Steve Besley's Education Eye: week ending 04 July 2025

What's happened this week?

Important stories across the board:

One year on from that landslide election victory and time to take stock.

For education, the story is a mixed picture depending on your point of view.

On the plus side, a ‘reset’ with teachers, increased support for children and families with breakfast clubs and school-based nurseries, funding for 16-19 yr olds, an inflation rise for university tuition fees and maintenance loans, are among the positives generally cited.

On the down side, a lot of issues have been shunted to the second half of the year and could yet make things more tricky.

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, yet to complete its passage through parliament, may prove to be one but arguably five big issues stand out.

First, of course, SEND reform, now positioned as part of a Schools White Paper due this autumn, potentially made more difficult by the budget shortfall left from the abortive welfare reforms, and according to the county councils network this week, ‘a reform that government can ill-afford to get wrong.’

Second, the Curriculum and Assessment Review (CAR,) set up over a year ago and with high expectations continuing to ride on it. Its interim report, issued earlier this year, identified four key areas for further review including subject balance, future skill needs, attainment gaps and post-16 tech options. Each huge.

Third, a reformed inspection system, currently due to be introduced from this November but facing calls for a delay from unions and with continuing concerns about the model. A system struggling to secure an agreed way forward.

Fourth, skills, facing a further reset of the system as it attempts to balance local need with central planning but in the context now of what the Resolution Foundation and others have called ‘a cooling labour market.’ Again a White Paper is set for this autumn but the big challenge is youth unemployment both among 16/17 yr olds and graduates. According to Youth Employment UK, ‘the current youth unemployment rate for 16-24 yr olds is 14.2%.’ What price the youth guarantee?

And fifth, and never far away at present given the constant drumbeat of a sector in financial crisis, higher education. According to the OfS 43% of universities in England are set to be in financial deficit by this summer. Is it just down to a fall in international students or is the current market model no longer working? Universities UK’s Taskforce has recently put forward some options for the future leaving the government with some big calls as part of its promised review.

Back to more immediate matters and to what’s been happening across education this week.

In schools, with exam results days now just six weeks away, Ofqual sent out its regular reminder of how the current grading system for GCSEs and A levels operates.

In its words, “even if you understand, it can still be a hard process to explain to someone else.”  

Helpfully it all comes now with a grading toolkit, video explainer and handy chart for those still struggling to match the old GCSE lettering system with the current numbering scale.

One of the many things people look out for on results days is whether there’ve been any changes in subject trends.

When it comes to languages, the British Council’s annual survey report on language trends in English schools, the latest version of which was published this week, is a useful scene setter.

Spanish tops the bill at GCSE although many employers it seems value German speakers. And at A level, a concern is small classes with fears for their future. “A way to build capacity in MFL at A-level needs to be urgently found,” the report argues.

Overall, and an important message in the report, is the lack of provision in more deprived areas. “A clear gap in language learning linked to socioeconomic background,” the report explains.

Teacher recruitment seems to be part of the problem with schools in more deprived areas hit hardest.

Talking of teacher recruitment, the Teaching Commission set up to look at that and other matters around the profession, published its recommendations in a report this week.

There’s plenty of them. Some are wide ranging such as looking at school policies and cultures and not all are new, such as the proposal to create a new role of ‘expert teacher’ but as ASCL concluded, “the recommendations made here are numerous and complex, but represent change of the magnitude required to safeguard the teaching profession for the future.”

Elsewhere the Local Government Association (LGA) highlighted the rising costs to councils of SEND home – school transport, fuelled partly by rising demand and partly by a lack of local facilities.

The average one-way trip apparently is some nine miles and the average cost per child, per year is £8,900.

In other news, the Education Secretary called for more young people to have children to help stem ‘the plummeting birthrate.’ Support for children is “my number one priority” she said, promising help with reading, childcare and even breastfeeding among other things.  

And in a turn up for the books, chewing gum has been found to have beneficial effects for learners.

In research quoted in Teacher Toolkit, “Neuroimaging data indicate that chewing gum reliably engages broad sensorimotor circuits while also influencing regions tied to attention, stress regulation, and possibly memory. Incredible!”

Stick that on the desk and chew it or something!

In FE, the Education Policy Institute published some initial findings from Its Nuffield sponsored study into student choices and systems at age 16.

Better options for lower-achieving students, the need for greater mix and match and the importance of English and maths all remain key issues, it seems.

There’ve been lots of reviews and analysis into this stage of leaning in the past and as indicated earlier, it pops up as one of the outstanding challenges for the curriculum and assessment review.

The EPI is planning a major report on the matter early next year but expect to hear more in the coming months as the debate around the famed balanced curriculum hots up.

The EPI this week also looked at the long standing issue of English and maths GCSE resits and what might up drive up success here.

Prior performance, a dedicated staff team, ‘a selective approach to November resits’ and individual learner demographics all appear to be factors. “Male students,” for instance, “perform significantly better on maths resits and female students perform better on English resits.”

The report makes a number of useful recommendations including a more progressive assessment model, taking time to build support systems for learners and introducing a 16-19 premium.

The AoC agreed. “We urge policy makers to work with the whole sector and awarding bodies to design a motivating curriculum and qualification which allow students to show what they can do and demonstrate success.”

Elsewhere, the government published the latest progress reports from the various local skills improvement plans (LSIP) across different regions of the country.

They offer a valuable insight into the enormous range of activity, employers, providers and other bodies now involved in local skills planning and delivery.

To take just one example, Greater Manchester (GM.) “The GM LSIP identified several sectoral priorities, recommending construction, digital and technology, and health and social care, amongst others, for focused skills development. By combining sector specific priorities with broader areas for action - such as leadership and management, essential workplace skills, requisite literacy and numeracy, and basic awareness of net zero and sustainability - the GM LSIP outlines a comprehensive set of recommendations crucial for workforce development.”

Each report comes with lots of lists, plans and roadmaps maps for those keen to see how things are progressing in their region. It feels like a national endeavour.

In a similar vein, City and Guilds called for ‘urgent action’ to tackle skills shortages in the construction sector. “ We need a fundamental reset in how we attract, train, and upskill talent across the construction sector.”

And the Gatsby Foundation reported on some of the many ifs and buts involved in developing successful foundation apprenticeship programmes, not least putting together ‘a compelling offer’ and getting everyone on board. “Traineeships,” it said pointedly, “offer a crucial lesson.”

On to HE which this week saw two notable reports, one on the life and times of current students and the other on international students.

The former came from the UPP Foundation as part of its year-long inquiry into student access and opportunity, particularly as the cost of living continues to bite.

It featured students in Nottingham for whom it was often a case of financial survival while focusing on securing a degree.

Some resorted to becoming commuter students, most cut down on other activities. “With everything costing more and more now, if it was between hanging out with friends or getting a shift at work, I’d always take a shift at work.”

As earlier surveys from both HEPI and Wonkhe have found, a different university experience is emerging for many. The battle is to avoid it becoming ‘a them and us’ model.

A final report is set for later this year along with a list of recommendations.

The other report on international students came from the Policy Exchange think tank which argued that ‘the current model of international student migration isn’t working.’

In their headline view, ”universities should be selling education not immigration.”

They proposed raising the bar on English language requirements, restricting the graduate route to postgrads and imposing a £1,000 levy on international students ‘as a condition of their visa.’

Some of the media agreed while university groupings such as Universities UK pointed to babies and bathwaters.

Links to most of these stories below, starting with the week’s headlines.

The top headlines of the week:

• ‘Number of UK entry-level jobs has dived since ChatGPT launch, research’ (Monday)
• ‘Fewer pupils in less affluent English schools taking languages, survey finds’ (Tuesday)
• ‘Council spending on SEND home – school transport soars’ (Wednesday)
• ‘Starmer’s next fight with his MPs: special needs funding in schools’ (Thursday)
• ‘More jobs at risk as universities gear up to fight student levy’ (Friday)

General:

• Parental leave. The government announced a detailed review of parental leave and pay which will run for 18 months, look at the various types of leave available and provide a ‘roadmap for a better system for the future.’
• Employment Rights. The government set out a roadmap for implementing the Employment Rights Bill with a staggered series of consultations on for example protections from unfair dismissal from day 1 running through from this summer to early next year and with likely implementation of this and other measures, including on flexible working, running through to 2027.
• Jobcentres. The Public Accounts Committee raised concerns about poor claimant support and a reduction in the number of work coaches as it published the results of its Inquiry into jobcentres, calling among other things for the DWP to publish an impact assessment of its reforms to the employment support system within six months as it looks to achieve an 80% employment rate.
• Economic Outlook. The ONS published its assessment of the UK economy for the first three months of this year, pointing to a slight improvement on the previous quarter in terms of growth but a ‘cooling’ of the labour market and a widening of  the deficit.
• Another Economic Survey. The Institute of Directors (IoD) published its latest Economic Confidence Index indicating falls in confidence across most measures including headcount, investment intentions and revenue expectations.
• Bare necessities. The Resolution Foundation examined the gap between rich and poor when it comes to spending on essentials such as food, energy and transport, noting that the poorest working-age households now spend around a half of their budgets after housing on such essentials while richer households spend just under 40%, calling for more to be done to help poorer households with energy costs.
• Low wellbeing. Pro Bono Economics published the second in its ‘state of the nation’ reports, looking on this occasion at what comprises a decent life and finding some 5% of adults falling into ‘wellbeing poverty’ driven by poor mental health, loneliness and issues with renting, calling for such issues to become government priorities.

HE:

• Student lives. The UPP Foundation published the latest in its series looking into the impact of the cost of living on the student experience, finding many facing a difficult balancing act between study, the need for p/t work and engaging in the wider student experience, with money worries a constant factor.
• International students. The Policy Exchange think tank raised concerns about the UK’s current international student regime, suggesting its profit-ratio in some cases was poor and the danger of ‘crowding out’ some UK students was real, calling for the graduate visa route to be restricted to postgrads and a levy imposed on foreign students. 
• Digital challenges. JISC highlighted some of the digital challenges, including licensing restrictions and connectivity issues, facing students and staff involved in transnational education in the first of two planned reports on the matter.

Tweets and posts of note:

• “I'm actually getting a little bit anxious about the temperature in my classroom tomorrow. 33°C + 32 children + a single fan that has to be pointed at the students so I'll just get the hot rear end” -@MBDscience.
• “Years ago, phones became ubiquitous in schools. It's only recently that the idea of a "phone free" school is mainstream. I'm pretty sure we're going the same way with AI. It is becoming ubiquitous, but regret will come, and schools will eventually move to being "AI free” -@adamboxer1.
• ““An advantage of knowledge-rich curricula over skills-based ones that I haven't seen discussed much is with the former students can see they are making progress—they know things they formerly didn't. When students see they are making progress they are more likely to invest effort” -@dylanwiliam.
• “Is it terrible that I might do a proper maths lesson with my new class tomorrow? I don’t like all the filler activities and would much rather teach a proper lesson” -@DeputyGrocott.
• “Working hours have fallen year-on-year across #teaching – but they are still running at around 48 hours a week for #teachers & more than 56 hours a week for school leaders” -@SecEd_Education.
• “I actually think if AI does automate academic research and everyone forgets how to read and write a useful function of universities could be just to ensure there are still a few people alive who can still understand Bleak House or Jane Eyre or whatever” -@j_amesmarriott.
• “Parallel lines are so alike… Shame they’ll never meet” -@Nat_Numeracy.

A selection of quotes that merit attention:

• “One in three dads don’t take paternity leave because they can’t afford to, and take-up of shared parental leave remains very low” – the government announces a review of parental leave.
• “I think most people are approaching this with trepidation. Once they start [using AI], it turns to exhilaration, because it is a lot more straightforward than people realise, and it is far more rewarding than people expect” – the Tech Secretary on getting to grips with AI.
• “I’ve had a job this whole time, and I find that when I need more money and I pick up more shifts, it just comes out of my social life, because I’m going to do uni in the day… I miss out to make money” – Nottingham undergraduates tell UPP researchers how they balance the cost of living with university life.
• “One thing particularly we found works … is that they're [students] given the opportunity to enter with the awarding body, the exam board, that they sat with in their school. So we don't do that for the Summer entry point, but for November, we do. And I think we found that to be quite impactful” – practitioners reflect on how to make GCSE Eng/maths resits more positive in a report for the Education Policy Institute.
• “I continue to be concerned about small MFL classes not running at A-level” – the British Council reports on language trends in schools in England.
• “It often surprises people when I say that I started out as an art teacher, in 1995” – the chief inspector addresses the annual Festival of Education and gets personal about the importance of schools and teachers.
• “It is difficult to imagine how every teacher can become a SEND teacher – a teacher who can meet all those complex needs – within our current educational system” – unions express concerns about alleged government plans for all teachers to be trained in SEND.
• “It now takes 10 newly qualified teachers to replace every 7 more experienced teachers who leave teaching” – the Teaching Commission reports on the challenges in teacher recruitment and retention.
• “The style experts seem to agree that for men, an inch or two above the knee is ideal – and the more tailored the better” – guidance this week for men seeking to wear shorts to work.

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Steve Besley

Disclaimer: Education Eye is intended to help colleagues keep up to date with national developments in the education sector. Information is correct at the time of writing and is offered in good faith. No liability is accepted by Steve Besley or EdCentral for decisions made on the basis of any information provided.