Education Law Digest – Summer 2025: In the News

SEND Provision

The government has announced that 10,000 new school places will be funded for children with SEND (special educational needs and disabilities). To create these new spaces £740 million is being invested to deliver adaptations, expand specialist units in mainstream schools as well as create new places in special schools. The funding will also be invested in assistive technology and used to create breakout spaces where children can go to self-regulate

Change is required as currently fewer than 1 in 10 mainstream schools have SEN units or resourced provision. This is despite the fact that between 2010 and 2024, the number of children with EHCPs (Education, Health and Care plan) being educated in independent special schools increased from 7,000 – 26,000, leaving a gap of 8,000 places in state special schools.

The funding for SEND comes alongside a total £1 billion investment to fund 44,500 places in mainstream schools needed by 2028.

£740 million allocated for 10,000 new places for pupils with SEND (gov.uk)

AI in Schools

The Government has confirmed that teachers can use AI to help with tasks such as planning lessons, creating resources, giving feedback and handling administrative tasks. However, they need to use their professional judgement and check that anything generated by AI is accurate and appropriate. The final responsibility rests with teachers and their school.

Schools and colleges are permitted to set their own rules on AI use but they must follow legal requirements around data protection, child safety, and intellectual property.

AI is thought to be most useful for reducing the amount of time teachers spending doing administrative tasks, so they can focus on their face to face teaching and supporting their pupils.

The Government has also confirmed that they will be funding the development of brand new AI tools for education which stretch the capabilities of what AI can do from accessing handwritten work to giving feedback on geography maps and even recognising mistakes in soldering on circuit boards made by engineering students.

AI in Schools: What you need to know – The Education Hub (blog.gov.uk)

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Take Me There

Breakfast Club

The first phase of a planned national rollout of the governments free breakfast club began after the Easter holidays. This means that 750 schools are now taking part in the programme which will initially benefit 180,000 pupils from the most disadvantaged communities.

School breakfast clubs will take place in 30 minute sessions before school and the breakfasts provided will follow the School Food Standards.

The benefits of schools providing a breakfast club are multifaceted. For the child, breakfast clubs will ensure that the child is set up for the day, as well as providing an opportunity to socialise and enjoy activities such as reading and crafts. Meanwhile, parents will benefit from dropping their child off half an hour earlier which gives them up to 95 additional hours back to manage busy mornings, and save working families up to £450 per year.

Free breakfast club roll out: everything you need to know (blog.gov.uk)