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

This is an edited version of an article that appeared in The Yorkshire Post on 21 April 2026 in which Matt Bromley argues that it’s getting harder to separate fact from fiction… There’s a famous actor who lives near me. You’ll have seen him on TV. He usually plays villains – gangsters, bent coppers, murderers. I once… Read more

This article was written exclusively for this blog by Matt Bromley. Matt offers various training courses on attendance, as well as school improvement advisory services. Find out more about him here. NEW! Watch our free short-form video ‘Every Day Counts‘ and share it with your school community. Why attendance is everyone’s responsibility – and what… Read more

This is an edited version of an article that appeared in The Yorkshire Post on 7 April 2026 in which Matt Bromley cautions against becoming enslaved to AI… I long ago left Twitter – partly to protest Elon Musk’s attempts to derail UK democracy and partly to protect my ears from the echo chamber of right-wing culture… Read more

This is an edited version of an article that appeared in The Yorkshire Post on 10 March 2026 in which Matt Bromley shares his love of a traditional pub and the tales that are told there… I love a traditional pub – you know the sort: horse brasses on the walls, exposed beams on the ceiling, a… Read more

This is an edited version of an article that appeared in The Yorkshire Post on 27 March 2026 in which Matt Bromley argues that equality, diversity, and inclusion are the cornerstones of a fair and thriving society… Whenever I pop to one of my local pubs, I doff my cap at the house opposite whose provenance is… Read more