Category Archives: teaching

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. InContinue reading “Schools need to prepare students, not just for exams, but for life and work”

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 wifeContinue reading “Record temperatures reveal broken infrastructure”

By Matt Bromley In November 2025 a word was added to the Ofsted inspection toolkit that school leaders would do well to hunt down and capture. That word is “typically” and it appears in the ‘expected standard’ for achievement. There’s another word tucked away nearby – “broadly” – which is similarly worthy of annotation. UnderlineContinue reading “Typical Ofsted: How to evidence achievement beyond test scores”

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, asContinue reading “Not so NEET: What Alan Milburn’s report means for schools”

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 flagsContinue reading “Oh Tony, we’re not in 1997 anymore.”

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 fragmentedContinue reading “How to embed writing across the secondary school curriculum”

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 barrierContinue reading “The Boston marathon provides a parable for our troubled times”

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 theContinue reading “Is Starmer the worst PM in history?”

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 toContinue reading “How to invigilate exams”

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 – theContinue reading “Prevention is better than cure when it comes to reducing NEETs”