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My dear friend Aimee’s bookshop Burning House Books is the best in Britain (according to Time Out)! A must-visit if you’re ever in Glasgow! www.timeout.com/uk/news/this...

Presenting edition 414 of Schools Week 🏫 'Nightmare before Xmas' as free schools axed and put in limbo 🔍 We examine how to measure inclusion 💻 And heads describe the rise of the AI complaint Subscribe: schoolsweek.co.uk/subscribe-to...

I like bsky. I would like it more if it pulled through social card meta like a normal website. But please read our story, even if bsky has made it look terrible

Honoured to have been appointed as the next editor of Schools Week, starting in January. It's been a privilege to watch our fantastic newspaper grow in reach and influence since its launch in 2014 I'm also delighted our award-winning chief reporter Samantha Booth will be our deputy editor

We're excited to name Freddie Whittaker as our next Editor and Samantha Booth as Deputy Editor from Jan 2026! Their leadership and reporting experience will drive Schools Week forward. Got story ideas? They’re listening. #EducationJournalism #SchoolsNews

Can’t help but think the venn diagram of people who queue in pubs and people who sit in the outer seat of an otherwise unoccupied duo of train seats is almost a circle

Big story from @lydiach.bsky.social - buried in Treasury documents, the government confirms it intends to allocate disadvantage funding to schools based on income data, not free school meals eligibility. It follows criticism that FSM is a poor proxy for poverty

Presenting edition 413 of Schools Week 💷 Investigation: The council schools with million-pound deficits 🏫 School spotlight: Internal AP 👂 Fears over last-minute SEND listening exercise Plus teacher recruitment, free school meals, falling rolls and more Subscribe: schoolsweek.co.uk/subscribe-to...

So the £6bn SEND budget blackhole predicted by the OBR for 2028-29 is a 'matter for the next spending review', Phillipson has told Parliament This is due in 2027, and as set out earlier this year, will review budgets set at the latest SR in June for 28-29 and 29-30 Still, cutting it fine...

Happy festive drinks season to all who celebrate. Please fan out along the bar

DfE has responded to the OBR, saying it's 'incorrect' to say pressure may be absorbed by schools budget 'We are clear that any deficit will be absorbed within the overall government budget. These projections also do not account for the much-needed SEND reforms' schoolsweek.co.uk/government-f...

Finally got to the bottom of a confusing set of budget documents and OBR forecasts - Once override ends in 2028, govt takes on burden of rising SEND costs - OBR estimates £6.3bn pressure in year 1 - Govt has set out no plans to meet it, nor on whether existing deficits (to hit £14bn) will be wiped

This is bizarre. Lots about changes to how SEND is funded in the OBR document that was published early by mistake, but Reeves doesn't mention it in speech and it appears absent from Treasury's main budget document

Doesn't look like it! bsky.app/profile/tom-...

Document now deleted by the OBR intern, have reuploaded the PDF here: smallpdf.com/share-docume...

Breaking: Leaked OBR document states government will fund full cost of SEND provision from within central government departmental spending from 2028 - not clear if this means wiping the existing council deficits

I’m pretty sure they only added the Liz line services to the departure board at Paddington so it doesn’t just show ‘cancelled’ next to every train all the time

Some very worrying stats here. Serious questions for government and Capita about why it is taking so long to process remedy statements stemming from the McCloud judgment. Can’t imagine the anguish of already-retired teachers and leaders waiting for missing money

Everything schools need to know about the curriculum review final report, right here...

This is going down like a lead balloon among teaching unions...

Teachers will use 'deepfake' technology to create an AI avatar of themselves to deliver catch-up lessons for pupils who have missed school schoolsweek.co.uk/schools-trus...

Laura Trott now in conversation with former education secretary Michael Gove. He says she has second best job in history in politics (education secretary is best, he says). First question is about behaviour

This is incredibly short-sighted. When the Conservative government slashed bursaries following the brief Covid-related boom in recruitment, subjects with the largest reduction in bursaries attracted the fewest trainees the following year schoolsweek.co.uk/ministers-bu...

Shadow education secretary Laura Trott is about to address Conservative Party conference Her session begins with a video showing her clashing with education ministers over the schools bill and criticism from Baroness Spielman and Labour MP Siobhan McDonagh

Some promising findings here from a pilot that trained up primary school teachers to deliver careers education. A version of that CPD is now going to be made available to all primary schools schoolsweek.co.uk/pupils-horiz...

Interesting @teachertapp.bsky.social polling on year 8 reading check plan revealed in last week's @schoolsweek.bsky.social Teachers overall more likely to support than oppose, but leaders much less convinced schoolsweek.co.uk/year-8-readi...

Education secretary @bphillipsonmp.bsky.social being interviewed at packed @csjthinktank.bsky.social and Parentkind fringe here at #lab2025

'What was incredible was the enormous generosity of the teachers and the leaders that we met, who were so open and honest about ‘look, this worked. This wasn’t great. If we did it again, we’d probably look at this’, warts and all'

Scoop: Mandatory reading test for year 8s (age 13) incoming in the schools white paper, due out this autumn DfE and Ofsted will have access to school results, but data will only be reported nationally and we understand it won't prompt intervention/early inspection

Edition 405, sneak peek: Scoop: Labour's white paper to introduce mandatory year 8 reading test Watchdog sides with school in fair banding row Long-read: Ofsted chief slams schools over 'tech tax' An inside look on how SEND reforms are shaping up

Scoop: Mandatory reading test for year 8s (age 13) incoming in the schools white paper, due out this autumn DfE and Ofsted will have access to school results, but data will only be reported nationally and we understand it won't prompt intervention/early inspection

Exclusive: The leadership of the NAHT is considering whether to ballot members for industrial action over Ofsted reforms Comes after snap poll of 2,000 members at an emergency meeting on Tuesday found 89% supported exploring industrial options schoolsweek.co.uk/naht-to-cons...

Which, of course, does not rule out the possibility of (a) restricting what 'support' is available, or (b) restricting how many children can access the support.

This form of words first emerged from DfE in mid-July; it's a slight dilution on an previous line, and obviously it's not a pledge to maintain children's current legal rights

The voices of children, their families and teachers will be 'at the forefront' of SEND reforms, the new education minister has said, as she promised 'there will always be a legal right to additional support' schoolsweek.co.uk/new-minister...

Standing room only for Westminster Hall debate on SEND, called in response to this petition calling for legal rights to be maintained petition.parliament.uk/petitions/71... Shows the deep concern about upcoming reforms among MPs Watch here: www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/...

Politics is a brutal business. It was good to sit down and talk to @cmckinnellmp.bsky.social about her time as schools minister, the 'jolt' of the reshuffle and what life outside government may look like schoolsweek.co.uk/mckinnell-i-...

Ofsted has renamed its controversial five new headline grades, reduced the number of core areas for inspection and will enlarge its inspection teams in response to its consultation on planned new report cards Here’s what you need to know… schoolsweek.co.uk/ofsted-repor...

New Ofsted report cards will create more anxiety on leaders with already 'concerningly high' stress levels, a wellbeing impact report commissioned by the watchdog has warned schoolsweek.co.uk/ofsted-repor...

Proud to present edition 402 of @schoolsweek.bsky.social Scoop: Ofsted plans more 'shadow' inspections to test consistency Locked down: The schools forced to take emergency measures Profile: Gareth Conyard of the Teacher Development Trust Subscribe: schoolsweek.co.uk/subscribe-to...

It's GCSE and other level 1 & 2 qualifications results day and team @schoolsweek.bsky.social has you covered... Here's our breaking news story on how top grades have risen (again), but Ofqual insists results remain 'stable' schoolsweek.co.uk/gcses-2025-t...

Good to speak to new NASUWT leader Matt Wrack this week - Rules out merging with another union 'for now' - Insists lack of teaching background won't hamper him - Says union must better engage members after election turnout of 4.7% schoolsweek.co.uk/matt-wrack-g...

Ofsted's answer to growing unrest about the pace of its report card reforms? Webinars. schoolsweek.co.uk/ofsted-plans...

So after DfE publishes its 150-page writing framework right at the end of term but with a note saying it will have to be changed once the final curriculum review report is out, the DfE has clarified it won't update it until after curriculum changes are actually put in place...

Teachers shape lives. Ros Tyler inspired a lifelong love of music in me and countless others. I recently had the privilege of going back to my school to celebrate her memory, in aid of Longfield care. Donations are still open youtu.be/lnFuIN5vGYY www.justgiving.com/page/stars-r...

Breaking: After four years and hundreds of thousands of points of public money spent, the first DfE-backed legal action by an academy trust against its former trustees is over, after it reached secret settlements with the remaining three defendants schoolsweek.co.uk/schoolscompa...

It sure is good to live on the southeastern network during a heatwave. Boy the air conditioning on those 100 year old trains is existent

Appointment of former chief inspector Christine Gilbert as chair of Ofsted is fascinating. She didn't hold back in her review of Ofsted's response to the death of Ruth Perry, and specifically ordered it to strengthen its board to rein in the chief inspector schoolsweek.co.uk/christine-gi...

Big scoop from Schools Week today