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

This is one of two related blogs. In this post, we explore the changes to the guides for inspectors announced for September 2026. Here, we explore the changes to the inspection toolkit. In June 2026, in light of lessons learned during the early implementation stages of the new framework, Ofsted published updates to their inspection… 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