Jess Staufenberg

State Expectations: The independent schools which switched sectors A panel and audience Q&A discuss the history and experiences of English private schools that converted to academies and free schools.

Following a presentation, a panel will discuss and debate the findings, witH audience Q & A to follow.

Book your ticket and come along! Thursday 26 Feb, 6pm, St Matthew's Conference Centre, 20 Great Peter Street, SW1P 2BU.

www.eventbrite.com/e/state-expe...

Co-authored by Tom Richmond (former DfE adviser and EDSK thintank founder) and Tilly Clough (Queen's University Belfast academic and specialist in schools and charity law), this report launches some meaty policy ideas for the Department for Education.

Published by Private Education Policy Forum!

Twenty-seven independent schools in England have moved into the state sector since 2000.

What were their experiences? Did it go well, or turn out wrong? Should more schools do that same? What policy recommendations are there for government?

Since the election, private schools have found themselves facing headwinds - from the introduction of VAT to increases in national insurance contributions. Noises on the ground suggest some private schools find the idea of becoming a state-funded academy increasingly appealing...

State Expectations: The independent schools which switched sectors A panel and audience Q&A discuss the history and experiences of English private schools that converted to academies and free schools.

Hello to the education nerds. I'm launching a report I'm excited about, on the experiences of English private schools that converted to academies!

Come and join the panel chat and audience Q & A in Westminster, Thursday 26 Feb, 6pm onwards...🧵

www.eventbrite.com/e/state-expe...

A hard post to start the new year: due to organisational changes at their funder, I've been laid off from my role as senior investigative reporter at @source-material.org. It’s been a privilege to work with such a talented and dedicated team on award-winning exposés across the climate beat

North Sea Storm – SourceMaterial Poised to take control of ‘the backbone of the UK’s energy production’, Franceso Mazzagatti is defending allegations bribery, forgery and fraud

I'm so grateful to belong to a newsroom that gives reporters time to investigate a story as complex and fascinating as this one by @marcusleroux.bsky.social

Here's the story of Mr Mazzagatti, set to buy up North Sea gas fields & dogged by fraud accusations.

www.source-material.org/mazzagatti-v...

The 2025 CCNow Journalism Awards — Covering Climate Now Covering Climate Now is thrilled to announce the winners of the 2025 CCNow Journalism Awards. Our awards program, now in its fifth year, honors excellent reporting on many critical dimensions of the c...

Click on this link to see all the winners of this year's Covering Climate Now awards: coveringclimatenow.org/projects/the...

Total’s Mozambique gas project faces scrutiny over abuse claims Governments are reviewing support $20 billion gas project after SourceMaterial revealed abuse allegations against troops defending Mozambique site

And watch the documentary edited by Le Monde here: www.source-material.org/total-mozamb...

We're delighted to have won in the 'Conflict & Climate Change' category at this year's Covering Climate Now awards with a project in partnership with our colleagues at Le Monde 🏆

Many other excellent journalists and stories were nominated. You can see the full shortlist here: www.societyofeditors.org/events/media...

Burning Rubber – SourceMaterial Millions of used UK tyres are being shipped to India to make dirty fuel harming people and the environment

Our story investigated millions of used UK tyres being shipped to India to make dirty fuel, harming people and the environment in the process.

Read more here: www.source-material.org/waste-tyre-p...

We're very pleased to have been shortlisted for the Society of Editors Media Freedom Awards 2025 for our story 'Burning Rubber: the poisonous afterlife of waste tyres', in partnership with the BBC.

‘Game of greenwashing’ – SourceMaterial The World Bank has picked Accra, Ghana, for a plastic credits scheme. For the city’s waste picker workers, it’s a false solution.

With thanks to my top photographer colleague
Costanzza Gambarini @source-material.org and our co-publishers Al Jazeera.

You can read both stories below (AJ and SourceMaterial):

www.source-material.org/game-of-gree...

www.aljazeera.com/features/lon...

Fishing communities in Jamestown, southern Accra, face a beach smothered in plastic. (Credit: SourceMaterial)

...their frustration with international and national models of funding for plastic waste management.

Investors + corporations have poured millions of dollars into a 'plastic credit' project in Ghana.

But waste picker workers say they do all the hard work yet remain in poverty.

Lydia Bamfo, leader of the Accra Borla Tricycle Association (‘borla’ means rubbish in Twi, a regional language), representing 8,000 workers. (Credit: SourceMaterial)

ohnson Doe, leader of the landfill waste pickers’ association in Tema landfill, east of Accra, represented Africa at UN negotiations last year (Credit: SourceMaterial)

This is the story of 51-year-old Lydia Bamfo, a waste picker worker for 25 years and head of Accra's tricycle waste workers' association, and 38-year-old Johnson Doe, a waste picker worker for 22 years and head of a landfill workers' association.

It's an investigation into...

After meeting the boss of a waste picker association in a cafe in South Korea, it took 6 months to follow him back to his home city of Accra and unpack what he had been saying to me over coffee at the UN's plastic treaty talks.

Story published today with Al Jazeera. Quick 🧵

It's so not cool to read that financial aid for studying journalism (like the brilliant @nctj.bsky.social) could be removed by Dept of Education.

Angry rebuttal from Society of Editors below. I 100% agree. Journalism needs to get less posh, not more...

www.societyofeditors.org/soe_news/the...

🇪🇺 📽️ Last year, the EU spent EUR 22 bn on Russian fossil fuels

⚠️ It is enabling President Putin to continue his war

🎤 The @bbcnewsnight.bsky.social‬ & @vicderbyshire.bsky.social‬ speak with
@ec.europa.eu‬ Vice-President @kajakallas.bsky.social‬

www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHjp...

Good to see that our investigation into waste tyres with my top colleague @atikarehman.bsky.social and our co-reporters at BBC File on 4 Investigates was debated in Westminster this week!

Francis survived the attacks, going on to appoint 82 more cardinals before his death—many of whom will take part in the conclave to elect his successor.

The voting will determine whether Francis was able to secure his reformist legacy, or if Burke’s conservative allies regain the Holy See.

Bannon courted conservative critics of Francis, like Cardinal Raymond Burke, and planned to build a Catholic institute to act as a ‘gladiator school’ for the populist right.
SourceMaterial and others exposed irregularities surrounding the institute’s headquarters, sparking a legal spat.

How Pope Francis became a hate figure for the far right On a mountain outside Rome, Steve Bannon’s anti-immigrant populism joins forces with Catholic extremists who say a “gay plague” has infected the Vatican.

Pope Francis was a pontiff in a new mould: an advocate for migrant rights and global action on climate change. Those positions won him powerful enemies. In 2019 our investigation The Heretic in the Vatican revealed the extent of the plot against him. www.source-material.org/the-heretic-...

Women over 50 were 'markedly underrepresented' in journalism.

Overall 50% of journalist respondents were women but this fell to 36% among the over-50s.

Let's change that...☀️

News | Fighting Dirty

We've won! Faster than I would have imagined possible. In response to the threat of court proceedings issued by @fightingdirty.bsky.social, the Environment Agency has promised to review its policy on waste tyres shipped to India. With big thanks to our supporters.
fightingdirty.org/major-victor...

BBC Radio 4 - File on 4 Investigates, The Carbon Offset Trap Max de Haldevang investigates problems with carbon offset projects.

The Carbon Offset Trap: BBC File on 4 has taken an in-depth look at the current state of carbon markets.

Our reporter @lukewbarratt.bsky.social spoke to them about some of their findings.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Burning Rubber – SourceMaterial Millions of used UK tyres are being shipped to India to make dirty fuel harming people and the environment

"The Environment Agency is undertaking an internal review of its approach to waste tyre shipments to India."

Two days after our report with @bbcradio4.bsky.social on UK tyres being dangerously 'boiled' in India, the UK announces a review of the trade.

www.source-material.org/waste-tyre-p...

Thanks very much to @annameisel.bsky.social @bbcradio4.bsky.social File on 4 Investigates for being a brilliant co-reporting partner.

And then Indian buyers pretend to recycle the tyres, but actually flog them onto illegal pyrolysis plants, so THEY can make a bigger profit.

Then they reach the final destination: unsafe tyre pyrolysis plants. We spoke to people who know children who have died inside them.

UK buyers without a proper permit then flog the tyres onto ships bound for India, so THEY make a bigger profit.

(Instead of actually recycling them, which would cost a lot more.)

So this undercuts the UK tyre recyling sector, which is on the brink of going bust, according to sources.