Education secretary Bridget Phillipson took questions alongside schools minister Catherine McKinnell and early education minister Stephen Morgan in the 'Break Down Barriers to Opportunity' Mission debate in the House of Commons yesterday. Topics of discussion included the government's VAT on fees policy. special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) reform and the future of scholastic assessment tests (SATs). By Freddie Whittaker, Schools Week. 

During the debate, Conservative MP Andrew Snowden stated: "Many of my constituents want to know how on earth implementing an education tax on the independent school sector breaks down barriers to opportunity. It puts up those barriers for parents who have scrimped and saved to put their children through independent school. It is a policy of spite that will hurt the state school sector. What this government are doing is far from breaking down barriers; it is putting up barriers to aspiration." Responding, Ms Phillipson said: "This Labour government are aspirational and ambitious for all our children, including the vast majority of children who go to school in the state system. I was going to say that the Conservatives have not got much to say on education, and that is true, but the one policy that they actually have is to reverse the tax change that Labour has introduced in order to invest more in our state system. We need to hear from them where they would find the money to pay for the teachers and wider support that all our children deserve. Despite all the scaremongering that we have heard from the private schools lobby, at national offer day last week, more children got their first-choice place. What the scaremongers predicted has just not come to pass." Hansard.

George Watson's College is launching a fundraising appeal to help parents after an “unprecedented” drop in pupil numbers following the introduction of the government's VAT on fees policy. The school said 50 pupils had either left or decided not to join at the start of the 2024-25 academic year as a result of the tax policy and, as such, it plans to launch a fundraising appeal within the Watsonian community to support parents struggling with the current fee increases. Lisa Kerr, who became the school’s principal in 2024, said: "There will be significant negative consequences for all children, since many will be forced out of independent schools and already strained state schools will see an unexpected influx of pupils in underfunded classrooms where teacher recruitment is already a problem." She continued: "Adding VAT to that will push many families to breaking point so we will be launching a fundraising campaign to support our aim that no child should immediately have to leave Watson’s because of his new tax. I hope that many Watsonians will feel able to support that." Reference is made to the Scottish Council of Independent Schools (SCIS), which has warned that the tax policy could shrink the fee-paying sector by 13 per cent and leave 1,000 more pupils across Scotland relying on council-run services. By Jeremy Watson, The Times.

In a Topical Questions debate in the House of Commons, Reform UK MP Richard Tice asked ministers to confirm how many pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are forecast to have to leave the independent sector and move into state schools as a result of the VAT on fees policy, and at what cost to the taxpayer. Responding, Bridget Phillipson said: "Labour’s plans to end the tax breaks that private schools enjoy will invest significant money into state education. I am really surprised that the hon. Gentleman does not welcome the extra investment that will be going into schools in his constituency. When it comes to children with SEND, where the place is derived through an EHCP, there will be no additional cost. As I said earlier, the scaremongering that people like him have engaged in is just proving to be wrong."

Liberal Democrat MP Charlie Maynard submitted a written question in the House of Commons, asking what assessment has been made of the potential impact of VAT on school fees on military families. Minister for Veterans and People Al Carns responded, saying the Ministry of Defence acknowledges that frequent moves can disrupt the education of children of service personnel, and the Continuity of Education Allowance (CEA) aims to provide stability by covering the cost of education that might otherwise be unavailable in state schools. Mr Carns explained that termly rates of CEA are recalculated to account for changes to fees made by schools for the new academic year, with new rates to be calculated ahead of changes in school fees for this September. He concluded: "The single services will monitor the impact on retention in service for those claiming CEA following the introduction of VAT on independent school fees. The Pay and Allowances Casework and Complaints Cell (PACCC) will monitor the impact on service personnel changing schools and withdrawing from CEA." Hansard.

In a letter to The Times, Richard Willmott from Hereford criticises the Treasury for failing to recognise the broader benefits of music and warns against policies that could further undermine the arts. Highlighting the damaging impact of Labour’s VAT on fees policy, he writes: "At a time when Cardiff University is shutting its music department, choir schools are being hit with VAT payments on choristers’ fees and the government is considering compromising copyright laws for the benefit of US tech companies, it is important to recognise that music brings far more than solace." The letter appears below halfway.

Boys in England have widened their lead over girls in maths and science, according to analysis for the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) carried out by researchers at University College London (UCL). Challenging recent claims that boys are falling behind girls in school, the study found that boys in Year 5 and Year 9 in England "scored significantly higher than girls in maths and science" in recent international assessments, compared to those conducted before the pandemic. The UCL team added that the gender gap in England was the widest of any of the 72 countries to have taken part, including the US, Japan and Singapore. By Richard Adams, The Guardian.

Schools Week highlights eight key findings from the TIMSS report, including the warning that English teachers are more burdened by administrative tasks than their international counterparts.

Teaching has become more difficult due to a rise in children starting school with poor speech and language skills since the start of the pandemic, according to a poll by YouGov for GL Assessment. School staff also fear a lack of such skills are incorrectly identified as issues with maths or literacy, or as behaviour issues. Of the 1,201 teachers surveyed, 89 per cent reported a decline in speech and language skills since 2020, and of those, 92 per cent said this had made teaching more difficult. By Rhi Storer, Schools Week.

Writing in Schools Week, Felicity Gillespie, director of the charitable foundation Kindred Squared, explains how its new sector-led definition of school readiness aims to bridge the gap between teachers' expectations and parents' perceptions of their children's abilities. "The responsibility of preparing children for school sits with parents, but there’s much support to be had from a collaborative effort from all the trusted adults in a child’s life," she says.

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