diocese of Nottingham.

And herein lies the problem with the SEND white paper. The school system is broken. The perverse incentives and logic of capital are now fully embedded. A bit of investment here or there isn’t going to make up for the damage of taking away the only legal protections that still remain via EHCPs

"The survey found attendance was not a major concern for most parents." More widely, there do seem to be conflicting views between politicians, schools and parents, with the latter two often seemingly clashing in media coverage.How to get to a better relationship? www.theguardian.com/education/20...

"Attendance isn't the problem, it's a symptom of a much deeper problem." V interesting from @drnaomifisher.bsky.social It would be good to hear children,parent voices in these pieces. open.substack.com/pub/naomicfi... | Tes share.google/vEKkGpI6zMq4...

New: Ofqual refuses to release its evidence to the government’s Curriculum and Assessment Review educationuncovered.co.uk/news/ofqual-... To do so would be to “prejudice the effective conduct of public affairs,” says the exams regulator in response to my FOI request.

Among the many things that need looking at with regard to academies … @bphillipsonmp.bsky.social

New: Rash of departures among Harris senior executives prompts the question: why would they leave such well-remunerated posts? educationuncovered.co.uk/news/rash-of... Nearly half of most senior staff at Harris Federation left in 15-month period to December, its accounts disclose.

New: Academy trust, which employs chief executive’s son as its director of business and finance, says it has complied with all DfE requirements educationuncovered.co.uk/news/academy... A look at the disclosures of the Core Education Trust, which runs four schools in Birmingham.

New: Salary of top-paid person, at academy chain poised to be taken over by England’s largest, soared by £60,000 last year, to £250,000-plus educationuncovered.co.uk/news/salary-...

New: Is Labour government’s support for two controversial Conservative-era policies explained by the personalities behind them? educationuncovered.co.uk/analysis/dia... A look at what might be driving persistence of Tory-era policies of mass academisation and Oak Nat Academy at Labour’s DfE. +...

Have been grumpy about AI on here. Still have huge reservations re impact on environment, jobs. In terms of usefulness, my views now more mixed: had experience of contact using it to seek out info: it just made stuff up. But feeding it data,then asking for interpretation/visualisation: v impressive.

Of course now I have thought of a couple more academy trusts with high pay which I missed out in this analysis, and which will add to the total. And people get in touch to tip me off about other trusts. It never stops...

Interesting to look at this Schools Week piece from Sept 24. Said that thinking in DfE was that struggling schools "should be part of group of schools, " but this could be "local authority federation". But white paper now proposing LA multi-academy trusts. schoolsweek.co.uk/does-labour-.... And...

On the academy pay front, it is interesting that the Aspirations trust is £500k in the red, when the husband and wife at its head between them in recent years have been paid approaching £500k, with that barrier now broken. schoolsweek.co.uk/academy-trus...

I know some people really like the idea that there is 'one best way' of teaching because if there's a regular, predictable pattern and method it can be observed and replicated. But it just isn't true in the phases and subjects that I've worked with during my career (early years, drama, English).

I visit a lot of schools and I don't find it being pushed 'more and more'. Maybe about a decade ago it was but the current 'must always be busy/every minute counts' approach to curriculum promoted by Ofsted etc. doesn't leave much time or space.

Why does the Guardian keep referring to "Great Britain"? If you say "Britain," we know what you mean. Is this US writing/subbing, or some AI influence, perhaps? Why the verbosity? www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Revealed: Scores of academy trust leaders paid more than director of England’s largest education authority educationuncovered.co.uk/news/reveale... And heads of five single-school academy trusts each had higher salaries than the person overseeing 444 non-academy schools in Hampshire

Just to confirm, the piece mentions Katharine Birbalsingh's views on all of us, including children, "suffering from original sin," going in a bit of detail in this podcast as to the implications for education.

New: “Britain’s strictest headteacher” re-iterates her philosophy on rightwing podcast educationuncovered.co.uk/news/britain... Katharine Birbalsingh sets out views including that hers is the only school in Britain “teaching British history properly”.

Is anyone studying the impact on school and family life of apps such as @tesmagazine.bsky.social 's Class Charts? Is the TES?

New: Chair of board at under-pressure Mossbourne Federation stands down educationuncovered.co.uk/news/chair-o... Apparent signal of the first concrete impact of safeguarding review which had raised criticisms of a Mossbourne school’s behaviour management policies.

New: Catholic multi-academy trust saw top-paid person’s pay jump by six figures last year, to more than £300,000 educationuncovered.co.uk/news/catholi... Rise in remuneration for top-paid person at the 38-school Nicholas Postgate Catholic Academy Trust highest yet seen by this website in 2024-25.

Mossbourne Federation "could have spent [the money] on safeguarding improvements, SEND support and pastoral care," Thurrock councillor states. Follow-up by Essex local newspaper on my FOI which showed £400k legal fee spending: www.echo-news.co.uk/news/2590209...

Just spotted some more obvious errors in a set of accounts for another reasonably large multi-academy trust, which will feed into yet another story about high leadership remuneration. Am staggered that quality control processes are not better, given no of ppl meant to look at them.

"One of the weaknesses is the lack of local accountability...Decisions affecting our children shouldn’t be made by someone in Cambridge or London who isn’t seeing what’s happening on the ground”. Thurrock councillor criticises acads system re Mossbourne... www.hackneycitizen.co.uk/2026/02/25/c...

New: Multi-academy trust faces questions over its 25 per cent topslice educationuncovered.co.uk/news/multi-a... Central charges figure at 17-school University of Chichester (Multi) Academy Trust is one of highest I’ve seen.

Reflecting on this some more. The least the government should do, given we have this system, is try to mitigate its weaknesses, in terms of making it a more public-facing public service, and to regulate it properly. Instead, it has turned cheerleader for this flawed structural set-up. It's bizarre.

"We should not cave in to vested interests", says Labour. Sadly, it has just done that in education. New (open access) piece: educationuncovered.co.uk/analysis/we-... warwickmansell.substack.com/p/we-should-...

Revealed: how academy trust at centre of behaviour row spent £400,000 on legal fees. educationuncovered.co.uk/news/if-we-h... FOI response to my request shows Mossbourne Federation spent the cash in response to the statutory safeguarding review into practice at one of its schools.

Another multi-academy trust CEO to stand down following controversy over its high "topslice," or central charges,and questions in Parliament. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... This follows Arthur Terry Learning Partnership's CEO's departure amid row inc over its 20%-plus topslice.

Wow! Re SEND not needing a different consequence. If the consequence for "X" is being sent to an isolation room, a non SEND kid may cope, but a SEND kid might kick off, leading to possible exclusion. I think consequences need to be adapted appropriately.

Agreed and viewed as whole or at a student level fails too many. Although serves those schools who adopt it fairly well- making it a tempting path to take for leaders

Ironically the system has become more behaviourist not less over the last decade. The influence of people like KB and TB.

Yes it's really complicated! I do CPD sessions on motivation and the whole area is fraught with complexity. Most schools are still very behaviourist and teachers are always surprised when I say we don't do it that way. But a lot of it is just the practicalities of 30 kids and a stuffed curriculum.

New: DfE move to allow local authorities to set up “school trusts” appears to be a rehash of Conservative government’s 2022 plan educationuncovered.co.uk/analysis/dfe... New piece on one aspect of the all-schools-to-be-in-trusts section of the DfE’s white paper.

New comment under this piece, from Emeritus prof Ron Glatter: "If it does go ahead (let's hope it doesn't)...it will give even more power to national government in an education system which is already heavily centralised."

Dear @microsoft.com, is there any way of switching off the super-annoying messages that pop up from "copilot", advising me to take advantage of its (unwanted) services to improve my emails?

I think the change got embedded by the behaviour for learning stuff with that C1, C2, C3 thing. And now it's mostly used as a synonym for sanctions (although not in early years) - we don't have any punitive consequences in our setting (nor any extrinsic rewards).

So for me, consequence is something that happens as a result of the behaviour and doesn't have to be punitive, which a sanction would be. For instance, a restorative conversation could be a 'consequence'. But I think in lots of contexts it is just used as a softer synonym for sanctions.

By the way, if you're interested in UK education follow Warwick Mansell & subscribe to his website. He's good.

Am interested in language of "consequences," as now used in English school behaviour management and enshrined via, for eg, widely-used apps such as TES Class Charts. Formulation seems to be: -The rules come first -You must follow the rules -If you don't, there will be consequences. Thoughts?

Hmm..whether to press on with more analysis of the white paper's all-schools-must-be-academies drive, or try to keep up with the endless stories coming my way which demonstrate problems with the academies policy on the ground. Bit of both, I think.

This is super-interesting on the ongoing legal challenge against the government's Oak National Academy: www.publishers.org.uk/department-f...

Some great comments under this piece,inc this one: "Tucking full academisation into a SEND white paper is not transparent policymaking. Gov proposing wholesale structural change without fixing weaknesses: weak oversight, opaque governance, limited acc for powerful trust CEOs and boards". Spot on.

New: All schools in England to become academies, DfE appears to confirm educationuncovered.co.uk/news/all-sch... DfE states that even new LA “school trusts” will consist of academies.

Feeling especially grumpy today, having had to contemplate really poor DfE policymaking in the white paper, re academies. So, when school sent survey about our interaction with the TES's Class Charts, of which on balance I'm not a fan, I directed them to this: nation.cymru/opinion/why-...

New: Do DfE white paper proposals move England towards blanket academisation, or not? What an almighty mess educationuncovered.co.uk/analysis/do-... Analysis piece on the academy aspects of yesterday’s white paper.