Conservative ministers are planning an amendment to the Online Safety Bill to make social media executives face two years in prison if they fail to protect children from encountering harmful content. The amendment, which is likely to be debated in tomorrow's committee on the Bill and in the House of Lords, would see directors of companies including Twitter and Instagram 'personally and criminally liable for the content on their social media platforms'. By Charles Hymas, The Telegraph.

Amanda Spielman, the chief inspector of Ofsted, has said that attendance among pupils has been 'persistently lower' than before the COVID pandemic. Speaking at the publication of the regulator's annual report, Ms Spielman said that lockdowns had broken the “clear social contract” around the school day routine, with some families continuing to expect remote learning in lieu of in person school attendance. By Nicola Woolcock, The Times.

The Independent reports that dozens of MPs are supporting the extension of free school meals to all primary children. Labour MP Zarah Sultana has introduced the MP’s Free School Meals for All Bill, co-sponsored by a group of senior MPs, which would expand eligibility from families who meet certain benefits and income criteria to all primary school pupils in England. By Adam Forrest.

Writing in iNews, Zarah Sultana explains why she is proposing the Free School Meals for All Bill and argues that adding removing tax breaks for independent schools could provide the funding.

Almost 1.5 million pupils in England have been identified as having special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), an increase of 77,000 in a year, prompting the head of Ofsted to warn that children are being 'wrongly diagnosed' after the pandemic. Amanda Spielman said the regulator's inspections in the last year had found cases of pupils said to have SEND who “wouldn’t normally” have been identified as such. By Louisa Clarence-Smith, The Telegraph.

Nicola Sturgeon has been accused of failing in her 2016 pledge to close the education gap after the latest results for primary school skills in Scotland showed that basic literacy among disadvantaged S3 pupils has fallen to the lowest level in six years. By Mark McLaughlin, The Times.

Research by the Consortium for Research into Deaf Education (CRIDE) has found that the number of teachers of the deaf with the mandatory qualification in Scotland has fallen from 165 in 2011 to 100 in 2022. The National Deaf Children’s Society is warning that it is likely to get worse, reporting that around 45 per cent of specialist teachers are planning to retire over the next decade.

Writing in The Telegraph, columnist Allison Pearson argues that 'highly addictive' smartphones are destroying teenagers and need to be banned. Ms Pearson warns that "a growing body of evidence links excessive smartphone use to negative cognitive, emotional, developmental and neurological conditions in children and teenagers. Phones are also implicated in debilitating illness from diabetes to sleep and eating disorders".

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