Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, has gone back on a key element of her flagship pledge to recruit 6,500 "new" teachers, confirming not all will be new. The government's original promise to "recruit 6,500 new teachers in key subjects" was one of six "first steps for change". Mention of "key subjects" is also omitted from the target, which will instead focus on how much the workforce has grown overall, and will only apply to secondary and college teachers. By Lydia Chantler-Hicks, Schools Week.

Tes marks the first anniversary of Labour's return to government by evaluating how much progress has been made in the party's mission to "break down barriers to opportunity". The paper examines the status of each key pledge, including the VAT on fees policy. Labour's promise to "end the VAT exemption and business rates relief for private schools" was one of the first measures to go through after being included in the Finance Bill, and it was aimed at supporting education pledges – including the 6,500 new teachers. Reference is made to the legal challenge brought by families and independent schools. By Cerys Turner, Ramsay Hodgson, Jasmine Norden, Charlotte Santry and John Roberts. John Dickens has written a piece looking back at Labour's first year in power, which also references the VAT on fees policy, in Schools Week.

During a debate in the House of Commons on music education, Conservative MP Neil O'Brien referenced the government's pledge to top up Music and Dance Scheme bursaries for musically gifted young people, so "the effect of the VAT increase on independent schools was counteracted", noting that doing so "would mean that things would remain unchanged for the rest of the 2024-25 academic year". Questioning ministers on their intentions for future academic years, Mr O'Brien said: "The next academic year is looming, and I am keen to understand from the minister whether that decision will stand for all future academic years and in particular for the one coming up." Responding, schools minister Catherine McKinnell acknowledged the value of specialist training in helping young people reach advanced levels in music education, and said ministers are committing £36 million in 2025-26 to support access to specialist music and dance education. Ms McKinnell added: "This important scheme provides means-tested bursaries and grants to enable high-achieving children and young people in music and dance to benefit from truly world-class specialist training, regardless of their personal and financial circumstances. The scheme supports students to attend eight independent schools and 20 centres for advanced training that provide places at weekends and evenings and in the school holidays. The bursaries support more than 2,000 pupils per year, with about 900 pupils attending one of the schools."

In a written question in the House of Commons, Conservative MP Damian Hinds asked the education secretary whether the fall in the number of children at independent schools was in line with ministers' projections. Schools minister Stephen Morgan replied: "Pupil numbers remain firmly within expectations and higher than 2021/22. As a percentage of the overall school population, private school pupils have remained the same, at 6.5 per cent. It has been between six per cent and seven per cent for the last two decades." Hansard.

Reforming England’s schools to take more children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) will require complex and detailed changes to how they run, according to a review from the Department for Education’s (DfE) expert advisory group on inclusion. Although the review identified a number of examples where schools had accommodated a wide range of pupils with SEND, it also highlighted that, in some cases, complex operational changes are needed, which include staff training, extended parent engagement, and collaboration with external agencies such as local authorities and the NHS. By Richard Adams, The Guardian.

Sir Martyn Oliver, the chief inspector of Ofsted, has said homes come with a premium if they are situated near high-achieving schools, especially those rated "outstanding" under the watchdog's current framework. However, he suggested this was likely to shift when one-word Ofsted ratings are replaced with more "nuanced" report cards from November, which will provide schools with colour-coded rankings across 10 separate inspection categories. Sir Martyn said the inspections reform would pose a challenge for property platforms such as Rightmove, which show house-hunters the Ofsted ratings of local schools. By Poppy Wood, The Telegraph.

Writing in Tes, Lyndsey Hayes, an A-level psychology teacher at Westminster Tutors, outlines the benefits of a community of practice approach to CPD. "According to theorists Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger, a community of practice is a group of people with a shared professional interest or area of concern, who regularly interact to share knowledge, advice on best practice and new solutions to problems," Ms Hayes explains. Describing some of the advantages of this approach, which "often leads to unconscious shared learning", she notes that such communities enable staff to draw on the expertise of colleagues both in related disciplines and those in higher education.

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