Fraser Simpson
Fraser Simpson reports on how schools, youth organisations and local employers recognise and support people, with a consistent focus on inclusion, opportunity and everyday impact. His work as a reporter for the Bournemouth Echo and Dorset Echo centres on education-linked stories that connect classrooms, families and workplaces. He joined the Echo in February 2026, and his recent pieces show a mix of school features, youth initiatives, charity campaigns and practical service reporting.
School recognition and inclusive culture
Simpson’s school coverage leans heavily towards stories where institutions are recognised for achievement and culture, rather than routine announcements.
At Port Regis in Shaftesbury, he highlights the school’s place as a finalist for Independent Boarding School of the Year in the 2026 Independent Schools of the Year Awards, setting out what the recognition means for the boarding community. He follows this up with a second Port Regis piece on the school being named the top school in the UK for environmental achievement, explaining the Environmental Achievement Award and how the school’s “revolutionary ideas” are framed within innovation in education. In another strand of his work, he covers an Ofsted inspection that praises a school’s “inclusive culture”, giving attention to how inspection outcomes reflect a school’s ethos rather than just its metrics.
His features often focus on individual pupils as well as institutions, as in the story of a seven-year-old whose Lava Monster alien artwork is selected for the Royal Academy’s Young Artists’ Summer Show. In that piece he spells out the path from a Southbourne art club to a national exhibition, foregrounding the child’s experience and the opportunity created by arts education.
Across these school stories, the reporting is straightforward, with clear explanations of the award or inspection context and the practical implications for the school community.
Environmental education and sustainability projects
Environmental themes run through Simpson’s education reporting, especially where schools use sustainability projects as teaching tools. His Port Regis environmental award coverage details how the school’s work in environmental achievement sits within wider innovation in independent education, linking eco-focused initiatives with curricular and cultural change. At St Mary’s Catholic First School in Dorchester, he reports on the PTA’s selection for Dobbies’ Community Gardens initiative, describing plans to build a greenhouse, plant a fruit orchard and create a year-round outdoor classroom.
The piece shows how the project is intended to give pupils hands-on experience in growing food and learning about sustainability.
Simpson also covers environmental education through events, such as a film screening and discussion at Thomas Hardye School’s Environmental Hub. In that article he sets out how students invite the public to a free screening of “People’s Emergency Briefing” and follow it with an informal group discussion, positioning the school as a local convenor on climate and environmental issues. Taken together, these stories show him returning to the link between environmental awareness, practical projects on school grounds and the broader educational aims behind them.
Support for SEND, additional needs and youth opportunities
A recurring thread in Simpson’s work is support for people with special educational needs and disabilities and others with additional needs, especially where education, training and employment overlap.
His coverage of Thrive Fest in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole reports on an event hosted by STARS Dorset to support young people with special educational needs, explaining that the festival aims to raise awareness of available support and help young people feel seen and listened to by professionals and their wider communities. In another piece, he reports on Dorset Council appointing the YOU Trust to deliver a supported employment service, detailing how the programme offers one-to-one support to residents with learning or physical disabilities, autism or mental health needs to help them find and stay in work, education or training.
He extends this focus on opportunity to charity work, such as a Nimsdai Foundation fundraiser that supports projects in education, mountain communities, veterans and disaster relief. Across these articles, Simpson consistently emphasises the practical mechanisms - events, services, funds - through which young people and adults with additional needs access education and employment paths. The tone is direct and service-oriented, with clear descriptions of who the initiatives are for and what support they provide.
Community, workplace and lifestyle reporting
Alongside education stories, Simpson covers a wider set of community and workplace pieces that share a focus on recognition and everyday life. His article on Hall & Woodhouse explains how the Dorset-based company is listed among The Sunday Times Best Places to Work in the “Big Organisations” category for 2026, noting that this marks its third consecutive year on the list and underlining workplace culture as a newsworthy theme. He frequently reports on Dobbies’ Galton store, covering a gardening workshop where the Green Team teaches participants to create and care for a rattan hanging basket filled with trailing flowers and seasonal plants, and separate coverage of the store raising more than £2,000 for Alzheimer’s charities through a national campaign.
These pieces combine lifestyle detail with charity fundraising and community engagement.
Simpson also produces service-style news such as a Met Office-based weekend weather forecast for Bridport, Dorchester, Portland and Weymouth, reflecting the day-to-day information needs of local readers. Across his work for the Bournemouth Echo and Dorset Echo, he moves between school features, youth initiatives, charity campaigns, business recognition and practical updates, while keeping education, inclusion and community benefit at the core of his reporting.
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.