HEP Talks

The Education Brief: Wednesday 3 December 2025 - Top stories include: Teachers and leaders are reporting better wellbeing, according to the DfE Working Lives survey. Parent allegations against teachers have surged by a third in the past year. Plans to move religious education onto the national curriculum face “really big” hurdles. Assistive technology use in schools has surged, yet half of teacher...

The Education Brief: Wednesday 26 November 2025 - Top stories include: A school in Camden offers parents ‘attendance awareness courses’ instead of issuing fines, and three-quarters of participating families have seen attendance rise. Ofsted will resume routine inspections in state schools from 1 December. Male secondary headteachers earn £5,000 more a year than their female counterparts on average...

The Education Brief: Wednesday 19 November 2025 - Top stories include: Teacher wellbeing has hit a new low, according to Education Support’s latest Wellbeing Index. The government’s new AI-generated attendance reports have been pulled just days after launch. The DfE have named 36 new attendance and behaviour hub lead schools. Councils say the high-needs funding system is on the brink of “total col...

The Education Brief: Wednesday 12 November 2025 - Top stories include: Schools should appoint a named staff contact for families needing support with uniform costs. Ofsted has made last-minute changes to how performance data will be used. England still has 850 stand-alone trusts - with many untempted to join a MAT. RE will join the national curriculum, but only if the sector can reach consensus on...

The Education Brief: Wednesday 5 November 2025 - Top stories include: The DfE’s pitch to the STRB is a 6.5% teacher pay rise over three years. The NAO warns Labour’s SEND reforms must squarely tackle home-to-school transport. The DfE has lifted the lid on the Strategic School Improvement Capital Budget. School referrals to children’s social care hit a record in 2024–25, topping 130,000. Round Up f...

The Education Brief: Wednesday 22 October 2025 - Top stories include: Grammar schools surged to the top of this year’s GCSE league tables with schools now ranked by Attainment 8. In Parliament on Monday, the education secretary and her team answered MPs' questions. A new report warns “hundreds of millions of pounds” are being wasted on teacher development. The CST has called for Ofsted’s upcom...

The Education Brief: Wednesday 15 October 2025 - Top stories include: Ofsted’s top brass defended their new “report card” inspection system before MPs. ASCL is considering legal action against Ofsted over fears its “report card” inspection system could harm school leaders’ wellbeing. Three in four teachers say misogyny is now a major problem in schools. There has been a “vacuum of information” aro...

The Education Brief: Wednesday 8 October 2025 - Top stories include: Former Ofsted chief Amanda Spielman blasted the watchdog’s new “report card” reforms. The DfE has announced sweeping cuts to teacher-training bursaries from 2026. The government has commissioned new “best practice” guidance to help mainstream schools set up and run SEN and pupil support units. The DfE is scrapping funding for sta...

The Education Brief: Wednesday 1 October 2025 - Top stories include: Chancellor Rachel Reeves has pledged a library in every English primary school by 2029. Ofsted insists it can fund as many monitoring inspections its new ‘report card’ system will trigger. Teacher recruitment applications for training are up 10 per cent, but secondary recruitment will still fall 15 per cent short of target. An in...

The Education Brief: Monday 22 September 2025 - Top stories include: Just 11 per cent of 10,000 surveyed teachers feel positive about Ofsted’s new framework. Councils are accusing schools of shutting out vulnerable pupils during in-year moves. A Schools Week investigation has uncovered “serious concerns” over Catholic schools refusing places to children in care by prioritising those of their own f...

The Education Brief: Monday 15 September 2025 - Top stories include: The DfE has introduced a new accountability framework alongside Ofsted’s new toolkit. TES reports the hidden attendance crisis is internal truancy - pupils in school but not in lessons. The IFS calls England’s SEND system “broken” and warns that quick-fix reforms risk backlash. Education secretary Bridget Phillipson has entered t...

The Education Brief: Saturday 19 July 2025 - Top stories include: Ofsted will stagger the rollout of its new inspection framework this November. England’s school population will shrink by nearly 400,000 fewer pupils by 2030. The DfE’s latest annual report has escalated SEND cost pressures to a “major issue.” The digital divide between state schools and private schools has widened with AI. This wee...

The Education Brief: Saturday 12 July 2025 - Top stories include: SEND inspections are set for another overhaul following government reforms this autumn. Suspensions and exclusions in England’s state schools have hit record highs. School budgets have plunged deeper into deficit, with 10% relying on emergency financial support. School governors say finances have hit “breaking point” and are their n...

The Education Brief: Saturday 5 July 2025 - Top stories include: Nearly 100 AP settings may be operating illegally, a new investigation has found. Ofsted chief Sir Martyn Oliver is asking school leaders to reserve judgment until September. Ofqual is weighing potential action as concerns mount over AI’s impact on coursework integrity. One year into its government, Labour has made uneven progress on...

The Education Brief: Saturday 28 June 2025 - Top stories include: The government is preparing new guidance for handling school complaints. Analysis by NFER found early career bonuses had statistically insignificant impacts on keeping teachers in the classroom. The 2025 Academy Trust Handbook has landed with fresh rules for MAT leaders. Internal alternative provision in schools is on the rise, but...

The Education Brief: Saturday 21 June 2025 - Top stories include: Ninety-three educators received Silver Awards in the Pearson National Teaching Awards. The government will rebuild 250 more schools as part of a £20 billion programme expansion. Entries for GCSE statistics have nearly doubled since 2021. Pupils could lose up to 12 teaching days a year by 2100 due to climate change. This week’s deep...

The Education Brief: Saturday 14 June 2025 - Top stories include: Christine Gilbert set to be appointed Ofsted chair Stop Talking About Relevance in the Curriculum AI guidance for schools: 9 key findings for leaders This week’s deep dive:  WalkThrus London Conference 2025 We’ll also tell you what’s happening at HEP this week and what we’ve been watching, listening to, and reading! Watching - https...

The Education Brief: Saturday 7 June 2025 - Top stories include: Maths hubs funding drops (but DfE says it’s not a cut) Teacher supply: why 5 subjects face gloomier forecasts Schools risk ‘inadvertently’ breaking minimum wage law Popular schools should prioritise places for poorer pupils, says charity This week’s deep dive:  Schools and Academies Show 2025 We’ll also tell you what’s happening at H...

The Education Brief: Saturday 24 May 2025 - Top stories include: Teachers are set for a 4% pay rise from September. The STRB wants every school to publish a flexible working policy. The House of Lords is flooding the government’s schools bill with amendments. Ofsted is quietly overhauling the toolkits behind its upcoming ‘report card’ inspection system. This week’s deep dive:  The SEND System: Cri...

The Education Brief: Saturday 17 May 2025 - Top stories include: Labour has torn into the Conservatives’ £70 million SEND improvement plan for being too little. The government is merging its behaviour and attendance hubs into a single support scheme. School-based mental health teams will be expanded to nearly a million more pupils by 2026. SEND sport is getting a boost with a three-year extension...

The Education Brief: Saturday 10 May 2025 - Top stories include: Ofsted may delay its controversial school report card inspections until 2026. The government is shortening the postgraduate teaching apprenticeship from 12 to nine months. Funding for England’s acclaimed maths hubs will drop by 20% this September. 218 'stuck' schools will receive support from the newly expanded RISE teams. Th...

The Education Brief: Saturday 3 May 2025 - Top stories include: Trainee teacher numbers rise by 8%, with surges in STEM subjects like physics and computing. Education unions are taking the Teaching Regulation Agency to court. NAHT are taking Ofsted to court over its new inspection regime. Interim EHRC guidance ruled trans pupils must use toilets matching their biological sex. 82% of school leaders...

The Education Brief: Saturday 26 April 2025 - Top stories include: Teacher job adverts are down, and the education sector is bracing for a staffing squeeze. Pupil suspensions surged by 12% last spring, with the North East topping the exclusions charts. An Inspector Calls reigns supreme for literature GCSEs, but calls for change are growing louder. School budgets are under fresh strain as pay rises...

Welcome to HEP Talks: Roundtables, where we take the big questions in education to our member schools. In this second episode on Ofsted, we're diving into the recently proposed changes to the inspection framework—what they say, what they really mean, and whether they hit the mark. Joining us for this episode, we have: Jade-Simone Bacon, Headteacher at St Michael’s C.E. Primary School Lucy Walk...

The Education Brief: Saturday 5 April 2025 - Top stories include: Ofsted is considering renaming the proposed ‘secure’ grade on its five-point school report cards. A new trial suggests AI could “revolutionise” how student writing is assessed. Bridget Phillipson has called for more male teachers to act as role models for boys. The cost of repairing England’s crumbling school estate will exceed £13....