Prime minister Andy Burnham will have to end the VAT on fees policy if he goes ahead with plans to rejoin the EU. Mr Burnham has said he will consider placing a pledge to take Britain back into the bloc at the heart of Labour's next manifesto, and has promised to explore a "whole range of options" for deeper ties with Brussels, which could include returning to the Single Market. Both options would require Britain to follow EU rules on tax, which forbid adding VAT to the provision of education. In his Labour conference speech, Mr Burnham said he would use a UK-EU summit in November to set out options for Britain's long-term relationship with the bloc. Responding, Saqib Bhatti, the shadow education minister, said the prime minister seemed unaware that rejoining would end the government's "spiteful class war on independent schools". The Telegraph notes that more than 115 independent schools have closed since VAT on fees was introduced, citing figures from the Independent Schools Council (ISC). By Nick Gutteridge.

The Times examines the financial sacrifices made by some middle-income families to access independent education, focusing on one Berkshire family whose children attend school with the help of bursaries. Parent Amy, who herself was awarded a full bursary at a ballet school at the age of 16, tells the paper her children are exactly the ones who will suffer because of the addition of VAT. The article highlights how independent schools can be an important option for families seeking specialist support for their children's needs, while also exploring concerns over the impact of the tax policy on rising fees. Reference is made to figures from the ISC, which show there are now 526,611 pupils attending 1,455 ISC schools, a reduction of 3.5 per cent compared with 2025. By Emily Hall.

Social media companies will have to implement "hard checks" on users' ages such as demanding passports or driving licences under plans to prevent children from using their platforms. Ministers are due to announce plans for a social media ban for under-16s in the coming weeks amid concerns that young people are being exposed to harmful content. The plans would mean individuals using the sites will be required to submit their passports or driving licences or undergo credit checks to prove their age, and follow concerns that Australia's under-16 social media ban has been widely bypassed. The Australian government has reported that more than 70 per cent of children still had some access to platforms after the restrictions were introduced. A live poll invites readers of The Times to vote on whether social media companies should use such passport checks to enforce the under-16s social media ban. By Steven Swinford and Ben Clatworthy. 

More than half of secondary schools using technology to restrict pupils' smartphones reported an increase in GCSE results, Blackout Education's 2025-26 impact assessment has found. Schools using Blackout, an app that disables distracting smartphone features during the school day, reported calmer classrooms, fewer phone-related sanctions and more face-to-face interaction among pupils, according to the findings and feedback from more than 5,000 pupils across England's state and independent sectors. The company said 60 per cent of participating schools reported improved GCSE results after the technology was introduced. Speaking to The Times, Sam Webster, deputy head at Caterham School said pupils were already required to keep phones out of sight during the school day, but Blackout had been introduced to help pupils develop healthier habits beyond the classroom. "It was about supporting our young people to develop really crucial digital wellbeing and digital literacy skills that they're going to need in the future", she explained, adding: "We're seeing the positive impact of that." By Georgia Lambert. 

Thousands of sexual offences against under-13s, including multiple rapes, are reported to police every year, an investigation by The Guardian has revealed. The paper's analysis of police data for 2021-25, obtained via freedom of information requests, shows close to five sexual crimes against children aged 12 and younger were recorded on average by police every day in primary and secondary schools in England and Wales. Lawyers and campaigners have condemned the "horrifying" scale of child-on-child sexual abuse in schools, which also found that nearly two-thirds of reported crimes affecting under-13s where the sex of the victim was documented had involved female victims. By Carmen Aguilar García, Sally Weale and Johnny McDevitt.

Lucy Powell, the education secretary, is expected to ask Ofsted to place greater weight on the social and economic context of schools during inspections. It follows pressure from education unions, which have criticised the current system for being too stressful for headteachers and disproportionately penalising schools educating more disadvantaged students. Ms Powell's changes, which will be communicated to the inspectorate in the coming weeks, will not seek to abolish the new system. By Albert Tait, The Telegraph. 

At a recent Tes webinar, three school leaders highlighted the importance of staff feedback, flexible working practices and recognition schemes in helping to create positive workplace cultures. The paper explores their suggestions, on which all three agreed that an alternative route to airing issues and problems is through regular staff surveys. The comments come as new data from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) found 7.2 per cent of fully qualified primary and secondary teachers resigned from the profession in 2024-25, compared with an average of 4.2 per cent across OECD countries. By Emma Seith.

The number of children's books featuring black main characters fell by almost eight per cent in 2025, with just 47 (2.1 per cent) of the 2,189 titles published for under-10s including a black protagonist, according to research by literary charity Inclusive Books for Children. The study also reported a fall in the representation of South Asian, Middle Eastern and North African, and disabled characters, and found that only 6.9 per cent of surveyed books featured main characters from minority ethnic, disabled or neurodivergent backgrounds. By Emma Loffhagen, The Guardian.

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