Bristol Council has highlighted "serious concerns" over Catholic schools lowering the importance of looked-after children in admissions after a young person in care was turned down for a place at the school considered "most appropriate" by their social worker, a Schools Week investigation has revealed. The paper's analysis suggests schools in at least seven dioceses now give priority to children of their faith ahead of non-religious pupils in care. The Office of the Schools Adjudicator, the admissions watchdog, commented that only "a small number of local authorities" had raised the matter, describing it as a "localised problem, but a persistent one". By Jack Dyson.

Writing in Schools Week, Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), welcomes this week's report on special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) from the Commons Education Select Committee. Urging ministers to "adopt many if not all the recommendations in it", Mr Kebede warns that the key challenge will be funding. "Is Rachel Reeves prepared to find the resources necessary to successfully implement SEND reform?" he asks.

Oxford and Cambridge have fallen out of the top three in The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide’s ranking for the first time. The London School of Economics (LSE) has been placed first for the second year running, followed by the University of St Andrews in second place and Durham University in third. By Nicola Woolcock, The Times. 

Durham University has climbed 30 places on students' evaluation of teaching quality to claim the title of The Times and The Sunday Times University of the Year 2026. By Zoe Thomas and Nick Rodrigues, The Times.

An accompanying article offers students advice on how to become a doctor, by Julie Henry and Katherine Fidler, while another looks at the rise of undergraduates paying £90 an hour for private tuition, by Louise Eccles. Some of the best bursaries and scholarships are also outlined in a piece helping students looking for financial support, by Cara Treacy, Olivia Herneman and Mashaal Hussain. The Times.

Brighton College has announced it is opening schools in Spain and Italy to cater to families leaving the UK and seeking a British education abroad. The school said its schools in Madrid, Rome and Lisbon would be open from September 2027 for boys and girls aged three to 18, with admissions opening from next January. It is also considering an outpost in Milan. Speaking to The Times, Richard Cairns, principal at Brighton College, said: "There is undoubtedly an influx back into mainland Europe of parents who have learnt to value UK private education highly," adding: "The ISC census shows Spanish and Italian families going home between January 2024 and 2025 and that’s even before VAT was added to fees. Everything I’m seeing and hearing is that this has accelerated [since then]." By Nicola Woolcock, The Times. 

During a debate in the House of Lords on the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill, crossbench peer Lord Carter of Haslemere noted that the legislation would see local authorities given "sweeping new powers to monitor, register and regulate the independent sector". On the need to protect the "primacy of parental choice", Lord Carter added: "Without my amendment, these new powers in the bill would impede the right of parents to ensure an education for their children which accords with their own religious and philosophical convictions." 

Referencing the impact of the government's VAT on fees policy, Conservative peer Lord Moynihan later said: "We have had the recent financial attack on independent schools, which has led to severe cuts to bursaries for state school pupils. This will damage talented young people in the state sector." Referencing Millfield School, Lord Moynihan said: "92 per cent of the 82 boys and girls who went through Millfield had transformative bursaries attached to them," before concluding: "So many of the independent schools are now having to cut back on their costs, trim their sails and cut back on those bursaries." The debate can be read in full at Hansard. 

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