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The updated Ofsted inspection toolkit signals 6 changes coming into effect this September… 1. Stronger focus on inclusion in practice The September 2026 toolkit places greater emphasis on: What this means Inspectors are likely to look beyond compliance and ask: For many schools this represents a move from discussing SEND provision (that action they take)… Read more

Here’s the lowdown on the 7 most significant changes to the Ofsted inspection guides that come into effect from September 2026…  1. Greater scrutiny of governance and trust oversight The new Ofsted guide gives inspectors clearer expectations about engaging with: There is a stronger emphasis on understanding how governance and delegated responsibilities operate in practice,… Read more

This is an edited version of an article that appeared in The Yorkshire Post on 16 June 2026 in which Matt Bromley says Alan Milburn is right about the role schools must play in preparing young people for life beyond the school gates… Alan Milburn thinks our school system is “exam-obsessed” and is leaving young people unprepared for work. He’s not alone. In… Read more

This is an edited version of an article that appeared in The Yorkshire Post on 2 June 2026 in which Matt Bromley argues that more strategic investment is needed to prepare the UK for the impact of continued climate change… Last weekend I had my first water fight in decades. It wasn’t a fair fight: my wife… Read more

By Matt Bromley First published 4 June 2026; updated with reference to Ofsted’s amended toolkits on 19 June 2026. In November 2025, a word was added to the Ofsted inspection toolkit that school leaders would do well to hunt down. That word is “typically” and it appears in the ‘expected standard’ for achievement. There’s another… Read more

By Matt Bromley Alan Milburn, who’s been tasked by the Department for Work and Pensions with tackling a growth in the number of young people aged 16-24 not in education, employment, or training, has just published his interim report entitled Young People and Work. It’s a diagnostic report not a set of policy proposals and, as… Read more

By Matt Bromley I was in my final year of university when New Labour swept to power. I returned home to vote in my first ever General Election and remember staying up late to watch the results on TV.  The sight of Tony Blair and his entourage entering Downing Street the next morning, union flags… Read more

by Matt Bromley This article first appeared in SecEd on 20 May 2026. Read the original here. Writing sits at the intersection of thinking, communication, and assessment; it is both the means through which students demonstrate what they know and a powerful mechanism for deepening that knowledge. Yet in many secondary schools, writing remains fragmented… Read more

This is an edited version of an article that appeared in The Yorkshire Post on 19 May 2026 in which Matt Bromley argues that society is sustained by the cumulative weight of small, everyday acts of consideration … Marathons are having a moment. You’ll have heard the news that Kenyon athlete Sebastian Sawe broke the two-hour barrier… Read more

This is an edited version of an article that appeared in The Yorkshire Post on 5 May 2026 in which Matt Bromley argues that Starmer is wrestling with inherited dysfunction… I write these columns a couple of weeks before they’re published. Commenting on politics is therefore an act of faith because it’s hard to know how the… Read more

by Matt Bromley This article first appeared in SecEd on 14 April 2026. Read the original here. It’s that time of year again when rows of desks are stationed like toy soldiers on parade in school halls up and down the land. More than a million students in England sit exams each year, equating to… Read more

This is an edited version of an article that appeared in The Yorkshire Post on 28 April 2026 in which Matt Bromley argues that prevention is better than cure when it comes to reducing the number of young people not in education, employment, or training… I chaired a roundtable recently on the subject of NEET – the… Read more