New: Ofsted’s apparent failings on Mossbourne inspection appear part of a pattern educationuncovered.co.uk/news/ofsteds...

Just came across, again, one of the most staggering stats of the year. In 2023-24, four per cent of pupils at John Smeaton Academy in Leeds - so roughly one child per class - each spent a least 41 days in "isolation" . (This came out during the Gorse judicial review hearing in June).

New: Teachers at world-famous hospital school complain of “toxic” working environment which has seen them out on 14 days of strike educationuncovered.co.uk/news/teacher... Great Ormond Street Hospital’s school has seen four members of staff, including 3 SLT, suspended in recent weeks.

New: Former headteacher and DfE adviser Ruth Miskin sees her phonics company’s value climb to £19 million educationuncovered.co.uk/news/former-... Post-tax profits at Ruth Miskin Literacy, whose sole shareholder is Dame Ruth, have approached £10 million in total over the past four years.

"Nobody enters teaching to run an exam factory that makes children unhappy...[teachers are] often... working against the grain, without credit from an accountability system that cannot see the entirety of their efforts." V true...

"DfE's newly published pupil experience data should stop us all in our tracks... The child isn’t broken, the system around them is." schoolsweek.co.uk/pupils-told-...

New: Two-school academy trust bidding to cut teaching assistant pay by “up to £4,000 per year” – despite reserves of nearly £4 million educationuncovered.co.uk/news/two-sch... NEU members at Woodfield, a special school in Brent, north London, will reach ninth day of strike action this week.

It's all pretty depressing that there are people who don't seem to understand safeguarding properly. Academic outcomes are not the only measure. Flexibility isn't wrong.

"If the safeguarding principles of professional curiosity and challenge are lost to the white noise of such a zealot-like approach, we have truly lost our way." Hackney safeguarding chair Jim Gamble lambasts DfE's school behaviour ambassador Tom Bennett. chscp.org.uk/wp-content/u...

New: “77,000 detentions in 3.5 years – but will 'no excuses' culture at Mossbourne Victoria Park Academy change?” educationuncovered.co.uk/news/77000-d... Long-read piece charting Sir Alan Wood’s safeguarding review, its striking findings and a look at its recommendations for change.

Surprised this Schools Week story doesn't capture fact that for some other schools, non-creation of a free schl nearby where pupil number predictions not great will be good news. Covered this re Perranporth Academy last year. educationuncovered.co.uk/news/seconda... schoolsweek.co.uk/nightmare-be...

BBC story on Mossbourne in Thurrock seems to see the trust admitting, or not denying,that it penalised pupils for parents missing parents evs, going into shops after sch, sock details: Pupils withdrawn from Mossbourne Federation schools in Essex - BBC News share.google/1812t1M5DUKd...

New: “Our curriculum review is not a ‘copy and paste’ from England,” senior Northern Ireland civil servant tells Assembly members educationuncovered.co.uk/news/our-cur...

The DfE's behaviour ambassador seems not to be acknowledging any issues with what was reported at Mossbourne VPA, other than the catch-all "there may well be issues" line towards the end of this piece: bennettt.substack.com/p/if-there-a...

Story confirms spending on free schools which failed. Can't find the data source on this, though. www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Thanks for highlighting this trend. I am confident that the highly qualified teachers of Northern Ireland in the diverse range of schools there will not be as compliant as academies in English schools. The school leaders are more likely to be forthright in their feedback too.

Reading and digesting the safeguarding review on Mossbourne Victoria Park Academy. TES headline below is most insightful of three I've seen so far: www.tes.com/magazine/new...

New: two schools which fought off privatisation get “wonderful” early Christmas present – as donor clears their debts educationuncovered.co.uk/news/two-sch... Heartwarming story sees anonymous donor appear to come up with a six-figure sum for these two schools in Brighton and Hove.

Love the writing of @johnharris1969.bsky.social . One interesting line among many: "There are more people being diagnosed with anxiety and depression because of an education system and model of work that are so harshly competitive and inherently precarious". www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

This story has made me reflect again on the Gove/Gibb/traditionalist/conservative reform programme in England, its ideology and networking around it. Perhaps it becomes even clearer as you see it spreading elsewhere. So am making this article open access. educationuncovered.co.uk/news/sound-f...

New: Sound familiar? Controversial Conservative education reforms seemingly heading for Northern Ireland educationuncovered.co.uk/news/sound-f...

WE KNOW news.sky.com/story/childr...

Yes, for sure. Higher teacher turnover in MATs, and in the bigger MATs in particular. Education Policy Institute has also found higher teacher turnover in MATs.

There has been a lot of resistance at school level to RC Diocese of Westminster's academisation plans. Striking thing about this story may be how slow academisation has been: by my calcs only a few conversions there since 2020: schoolsweek.co.uk/another-cath...

Love this blog by John Jerrim for FFT Datalab. And yes, don't rely on AI! ffteducationdatalab.org.uk/2025/12/why-...

There is lots of evidence that MATs cost more including this excellent sourced report from @warwickmansell.bsky.social www.campaignforstateeducation.org.uk/case-report

New: Teachers at troubled chain of free schools to be balloted on strike action educationuncovered.co.uk/news/teacher...

New: The Francis Review: a patronising take on English primary education? educationuncovered.co.uk/analysis/com... Former senior inspector Colin Richards argues that the government’s Curriculum and Assessment Review placed less emphasis on primary than secondary education.

New: School’s £300,000 legal bills revealed through freedom of information response educationuncovered.co.uk/news/schools... Pensby High School, on the Wirral, has paid the money to two firms, including in cases against parents and a former staff member.

New: Government makes significant concession to overseas-trained teachers, as recruits from six countries are given fast-track access to Qualified Teacher Status, after 12 months' teaching here. educationuncovered.co.uk/news/governm...

New: Cutting academy reserves to level seen in LA schools would release £1.5 billion for spending in classrooms educationuncovered.co.uk/news/cutting... New piece comparing levels of reserves in the academy and non-academy school sectors.

New: The academy chains sitting on £1 billion of reserves educationuncovered.co.uk/news/the-aca... Exclusive Education Uncovered analysis of DfE school finance data comes with the government having said schools could be doing more with money currently held back.

New: Under-pressure academy trust forced by minister to reverse its decision to close school sixth form educationuncovered.co.uk/news/under-p... Quite unusual to see DfE intervene as it has, following this attempted move by the Arthur Terry Learning Partnership.

So many AI fails. Here's another one, from Google summary: "X Multi Academy Trust is a group of schools.. with its history dating back to ..1902." Of course the academy trust only dates back a few years; it's the schools it now controls that go back that far.

New: Campaigners launch crowdfunding drives, shining spotlights on school attendance pressures and the experience of Ofsted educationuncovered.co.uk/news/campaig... Stressful scenarios within education could both benefit from greater scrutiny and discussion, the fundraisers argue.

Targets have always had a mechanistic, dehumanising element. This seems very much in that tradition. School leaders' points seem well-made: reaching for another target (or test) is so much easier for Whitehall than ground-up improvement. schoolsweek.co.uk/ai-to-set-mi...

New: The local authority where eight academy trust chief executives are paid more than the Prime Minister educationuncovered.co.uk/news/the-loc... Situation in this moderately-sized county underlines the proliferation of highly-paid CEO roles under the academies policy.

New: The Francis review: Good in parts, but with one huge omission educationuncovered.co.uk/analysis/the... My initial take on the curriculum and assessment review. Better in the micro than the macro, I think.

We need to look at this as a profession and ask ourselves very seriously what is going on in the education system. #EduSky

Lots of thought-provoking stats in this release from the Institute for Government, not least: "In 2023–24, there were an average of five suspensions in every secondary school class, more than double the highest rate seen pre-pandemic." www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/press-releas...

Teaching grammatical terminology inc fronted adverbials in Key Stage 2. Review: "Responses to our Call for Evidence suggest that this content is advanced and overly theoretical at this key stage, disengages pupils, + does not help them to write well." See also: www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Reading the curriculum and assessment review. Very interesting, and will offer longer thoughts when through. But reflecting on lack of mention, at least at the start, for the copious concerning evidence we have on pupil wellbeing/engagement,+lack of a parent or pupil representation on review panel.

Also on "isolation": "The question for all of us, then, is: do isolation or removal rooms work?": www.teamteach.com/the-problem-...

This is interesting on the isolation/reset/internal exclusion etc debate: "Why I got rid of isolation at my school": www.tes.com/magazine/ana...

Interesting that Bridget Phillipson's first point, in Today prog interview about DfE's response to the Francis review, was in terms of the government now extending the national curriculum to all state-funded schools. Although this wasn't mentioned, this of course includes academies.

Curriculum and assessment review's proposal to reduce GCSE exam time by "at least 10%," which has been translated to a 3 hour cut per pupil, interesting. But seems to fall short of argument of head of OCR exam board last year of 8-10 hour cut. educationuncovered.co.uk/news/cut-the...

Comment on LinkedIn on this piece, from a primary headteacher: "If the curriculum and assessment review is to have meaning, it must look beyond exam tweaks and reimagine what we value. High standards matter, but so does high wellbeing. I hope Becky Francis and the review team have really listened."

New: “Will the Francis curriculum and assessment review provide the radical look at the in-the-round impact of England’s school system on young people that is desperately needed?” Viewable (open access) here: educationuncovered.co.uk/analysis/wil... +here: warwickmansell.substack.com/p/will-the-f...

True dat. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

It is quite a contrast with what goes on in many modern workplaces, for sure.