This is the 5,485th printed issue of Tes. And it is the last time our journalism will appear in print. After 111 years, we will be an online-only publication from 1 January 2022.

It is customary to glamourise the past in these situations, to sing the greatest hits and indulge in introspection. To find solace - perhaps authenticity, even justification - in historic achievements.

But to do that here would be to go against everything that this title has stood for since it launched in 1910. We exist for those who work in schools, to be there for them when they need us. Our triumphs are the sector’s triumphs; our lows, the sector’s lows. If we do our job properly, we are not just “for” those in education: we are one of them, too.

So, to present a journalistic highlights reel when in front of us right now there is so much that the sector needs us to do would be negligence. Schools are in crisis: underfunded, poorly understood and chronically undervalued. The political decision-making process is arguably more opaque - and more based on self-interest - than ever. The issues that schools need to negotiate are increasingly complex. And all that before you even consider Covid.

Our focus needs to be on unpicking all this. Tes needs to be there to fight for transparency, to find answers and explain them, to highlight the challenges and problems, and to be a conduit so that the voice of teachers reaches those in positions of power. And we need to go further than that: we must present the latest research, help teachers improve, share best practice. We have no time to be wistful.

We are proud of our journalism at Tes. It has never been about the delivery mechanism; it has always been about the content: world-class reporting, analysis and feature writing. That’s not going to change from January.

In the short term, we know many of the areas on which we will focus. In our final issue, we detail the key challenges ahead. Chief among them is the SEND review. I don’t believe there is an issue more important in terms of how education wishes to define itself than how it supports those with special educational needs and disabilities.

Looking to the long term, we have used our final printed issue to highlight some of the big questions education has faced and continues to face that we have covered in our pages: the destabilising discussions about the use of DNA in determining educational intervention; the increasing influence of AI; the frightening rise in cases of anxiety among young people; the battles over how we teach children the foundation stone of education - reading; the realisation of just how complex language complications really are; and the fight for the heart of the early years.

These areas of debate and others like them will not find easy resolution and we will aim to cover every turn of each argument.

But let’s not forget that there is one other crucial job of this magazine not yet mentioned: to celebrate those who work in schools. We do this to remind the education community of how important they are and why what they do matters so much. And we do this to ensure that everyone else remembers those things, too.

The end of print won’t change any of this. It just means we are evolving to ensure that we can continue to do what we have done for 111 years: help those working in schools to be the very best they can be so that they, in turn, can give every child the very best chance of success in life.

Jon Severs is the editor of Tes. 

This article originally appeared in the 24 December 2021 issue under the headline “Tes is turning the page - but we’ll remain right by your side”