Katy McCloskey
Katy McCloskey is a senior producer on the BBC’s Scotland education coverage, focusing on how policy decisions, data and school practice shape the daily lives and prospects of pupils and young people. Her work follows the pressures on schools, teachers and families through investigations, data-led explainers and live coverage of key moments in the academic year. She concentrates on the Scottish school system and the transition from education into work, college and apprenticeships.
Schools cutting subjects due to teacher shortage 'crisis'
McCloskey’s coverage of staffing pressures in Scottish schools examines how shortages translate into lost opportunities for pupils. In reporting on secondary schools reducing timetables and cutting whole subjects from the curriculum because they cannot recruit specialist teachers, she highlights the direct impact on what young people are able to study. She works alongside Scotland’s education correspondent to draw out concrete examples from school leaders, showing how timetable changes, reduced subject choice and stretched staff affect classroom experience as well as attainment.
Her focus stays on the consequences of system-level problems for individual pupils, framing teacher recruitment and retention not as an abstract workforce issue but as a question of access to education.
That approach extends to scrutiny of how schools respond to behaviour and bullying.
In her investigation into school bullying guidance, she explores parents’ concerns that existing rules can leave victims feeling less protected than the pupils accused of bullying, bringing out the tension between safeguarding frameworks and families’ experience of how complaints are handled. In coverage referenced by a local outlet, she reports on a group of parents who argue that current school guidelines on bullying are not enough, again foregrounding the perspective of those navigating the system rather than policy makers alone.
Across these pieces, she treats bullying and behaviour policy as part of a wider story about whether Scottish schools are able to offer a safe, consistent environment for children.
Primary teachers hired to teach Glasgow secondary pupils to read
McCloskey’s reporting on literacy interventions in Glasgow schools looks at what happens when basic skills gaps persist into secondary education. In the piece on primary teachers being hired to teach secondary pupils to read, she follows a targeted programme that brings early-years expertise into high schools to address reading difficulties among older students. Working with colleagues, she sets out how the scheme operates in practice, what kinds of pupils are being supported and how schools hope to close attainment gaps by changing who teaches reading and how it is taught.
Her emphasis is on the practical detail of the intervention and the reasons leaders feel it is necessary, linking staffing decisions and specialist roles directly to pupils’ ability to access the curriculum.
By pairing this coverage with stories on subject cuts and staffing shortages, she builds a consistent picture of a system trying to balance limited resources with ambitious goals for literacy and learning. The through-line is an interest in whether structural changes - bringing in primary teachers, reworking timetables, altering support - actually deliver for the pupils they are meant to help.
Neet: 'I spent two years looking for work before I got a job'
McCloskey’s work on young people not in education, employment or training combines statistical analysis with lived experience. In the feature on a young person who spent two years looking for work before securing a job, she helps tell a story that tracks the emotional and practical toll of being Neet and the barriers encountered in trying to enter the labour market.
Alongside the correspondent, she links this individual narrative to wider trends, using it to illuminate what official figures mean in day-to-day terms.
Her live coverage of data showing one in eight young people not in work or education complements that feature by explaining how Scotland measures participation and why its figures differ from UK-wide Neet statistics. She sets out the Annual Participation Measure, noting that it covers 16 to 19-year-olds, is published annually and was recently delayed due to additional data processing and quality assurance.
This blend of clear statistical explanation and grounded case studies characterises her approach to youth participation: she treats numbers as a starting point, then stays with the question of how policies and programmes affect young people’s real choices.
Pass rates rise as Scottish pupils receive exam results
On Scottish exam results days, McCloskey plays a central role in live coverage that tracks both the numbers and the mechanics of how young people receive their grades.
In updates from results day, she reports the volume of students getting results by text or email alongside those receiving traditional envelopes, noting tens of thousands of digital notifications and hundreds of thousands of postal certificates. She pays attention to the practicalities of communication as well as the headline pass rates, describing how different channels are used to deliver results and what that means for pupils and families.
Her reporting also highlights downstream outcomes, such as record numbers of young Scots being accepted into university or college according to the admissions service. By pairing acceptance figures with pass-rate trends, she situates exam results within a broader landscape of post-school pathways and opportunities. Across these live blogs and explainer pieces, she keeps a steady focus on the moment when statistical performance becomes personal reality for pupils - how they learn their results, what options open up and how the system supports or limits their next steps.
Taken together, McCloskey’s work centres on the functioning of Scotland’s education system at key pressure points: staffing and subject provision, literacy support, bullying and behaviour, youth participation in work and study, and the high-stakes transition moments of exam results and admissions. She brings consistency of focus to how policies, data and institutional decisions are felt by pupils, parents and teachers, using investigations, features and live coverage to connect structural issues to individual experiences.
4 more education journalists.
Abby Russchen
Abby Russchen ties education, community institutions and individual stories together, showing how policies and decisions register in people’s lives. She reports for CBC on education and community life, working across text, video and photography for different CBC platforms. Her education coverage centres student achievement, provincial and national test results, classroom technology and the forces shaping learning conditions, connecting policy language and expert analysis to observable changes in performance. She treats AI, screens and digital tools as part of the education beat, focusing on their impact on student well-being. She also reports on community institutions and local services, from bank closures and changing city status to small-business growth. Her human-interest features follow people, public memory and recognition, and her long-form background supports detailed, fact-grounded narratives across formats.
Alexa Phillips
Alexa Phillips reports on education as a financial system, tracing who pays, who benefits and who bears the risk when policy changes reshape schools and universities. She covers education policy, funding and regulation for The i Paper, with a consistent focus on money, power and their impact on students and staff. Her reporting follows fees, budgets and reform into classrooms and lecture halls, using concrete figures to show how tax changes, funding mechanisms and loan reforms translate into course cuts, job losses and access. Phillips brings wider experience on public services and regulation, including work on gambling oversight and healthcare access, so education sits in a larger accountability story. She writes straightforward, reported news pieces that combine policy detail, financial data and case studies, built from official records and regular call‑outs to readers affected by the systems she covers.
Alexandra Holyk
Alexandra Holyk is a multi-skilled journalist at CTV News who reports on education and youth issues through the daily lives of students, families, and local communities. She covers school and campus decisions, student safety, youth behaviour, and neighbourhood incidents, with a focus on how they affect the people directly involved. Her work includes stories on graduation choices, concerns about Black students in a school board, federal research funding at the University of Waterloo, and students who helped after a cyclist collision. She also covers vandalism and other local disruptions around schools and neighbourhoods. Holyk pitches, researches, shoots, writes, edits, and presents stories for broadcast and digital platforms. Her previous work includes video journalism for provincial coverage, along with reporting for campus and regional outlets and major Canadian newspapers and business media.
Annabelle Olivier
Annabelle Olivier ties system-level themes in Quebec’s school system to the immediate realities of parents and students, treating education as a lived experience rather than an abstract policy field. She is a digital journalist with CBC News, covering education and related public policy. Her work spans data breaches and digital privacy in schools, institutional conflicts and labour disputes that disrupt study plans, education on the campaign trail, and school infrastructure and land use. She reports on incidents like mass emails exposing sensitive parent data, suspended classes that leave students feeling like bargaining chips, and proposals to turn racetracks into schools. Her background in digital production at another major Canadian broadcaster shapes an online-first reporting style, grounded in specific incidents, clear descriptions, and detailed, verifiable facts drawn from documents, statements and interviews.