James McEnaney
James McEnaney is a freelance journalist and author who specialises in Scottish education, politics and freedom of information. He serves as education writer for The Herald, where he leads coverage that favours in-depth, data-led reporting over short political skirmishes. His work draws on experience as a former teacher and lecturer and on sustained investigative reporting using open data and freedom of information requests. Across his education beat he combines policy analysis, classroom realities and children’s welfare to show how decisions play out in schools.
System-level analysis of Scottish schools
McEnaney often tackles national and international datasets to explain what they mean for Scottish schools.
In his examination of the latest Programme for International Student Assessment results, he walks readers through complex performance tables and asks what they reveal about standards and equity in the system. He breaks down national figures on additional support needs, showing how definitions, categories and rates have shifted over time and what that implies for pupils and budgets.
His quantitative work is underpinned by skills in analysing both statistical and qualitative data, often sourced through freedom of information requests. He tends to package this material in long-read formats designed to make specialised evidence accessible to non-specialist audiences.
Teachers, workforce pressure and classroom conditions
McEnaney gives sustained attention to the teacher workforce, focusing on recruitment, retention and morale in Scottish classrooms. In coverage of new teachers walking away from the profession, he explores why early-career educators are leaving, what that means for pupils, and how policy and management decisions contribute to the strain. He also reports on how wider social issues feed into school life, such as interviews on the impact of adult alcohol use on children and the role of charities in supporting affected families. His background as a former classroom teacher helps him situate workforce stories in the lived reality of lesson planning, behaviour management and support for vulnerable learners.
Assessment, exams and accountability
He writes practical guidance pieces for pupils and families on exam results day, explaining processes, options and common pitfalls.
Alongside this service reporting he analyses international and national assessment regimes, connecting findings from PISA and other studies to debates on standards and fairness. In Education HQ coverage he chronicles stories that will shape Scottish education over the coming year, foregrounding accountability when institutions resist scrutiny.
That accountability focus extends to efforts to secure interviews with senior officials and to document when decision-makers decline to engage. His broader portfolio emphasises freedom of information, public records and transparent data as tools for families and educators to challenge opaque systems.
Voices, innovation and public debate
McEnaney regularly brings in voices from across education, profiling classroom practitioners, charity leaders and innovators to show how policy is experienced and contested.
In conversation with a community mathematician and former maths teacher turned TikTok creator, he explores alternative ways of teaching mathematics and the need to take learning beyond textbook exercises. Interviews with leaders from children’s charities highlight hidden harms, such as the effects of adult alcohol use on children, and frame them as education concerns rather than purely health issues. His writing and speaking work extends beyond The Herald into books and long-form projects on Scottish schools and society, including titles on modern Scotland and on the realities inside contemporary classrooms.
Across these platforms he positions education as central to wider debates about democracy, social justice and how public institutions should be held to account.
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.