Category Archives: teaching

This is an edited version of an article that appeared in The Yorkshire Post on 7 March 2025 in which Matt Bromley argues that ethnic attainment gaps are the result of intersectional factors… A multi-ethnic team of academics from Durham and Birmingham universities have found that poverty and special educational needs (SEND), rather than ethnicityContinue reading “Is ethnicity an issue in education?”

This is an edited version of an article that first appeared in SecEd Magazine on 5 March 2025. Over the course of five articles, I’m going to explore inclusion and belonging, focusing on three areas of professional practice to help us achieve this in our classrooms. Those areas are: The 3Rs of inclusive lesson planningContinue reading “Inclusive planning, teaching, and assessment”

This is an edited version of an article that appeared in The Yorkshire Post on 9 February 2025 in which Matt Bromley cautiously welcomes Ofsted‘s focus on inclusion… Earlier this month, Ofsted published proposals for a new system of inspection for schools and other education settings. Partly in response to the tragic death of headteacherContinue reading “Is Ofsted on the right track?”

When I started writing Why School Doesn’t Work for Every Child in the spring of 2024, I did so out of anger and frustration. In the UK, where I live and work, 4.3 million children were living in relative poverty – the highest number on record. 3.6 million children were living in absolute poverty, 2.2Continue reading “Why School Doesn’t Work for Every Child”

This is an edited version of an article that appeared in The Yorkshire Post on 28 January 2025 in which Matt Bromley argues the SEND system isn’t working and needs urgent reform… There is growing consensus among policymakers, professionals, and parents that the SEND system is buckling under the weight of growing demand, funding pressures,Continue reading “Is the SEND system broken?”

This is an edited version of an article that appeared in The Yorkshire Post on 18 September 2024 in which Matt Bromley argues every day in school must count… The Labour government elected on 4 July acknowledged the need to transform the education system so that young people got the opportunities they deserved. In anContinue reading “Why every day in school must count”

This is the third in a 3-part series first published in SecEd Magazine. Read part 1 and part 2. So far in this series, we’ve explored the features of effective governance and governing body structures. In the final part, we will explore two aspects to governors’ evaluative role: Evaluating governance: Self-review The new governance guideContinue reading “Effective school governance: 3 Evaluation and assessment”

This is the second in a 3-part series first published in SecEd Magazine. Read part 1. In the first of these three articles on effective governance, I explained that school leaders need to develop good working relationships with governors, especially the chairs of the various governors’ committees through which important information can be fed, and theContinue reading “Effective school governance: 2 Making use of link governors”

This is the first in a 3-part series first published in SecEd Magazine. The new Department for Education governance guides, which recently replaced the governance handbook, serve as the primary source of governance information. There are two versions, one for maintained schools and one for academies (DfE, 2024). In this series, for ease and concision,Continue reading “Effective school governance: 1 Duties, processes and structures”

This is the fifth in a 5-part series first published in SecEd Magazine. Read part 1 here, part 2 here, part 3 here, and part 4 here. This is the final instalment of my five-part series in which I am sharing my ABC of equity in education. A stands for attendance, B stands for behaviours,Continue reading “The ABC of Equity 5: C is for community”