by Matt Bromley This article first appeared in The Yorkshire Post newspaper on 25 August 2026. Read the original here. In a recent documentary marking a decade since Brexit, Nigel Farage – who, at time of writing, is fighting a by-election with a bin to dodge public scrutiny about this finances – was asked if… Read more

by Matt Bromley The story so far… Those familiar with my work and regular readers of this blog will know that the fuel that lights my fire is inclusion. In all I do, my objective is ensuring every child gets a fair chance in school and in later life. The key to this is equity:… Read more

by Matt Bromley This article first appeared in The Yorkshire Post newspaper on 11 August 2026. Read the original here. Dear Lucy Powell,  Congratulations on being appointed Secretary of State for Education by our new Prime Minister. What an honour! You have accepted a busy brief and will no doubt be bombarded with suggestions on… Read more

by Matt Bromley On a recent trip to York I ventured into the Poetry Pharmacy, an intriguing new shop on Coney Street. Its premise is simple yet profound: rather than prescribing pills to alleviate ailments, they dispense verse. As well as traditional volumes of poetry, there are rows of pill bottles containing lines from poems… Read more

by Matt Bromley This article first appeared in The Yorkshire Post newspaper on 14 July 2026. Read the original here. When I talk to teachers about curriculum planning, I suggest they start at the end: what knowledge do they want pupils to acquire, retain, and apply – not just in exams, but in 5, 10,… Read more

by Matt Bromley Those who know my work or are regular readers of this blog will be aware that my (forgive the cliché) passion – the fuel that lights my fire – is inclusion. Put another way, the overriding objective in all I do is ensuring every child gets a fair chance in school and… Read more

by Matt Bromley This article first appeared in SecEd on 30 June 2026. Read the original here. For years, many of us have argued that what happens beyond the core curriculum – extra-curricular clubs, visits and visitors, careers education, personal development – is not an add-on but an essential part of school because it helps… Read more

by Matt Bromley This article first appeared in SecEd‘s ECT supplement on 10 June 2026. The most effective teachers understand that what happens routinely matters more than what happens occasionally; that consistency trumps intensity; and that culture is built not through grand gestures but through repeated, deliberate practice. As such, at the start of your… Read more

by Matt Bromley This article first appeared in SecEd‘s ECT supplement on 10 June 2026. Behaviour management is often the defining challenge of the first few years in the classroom. It can feel relentless, unpredictable, and, at times, personal. Yet, effective behaviour management is neither about personality nor power; rather, it’s about systems, habits, and… Read more

by Matt Bromley This article first appeared in SecEd on 17 June 2026. Read the original here. Key stage 3 can feel like the least clearly defined phase of education. It sits between the nurturing familiarity of primary school and the high-stakes pressure of GCSEs. It can be tempting to view it merely as preparation… Read more

by Matt Bromley This article first appeared in SecEd on 16 June 2026. Read the original here. Few issues in education currently command such widespread attention as school attendance. Once regarded as a relatively stable metric – only impacted by seasonal illness, family circumstance, and the occasional unauthorised holiday – attendance has, since the pandemic,… Read more

This is one of two related blogs. In this post, we explore changes to the inspection toolkit that take effect in September 2026. Here, we explore the 7 main changes to the guides for inspectors. The updated Ofsted inspection toolkit signals 6 changes coming into effect this September… 1. Stronger focus on inclusion in practice… Read more