by Matt Bromley This article first appeared in The Yorkshire Post newspaper on 3 November 2026. Read the original here. Lucy Powell’s speech at the Confederation of School Trusts Conference on 15 October offered a welcome challenge to some of the assumptions that have long shaped English education. From classroom practice to qualification pathways, her… Read more

Why a child’s birth is too often their destiny by Matt Bromley In Book 1 in my Equity in Education series, I introduced readers to Thomas and Tommy, two 15-year-old boys who went to the same school but whose lives beyond the school gates were poles apart. I’d visited them both at home whilst they… Read more

by Matt Bromley This article first appeared in The Yorkshire Post newspaper on 20 October 2026. Read the original here. It seems ironic that when the number of students studying English at university is plummeting, we welcome Britain’s first PM to have done so. Undergraduate enrolments in English dropped by nearly a fifth between 2019… Read more

by Matt Bromley Education Secretary Lucy Powell gave a speech on 15 October 2026 in which she made a number of important policy announcements that, taken together, promise a broader, more inclusive education system, with greater emphasis on vocational education, speaking and communication skills, support for children with SEND, and a change in how schools… Read more

by Matt Bromley This article first appeared in The Yorkshire Post newspaper on 6 October 2026. Read the original here. Democracy depends on more than decoding words; it requires the ability to comprehend, question, and read between them.  Accordingly, one of the most important defences of democracy is sitting on your bookshelf. The National Literacy Trust’s… Read more

by Matt Bromley This article first appeared in The Yorkshire Post newspaper on 22 September 2026. Read the original here. About twenty years ago, I sat next to the actor and singer Jerome Flynn on a long-haul flight to Singapore. Flynn was enroute to a mindfulness retreat; I was hopping on a connecting flight to… Read more

by Matt Bromley The story so far… Those who know my work or are regular readers of this blog will be aware 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 is equity:… Read more

by Matt Bromley This article first appeared in The Yorkshire Post newspaper on 8 September 2026. Read the original here. A recent report by the Sutton Trust called Crossing Paths examines how socio-economic background, gender, ethnicity, and geography interact to shape educational achievement and labour market outcomes for disadvantaged young people in England.  The report argues that… Read more

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