15 May, 2026

Top education news stories

Explore this week’s news roundup to uncover the key challenges and priorities for schools across the country.

6 min read

1. ‘Education for all’: SEND reform bill announced

King’s Speech outlines ‘generational reforms’ to the SEND system, writes Schools Week.

Special educational needs reforms will be legislated through the “education for all” bill, the King’s Speech has confirmed.

King Charles told Parliament that ministers “believe that every child deserves the chance to succeed to the best of his or her ability and not be held back due to poverty, special educational needs, or a lack of respect for vocational education”.

He added: “A bill will be brought forward to raise standards in schools and introduce generational reforms of the special educational needs system.”

Policy briefing notes reveal this will be named the “education for all bill”, subject to the ongoing consultation of the SEND white paper, which closes on the 18th May.

Documents released contain largely the same information released about the schools white paper in February, including the five reform principles early, local, fair, effective and shared.

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said the education for all bill is “a vital lever” in the process of SEND reforms.

The DfE said today the new legislation will focus on providing early support, strong protections and new legal duties through the creation of individual support plans and national inclusion standards.

It will also develop specialist provision packages and stronger oversight of independent special schools, and manage a smooth transition to the new system.

Source: ‘Education for all’: SEND reform bill announced (schoolweek.co.uk)

2. Children’s wellbeing and schools act: The policies signed into law

Labour’s landmark bill has got royal assent. Here are the policies trust leaders need to know about, writes Schools Week.

The children’s wellbeing and schools act is now law after receiving royal assent last month following its long passage through Parliament.

The legislation, first introduced in late 2024, has been amended multiple times in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, said the “landmark legislation fixes the foundations in our schools, puts money back into parents’ pockets, and provides critical new protections for our most vulnerable children.”

The new law also creates a duty for Ofsted to inspect multi-academy trusts. From 2027 at the earliest, Ofsted will inspect trusts directly and can enter “any premises”.

Alongside this, the education secretary has gained direct powers to issue directions to trusts that fail their duties, with termination of funding agreements as the ultimate sanction. This comes into force on 29 June 2026, meaning trusts have very little runway before ministers have explicit legal leverage.

Academies will also be required to follow the national curriculum once the new curriculum is in place, though implementation timelines are yet to be confirmed.

On pay and staffing, from September 2027, all academy teachers must have or be working towards QTS and complete a statutory induction. The Secretary of State also now has the power to set a pay floor in academies.

On admissions, academies must now cooperate with councils, and councils have gained powers to direct academies to admit certain pupils. Additionally, all schools must follow food standards from 29 June 2026. Free school meals will be extended to all universal credit households from September 2026, adding a budgetary and operational planning consideration. And from the same date, phone guidance becomes statutory rather than advisory.

Source: Children’s wellbeing and schools act: The policies signed into law (schoolsweek.co.uk)

3. Why every school needs a human intelligence strategy

Workload remains the lowest-scoring area of staff experience in England’s schools, and AI alone won’t fix it, writes Ernest Jenavs in Schools Week.

Workload is one of the defining challenges facing schools today. Edurio’s national data tells a stark story: only around a third of staff respond positively to questions about workload, making it the lowest-scoring area of the staff experience across the dataset.

Into this context, a wave of AI tools has arrived, each promising to ease the burden. But in this opinion piece for Schools Week, Edurio CEO Ernest Jenavs argues that schools risk misapplying AI if they haven’t first developed a clear human intelligence strategy, one that identifies which problems genuinely require a human response.

An HI strategy, Jenavs argues, means knowing your people well enough to understand what they actually need, and being honest about where no amount of automation will substitute for that.

As schools navigate an increasingly complex landscape of workload pressures and wellbeing concerns, this piece offers a useful frame for thinking about where AI fits, and where it doesn’t.

Source: Why every school needs a human intelligence strategy (schoolsweek.co.uk)