Jasmine Norden

Government rejects Derbyshire mum's fine-free school absences bid Natalie Elliot wants changes to the rules but a minister says the UK is facing an

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Ex-DfE permanent secretary: School system consistently failing poorest pupils Former DfE permanent secretary Jonathan Slater suggests replacing current Ofsted inspections with a new accountability system for schools

Spoke to former DfE permanent secretary Jonathan Slater about his recommendations to improve outcomes for disadvantaged pupils www.standard.co.uk/news/politic...

Phillipson: Disengaged boys vulnerable to ‘dark forces whispering poison’ online Speaking at a conference, the Education Secretary warned some children disengaged from school feel ‘not supported but betrayed’

Strong words from the education secretary at @cstvoice.bsky.social conference today www.the-independent.com/news/uk/home...

www.itv.com/news/2025-10...

Revealed: the rise in violent incidents in schools Tes investigation leads to warning that teachers and pupils need ‘urgent help’ to deal with rising levels of violence

A @tesmagazine.bsky.social investigation by @jasminenorden.bsky.social into the rise of violent incidents causing injuries to pupils and staff. www.tes.com/magazine/new...

Universities cannot return to what they looked like in the 2010s, says Kyle Speaking at the Universities UK conference, the technology secretary said too many universities are competing for the same pool of students.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

Is Jonathan Haidt right about smartphones? In ‘The Anxious Generation’, Haidt makes the case that social media and smartphones have ‘rewired’ today’s teenagers, but his critics say the evidence tells us something very different - and that bann...

📢Is Jonathan Haidt right about smartphones and screens?

Months of research and interviews (including with Haidt) went into this investigation.

Critics are clear Haidt has gone beyond the data; he says he's speaking the truth.

You decide who's right.

www.tes.com/magazine/tea...

Burden placed on teachers has ‘never been higher’, union warns The Association of School and College Leaders has called for a rethink of the expectations on schools and colleges.

“More needs to be done to clearly distinguish where the core responsibilities of education staff start and end,” says @ascl-uk.bsky.social www.standard.co.uk/news/politic...

Warning poorer pupils are ‘bounced out of GCSE subjects’ by costs More than a quarter of FSM students (27%) said it is difficult for them to afford musical instruments or music lessons

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

Today is my first day at PA, where I'll be covering as education correspondent while @eleanorbusby.bsky.social is on maternity leave! Drop me a line on jasmine.norden@pa.media

Thank you Sam!

Thank you Emma!!

Will miss you John!

Thank you Jon!!

Incredibly grateful to all my colleagues at Tes for being so lovely to work with and to everyone in the sector who has chatted with me over the past couple of years - please stay in touch!

Big news - today is my last day at @tesmagazine.bsky.social after 2 years and 500+ stories! I am very sad to be leaving such a great team, but I'll still be covering education so not going far (more on that next week)

Must read thread capturing all of @jasminenorden.bsky.social's brilliant coverage of GCSE results day today for @tesmagazine.bsky.social

Worth bearing in mind this cohort were in year 6 when the pandemic hit and their transition to secondary was impacted - congrats again to everyone who got their results today and to all the teachers too!

One we can particularly see this in is languages here

How did each GCSE subject perform in 2025? While maths and English saw a small drop in those achieving a grade 4, many other subjects had slightly better results than last year

And if we look on a subject by subject basis, we also see a fairly steady picture, though with the notable exceptions of English language and maths many subjects saw small upticks in performance www.tes.com/magazine/new...

The gap between state and private schools has remained relatively similar to last year

The gender gap also reached its narrowest point this century, though changes are small and girls remain ahead

- Girls saw a small drop in their proportion of grade 4s and above, while boys remained steady
- Boys saw a slight increase in top grades, while girls saw a tiny fall

In other news, there was a slight narrowing of the regional divide this year

Regardless of the stability in age groups @pepediiasio.bsky.social said today the low rates for getting a grade 4 among those resitting shows the policy is "utterly demoralising", and urged the curriculum review to consider this

And the graph here shows the trend for all entries in maths

➗For those aged 17+, pass rate fell slightly to 17.1% from 17.4%
➗For 16y/os, it barely changed - from 72% last year to 71.9%

These trends seem to be driven by the increase in the number of 17+y/os resitting, rather than a significant performance drop from an age group

📚 In English language, the pass rate stayed steady at 20.9% for 17+ y/os
📚For 16y/os, it fell slightly to 70.6% from 71.2% last year

GCSE results 2025: Small drop again in English and maths pass rates This year’s GCSE results show stable pass rates and top grade proportions for a cohort that transitioned to secondary during the pandemic

Meanwhile, as @ocrexams.bsky.social said today, the proportion of English and maths resit entries is at an "all-time high", and we can see both English language and maths have seen a slight decline in pass rates this year www.tes.com/magazine/new...

Very small changes in overall grade proportions:

7️⃣ 21.8% of entries awarded grade 7 or above (21.7% last year)
4️⃣ 67.1% of entries awarded grade 4 or above (67.4% last year)

Congratulations to everyone who got their GCSE results this morning! Grades were fairly stable compared with last year, but a few trends to keep an eye on.

Here's everything you need to know from @tesmagazine.bsky.social 🧵

GCSE exams hit by February cyberattack Exam papers from two boards were affected, but Ofqual says students can have ‘full confidence’ in their results this year

Amid all the results news - Ofqual has declined to divulge further details on the impact of this attack today www.tes.com/magazine/new...