Charlotte Hall
Charlotte Hall reports on education within the wider framework of local democracy for the Manchester Evening News, connecting classroom realities to decisions taken in council chambers and government offices. Her coverage treats schools as civic institutions, using official documents, union actions and community voices to show how policy translates into daily experience. She combines data-led reporting with on-the-ground visits to schools and neighbourhoods, giving equal weight to inspection findings and the accounts of those living with the consequences.
School oversight and Ofsted reporting
Hall’s education coverage is rooted in close reading of inspection reports and other formal evaluations of school performance. She has produced round-ups of Ofsted activity across Greater Manchester, gathering every inspection report published over a given period and distilling the key judgements for parents and staff. In related work, she has reported on schools where inspectors found incidents of racism and homophobia to be commonplace, bullying levels to be high and fighting to be frequent, explaining how those findings led to an “inadequate” rating and urgent improvement demands. Her approach in these pieces is to quote directly from inspection language, identify the specific concerns raised, and place them in the context of pupil numbers and local catchment areas.
The result is oversight reporting that is detailed but accessible, aimed at readers who need to understand what an inspection actually means for a school community.
Industrial action and pressures on school staff
Hall also covers industrial disputes that affect whether schools can stay open, treating staff conditions as integral to education quality. Her reporting on a Greater Manchester school closed to almost every pupil during a series of teacher strike days set out the reasons for the walkout, including pay and what staff described as poor management. She tracked the planned schedule of strike days, explained which year groups were affected, and reported on negotiations between unions and school leadership.
In these stories she focuses on the operational impact - who is in school, who is not, and how often disruption is expected - while keeping the teachers’ stated grievances and management responses in clear view. The coverage presents strikes not as isolated events but as part of a longer-running tension over workload, governance and respect in the workplace.
Education policy and pathways in Greater Manchester
Beyond individual schools, Hall reports on regional education policy and reforms that shape options for pupils across Greater Manchester. Her coverage of new pathways for year 9 pupils, introduced after Andy Burnham received approval for a skills plan, broke down the seven industry-focused routes and linked them to the wider economic priorities of the region. She explained how GCSE choices would be structured under the new system, what kinds of careers each pathway was designed to support, and how schools and colleges were expected to adapt their provision. These pieces sit at the intersection of education and economic planning, showing how regional leaders intend to use curriculum design to meet labour market needs. Hall’s treatment of policy announcements is practical: she identifies who will be affected, what changes they will see, and over what timeframe.
Local democracy, investigations and environmental reporting
Alongside education, Hall works as a local democracy reporter, with a patch that includes towns such as Oldham and Bury.
Her investigations have examined why Oldham politics functions as it does, tracing the influence of prominent councillors and business figures and documenting significant property holdings in the town centre. She has contributed to coverage of voter sentiment across all 27 Greater Manchester constituencies, spending time in places like Royton to capture how residents talk about national leadership, local campaigns and the choice offered at the ballot box. Her reporting often appears within broader explainers and newsletters that explore how power, money and planning decisions shape everyday life in the boroughs she covers.
Before focusing on local democracy, Hall worked as a freelance journalist, writing for outlets including Geographical, BusinessGreen, the Byline Times, ManchesterWorld, NowThen Sheffield and The Local.
Her specialisms in that period included climate news, environmental research and nature conservation, with stories ranging from European wildfires to nuclear waste in Japan. She has also reported on local energy projects, such as a solar farm scheme designed to generate enough power for more than 300 homes, tying technical details to what the project means for residents and local government.
That background in environmental and infrastructure reporting complements her current work, equipping her to cover education and democracy with an eye on how schools, councils and climate policy intersect.
4 more education journalists.
Ajit Niranjan
Ajit Niranjan links climate science, policy and hard numbers to how extreme weather and environmental damage disrupt daily life, public services and industry. He is European environment correspondent at the Guardian. His beat includes violent heat, pollution, wildfires, air quality, EU green policy, corporate responsibility, energy transition, clean home heating, public health and long-term risks to landscapes and ecosystems. He examines how lobbying, supply chains and regulation shape environmental harm, from data centres and fish farms to fossil fuel industries. His reporting covers schools, hospitals, transport, homes and infrastructure as climate stress points. He previously reported on climate for DW News. He combines data, scientific research, eyewitness accounts and on-the-ground reporting. He also produces explainers, dossiers, factsheets and Q&As that translate complex technical debates into clear, precise language.
Albert Tait
Albert Tait is Education Editor at The Telegraph, leading coverage of schools and universities as institutions whose decisions have direct consequences for staff and students. He focuses on how regulators, senior leaders and governing bodies respond when safety, standards or integrity are under scrutiny, and how those responses affect classrooms and lecture halls. His work links school inspections and teacher safety to regulatory frameworks and conditions on the ground, and he reports on incidents such as knife attacks and “Code Red” alerts with attention to immediate impact and emergency protocols. He produces multi-part investigations into university governance, including extensive reporting on Cambridge’s handling of Jason Arday’s appointment and resignation. He also covers curriculum debates such as changes in how scientists view evolution and inheritance. He began at The Telegraph as a news reporter and previously covered community news at a local paper.
Beth Kennedy
Beth Kennedy is editor at The PIE News and stands out for reporting on how UK policy, institutional strategy and new delivery models reshape international education. Her beat covers UK study visa rules, international student flows, Home Office and UCAS data, alternative study pathways, language schools, and mergers and acquisitions across the sector. She reports on the practical effects of visa changes, scholarship schemes, online and transnational education, school closures, job losses and sector consolidation. Her work is direct and data-led, with clear explanations of complex systems and a focus on what policy and market shifts mean for universities, language schools and private training organisations. She has over a decade in specialist media, including years reporting for primary healthcare professionals before joining The PIE in 2024.
Callum Clark
Callum Clark is a multimedia journalist at STV News who covers education through the lens of university finances, restructuring and their impact on students, staff and local services. He focuses on stories where cost‑saving plans, job losses and service closures reshape community life, such as Dundee University’s nursery and botanic garden closures, and sets those decisions within wider restructuring efforts. His reporting is direct and fact driven, built on official documents, statements and precise figures that show both the scale of savings targets and monthly losses, and the number of posts at risk. Clark’s background in local news and public service coverage, including mental health service reforms and redundancy schemes, shapes a methodical style that tracks formal processes while keeping the lived experience of workers, families and service users in view.