On 8 March, the senior choir from Nottingham Girls' High School GDST was named GSA Senior Choir of the Year 2026; a triumph in an extremely competitive field, and a very fitting way to celebrate International Women's Day.

Performing two challenging pieces, 'Nella Fantasia' (Morricone arr. Neaum) and 'Dancing Song' (Kodaly), the singers were praised for their beautiful vocal lines, clear diction and animated delivery. After 'Dancing Song', one of the judges said that they simply wrote 'Wow!'

This award cements Nottingham Girls’ High School’s reputation as one of the leading schools for music and performing arts, continuing their proud tradition of cultivating industry female trailblazers including Indu Rubasingham, Dame Rosemary Squire, Sudha Kheterpal, Zoe Brookshaw and Claire Hammond.

Commenting on the win, the school's director of music, Chris Clarke, said, "I'm absolutely thrilled with our girls' performance on Sunday. Not only did they impress the judges with their musicality and technique, most importantly it was their love and passion for singing that shone through."

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Schools with the highest proportion of disadvantaged pupils are almost three times more likely to be marked down by Ofsted on their achievement grade than those with the lowest proportion, analysis by Tes has revealed. The paper's analysis of grades awarded under the new inspection framework shows schools with higher proportions of pupils eligible for free school meals are less likely to achieve the "expected standard" grade or better for achievement. Commenting on the findings, Louise Kirby, an acting headteacher from Yorkshire, said she felt disadvantaged schools were being "penalised" by Ofsted's new inspection framework. By Cerys Turner.

The family of Juliette Kenny, an 18-year-old who died following the Kent meningitis outbreak, are calling for a vaccination to be made available to teenagers and young adults. The Meningitis Research Foundation has also said the best way to achieve protection against MenB is to extend routine access to NHS MenB vaccinations. Thousands of vaccines and antibiotics have been handed out in response to the meningitis outbreak, with more expected today. Earlier this morning, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) released its latest update. A total of 29 cases of invasive meningitis with links to Canterbury, Kent, were recorded as of lunchtime on 19 March. The UKHSA says case numbers will continue to be recorded at 12:30 each day and figures – including confirmed or probable cases only – will be released the following morning. BBC News is running a live feed and coverage is being updated. Edited by Caitlin Doherty.

Special schools in England are operating around 11,000 places above capacity, according to new Department for Education (DfE) statistics. The government's school capacity data shows that as of May 2025, while there were around 160,000 places in 1,100 special schools, there were around 170,000 pupils in total. Schools Week notes that the numbers are rounded, making the over-capacity figure seem larger than it should be. The data, released yesterday, also shows the number of specialist places in mainstream schools and the number of schools providing them have continued to increase, ahead of government reforms that will ask all secondaries to have an inclusion base. By Freddie Whittaker.

Confidential plans to curb the expansion of special schools could lead to a shortage of places for pupils with complex special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), insiders have warned. Documents sent to local authorities show councils could be issued with a financial penalty if they plan to build or expand special schools for children with SEND, rather than provide specialist support in mainstream schools. The DfE would issue a grant to clear 90 per cent of councils' historic SEND deficits, but only to local authorities that have "little to no plans" to increase capacity. By Connie Dimsdale, iNews. 

Writing in Schools Week, Matt Walker, senior research manager at the National Foundation for Educational Research, says the success of the government's SEND reforms depends heavily on workforce capacity. "Policymakers need to consider not just what SEND reform looks like on paper, but whether schools, and SENCOs in particular, have the ongoing support required to bring it to life," he warns. 

False social media posts about attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism are linked to a rise in young people believing they have neurodevelopmental conditions, researchers from the University of East Anglia (UEA) and Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust have warned. Analysing studies of content across YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and X, the team identified a "clear need" for more high-quality information on social media. The UEA's Dr Alice Carter said 52 per cent of ADHD-related videos and 41 per cent of autism videos on TikTok were inaccurate, a finding TikTok disputes. The researchers added that misinformation prevalence was "consistently higher on TikTok than other platforms". BBC News.

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