
Ministers insist plans to absorb council Send debts won’t hit school budgets
Ministers say the Office for Budget Responsibility’s projections do not take into account upcoming reforms.
THURSDAY, 18 DECEMBER 2025, 07:18

Ministers say the Office for Budget Responsibility’s projections do not take into account upcoming reforms.

The Buddy Bear School in Dungannon, County Tyrone, opened in 1993 and is the only school of its kind in Northern Ireland.

‘Once-in-a-generation transformation’ of Grade-I building will bring teaching spaces under same roof as gallery
The Courtauld has unveiled an £82m campus redevelopment it is calling a “once-in-a-generation transformation” of its Grade-I listed building at Somerset House in London.
The Stirling prize-winning architects Witherford Watson Mann will take charge of the project at the teaching and...

Councils welcome move but OBR says it is a significant fiscal risk and could lead to 4.9% real fall in spending per pupil
The government will take over full responsibility for special educational needs spending from local councils, it was revealed at the budget, prompting warnings that the Department for Education could be facing a £20bn timebomb in two years.
The Office for Budget...
The school, one of several to face pressure campaigns from the Trump administration, would pay a $75 million fine and have its research funding restored under terms of the agreement being discussed.

It can feel wrong to encourage young people to shoot for the stars – yet if no one did, our world would be empty of the artists, actors, athletes and visionaries who give it so much pleasure and meaning
Who wants to crush a kid’s dreams? Not me. But what to say when asked by a teenager about a career in the media? With tens of thousands of media, journalism and other graduates crowding into...
This documentary looks back at a group of teenagers who, in the early 1990s, created a high school video project that ended up breaking real news.

What does it mean to lose a language? And what does it take to save it? Those were the big questions being asked in Barcelona recently
There’s an Irish saying, tír gan teanga, tír gan anam: a country without a language is a country without a soul. Representatives of some of Europe’s estimated 60 minority languages – or minoritised, as they define them – met in Barcelona recently to...
An Appalachian community in Virginia was electrified by its high school team’s winning streak. Until the team’s coach disappeared — and allegations against him surfaced.
The new complaint is aimed at changes the Trump administration would make to shift significant functions from the department to other federal agencies.
Rutger Bregman said his comment that President Trump was the “most openly corrupt president in American history” was removed before his lecture was broadcast on Tuesday.

Regulator says 24 are at more immediate risk and may have to stop degree courses within next 12 months
Fifty higher education providers in England are at risk of exiting the market within the next two to three years, MPs on the House of Commons education committee have been told as part of their inquiry into university funding and the threat of insolvency.
The evidence follows last week’s...
Readers express sorrow about her cancer and dismay at her cousin’s actions as health secretary. Also: Revenge prosecutions; Mark Kelly; donors to universities.
Vahid Abedini, who colleagues said was in the United States on an H-1B visa, was arrested on his way to a conference in Washington. It was unclear why.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer egged on first graders doing the viral gesture, then apologized when told the school prohibited it. “I didn’t start it, Miss,” he said.

A new documentary from the makers of Jesus Camp follows the students enrolled at one of Norway’s 85 ‘folk high schools’. Can sledding and survival skills cure their social media-induced anxiety?
Nineteen-year-old Hege is stricken by all the common anxieties of her generation. She spends too much time scrolling through socials on her phone, and as a result she is obsessed with how other people...

Show at Cauldeen primary school in Inverness had included a scene explaining hardship faced by Syrian refugees
A primary school in Scotland has cancelled its Christmas show after receiving “racist and abusive” messages because it featured sympathy towards Syrian refugees.
The decision by Cauldeen primary school in Inverness follows rising tensions at other schools in Scotland over adult English...
We look into the mental health crisis affecting American youth.

The prime minister performed a version of the viral dance with primary school children, before being told it was not allowed.

State department proposes excluding 38 institutions from Diplomacy Lab partnership including Harvard and Yale
More than three dozen universities including Harvard, Yale, Stanford and Duke have their participation in a federal research partnership on the chopping block after the state department proposed to suspend them over their diversity, equity and inclusion hiring practices.
Last week, the...
My students’ easy access to chatbots forced me to make humanities instruction even more human.