Andrew Baisley

Has Labour gone mad? Queen Elizabeth’s School, a selective grammar school in North London, is to open an affiliate fee-paying branch school in Dubai – becoming the first state school to open overseas. Queen Eliza…

Has Labour gone mad? - excellent as ever from John Howson
johnohowson.com/2025/11/08/h...

There is a huge risk to telling schools to be more inclusive without providing them with the resources to manage it. But for the Conservatives if they want even more pupils out of mainstream - where is the money?

3/4 schools have had a cut to their spending power since 2010.

School spending power has been cut by £4bn since 2010 & this has worsened by £1bn in the last year.

See the impact in your school at www.schoolcuts.org.uk

School budgets slide further into the red Governors say budgets are now their biggest concern and one in 10 rely on financial support

NEW: Maintained schools budgets have fallen further into deficit according to exclusive figures, prompting fresh concerns about their viability amid squeezed funding, rising costs and falling pupil numbers.

By me, for Schools Week: schoolsweek.co.uk/school-budge...

Today, after 14 years, I’m resigning from the Labour Party.

Jeremy Corbyn and I will co-lead the founding of a new party, with other Independent MPs, campaigners and activists across the country.

Join us. The time is now.

Sign up here to stay updated: actionnetwork.org/forms/join-t...

Just attended the deeply moving service at St Paul’s Cathedral to mark the 30th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide — a solemn reminder of where hatred, dehumanisation & impunity lead.

We say never again — yet a genocide is taking place in Gaza right now. The world must act.

Starmer to scrap two-child benefit cap as Treasury told to find money | The Observer Policy change following concern among cabinet MPs will lift hundreds of thousands of children out of poverty

Keir Starmer backs end of two child benefit cap and tells Treasury to find the money - my story for @theobserveruk.bsky.social observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

Rumeysa Ozturk was released from ICE 🙏🏽🙏🏽
#FreeSpeech
#FreePalestine 🇵🇸

The DfE acknowledge they only funded 1.3%

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67d974...

Private SEND schools to have profits reduced, Phillipson warns Education Secretary says many parents have lost confidence in the system

Private special schools are bankrupting the education budget. This year councils expect to spend £2.5bn on them.

They charge more than twice as much as state special schools and have lower standards.

Regulation and cost controls are essential.

inews.co.uk/news/politic...

Absolutely. Fucking. Despicable.

Revoking academy freedoms won’t affect us, say 60% of CEOs Findings from a survey of 120 trust bosses seem to challenge the narrative around Labour’s reforms

Exclusive: Most trust CEOs say stripping away academy freedoms would have no affect on their ability to run and improve schools

The findings challenge claims by some that Labour’s reforms will ‘destroy schools’

How have cuts hurt your local schools? How have cuts hurt your local schools?

#schoolcuts and austerity are a worldwide issue.
This site shows the impact on Canadian schools.

www.buildingbetterschools.ca/cuts-tool

I have a new piece in @ForeignAffairs titled, "The Post-Neoliberal Delusion and the Tragedy of Bidenomics". They were generous about giving me a lot of words but were less generous with charts--so this long thread partially rectifies that. (And links to the piece at the end.)

🚨 Countless parents and teachers are wondering if their school will be impacted by another round of new cuts.

🏫 Will your school be one of them?

We have the answers. Learn more 👉→ schoolcuts.org.uk

I know Ofsted is a very pressing concern; however the current budget forecasts for so many schools I know should become the number 1 issue IMO. It’s scary.

Academy trust central teams gobble up £200m Analysis of the 30 largest trusts found average amount top-sliced has risen by 50% per pupil since 2021

We’ve done an annual CEO pay audit for years, but we’ll now be doing an annual analysis into trust central team costs

Data on them is really not clear, but we’ve had a look into what the biggest trusts do, and why

👇

schoolsweek.co.uk/academy-trus...

Report cards pose a critical reliablity risk for inspection Ofsted will need to answer some important questions before it launches its new grading system

Cracking piece from @cbokhove.bsky.social and @johnjerrim.bsky.social on the fundamental issue at the heart of new Ofsted report cards - grade reliability

schoolsweek.co.uk/report-card-...

Standards agenda

Thames Water seeks court approval for emergency cash Thames Water is hoping to secure an emergency cash injection or face runing out of money in weeks.

High Court hearing today on Thames Water plan to borrow another £3bn.

Already has £17bn debt, mostly to fund dividends, wants 53% price hike.

Nearly a third of customer bill covers interest payments. More debt= higher bills.

Let it go bankrupt. Nationalise at nominal price.

Thames Water rescuers seek clean break before committing fresh funds Exclusive: Some bidders demand temporary renationalisation to help cut debts and oust bosses

Thames Water rescuers demand temporary renationalisation to cut debts, oust bosses..

After that they want reprivatisation, return to profiteering, dividends, exploitation.

Nothing will change until profit motive is eliminated.

Need public ownership.
www.theguardian.com/business/202...

URGENT: The government is already contacting potential administrators for Thames Water.

If Thames enters Special Administration, bill payers could be stuck repaying their £19bn debt.

There’s a simple solution—but we only have 3 days to act.

Write to your MP now: actionnetwork.org/letters/urge...

The government is taking away the right to assembly. It is an essential element of democracy. The labour movement and civil society must not let this happen.

But doesn't the jump in credit card defaults suggest that there is a real problem and more than narrative?

www.ft.com/content/c755...

Chart showing rapidly rising temperatures with 2024 the worst

2024 daily temperatures compared to past years. A frightening graphic from the BBC. #ClimateEmergency

Retirement of RMT general secretary Michael Lynch RMT general secretary Michael Lynch has made the decision to retire at the age of 63 after serving the union in many capacities. He was elected general secretary in 2021.

Retirement of RMT general secretary Michael Lynch

RMT general secretary Michael Lynch has made the decision to retire at the age of 63 after serving the union in many capacities. He was elected general secretary in 2021.
www.rmt.org.uk/news/retirem...

I am afraid "Giving academy trusts the ability to vary their salaries has allowed them to retain teachers" is not true. LA maintained schools retain teachers the best, then academies and last free schools. Among academies, schools in large MATs have the worst retention rates.

And free to read at this link!

The Tory Party's Gruesome Twosome Timing in politics is everything. Nigel Farage has seriously disappointed Elon Musk because he doesn't share his enthusiasm for Tommy Robin...

"It's true that Badenoch is seemingly unaware about how precarious her position is, but with this direction of travel it's probably not going to be long before she gets a rude reminder."

I don't think Farage needs Musk - he has plenty of money elsewhere. I have a horrible feeling it will play to Farage's advantage by allowing him to show that he has some principles and can stand up to billionaires. Also I worry that Musk will now shower money on Robinson instead.