It is Friday, 27 February 2026. It is currently 10°C and cloudy in Sheffield, with a chance of light rain pushing through during the afternoon.

Today, we are looking at a disturbance at Fir Vale Secondary School, the long-awaited plans to bring hundreds of new homes to the former Cannon Brewery site in Neepsend, and Sheffield City Council backing a push to keep smartphones out of children's hands until they are 14. We also have £10 million approved for special needs places in the city's schools, the tree campaigners who fought the council for a decade finally getting their plaque at Town Hall, and The Full Monty heading home to Sheffield to mark its 30th anniversary.

A fight between students at Fir Vale Academy on Owler Lane escalated into wider disorder across the school grounds just after midday on Thursday. South Yorkshire Police were called as the situation spread beyond the initial altercation.

Several staff and students picked up minor injuries not needing treatment. One staff member was taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries, though police confirmed these were not the result of an assault, and that person has since been discharged.

No weapons were found and no arrests were made. Pupils left safely at the end of the day.

Officers are carrying out high-visibility patrols in the area and will continue supporting the school through Friday. Anyone with information can report online or call 101, quoting incident 303 of 26 February 2026.

Capital & Centric has submitted detailed plans to Sheffield City Council for the first phase of redevelopment at the former Cannon Brewery site in Neepsend.

The application covers 252 flats across three new buildings of up to six storeys on the southern half of the site, bordered by Neepsend Lane and Boyland Street. Studio, one-, two-, and three-bedroom flats are all in the mix.

The old brew house and water tower won't be knocked down. Both will be converted into commercial and community space, with additional ground-floor commercial units in two of the new buildings.

The site has sat empty since Stones Brewery closed in 1999. Outline permission for the wider scheme, which includes around 530 flats in total, was granted in July 2024.

Sheffield City Council's Education, Children and Families Policy Committee has thrown its weight behind the Smartphone Free Childhood campaign, after hearing from its South Yorkshire regional leader earlier this month.

A petition launched by the campaign in November 2025 gathered over 800 signatures in two months. Its 'parent pact', a pledge to withhold smartphones until age 14 and social media until 16, has drawn more than 2,500 sign-ups across South Yorkshire.

Committee Chair Councillor Dawn Dale told the meeting she shares concerns about children's wellbeing, online safety and social development, and said the goal is to support healthy childhoods rather than take an anti-technology stance.

The Chair proposed setting up a short-term working group to consult campaigners, councillors, schools, unions and parents on next steps.

The national Smartphone Free Childhood campaign was founded in 2024 and has since grown to more than 350,000 members.

Sheffield City Council approved £10 million in government funding on Monday to create 220 specialist places for children with special educational needs across mainstream schools in the city.

The cash, from the Department for Education, will also part-fund a new 80-place SEN school covering key stages 2 to 4, and expand existing specialist provision.

The idea is straightforward: children with SEND needs shouldn't have to travel across the city to get the right support. Councillor Dawn Dale told the meeting she wants every child to feel they belong in their own neighbourhood school.

But the mood wasn't entirely celebratory. Councillor Douglass Johnson said at Monday's meeting: "£10M might sound like a lot, but in this context it doesn't sound like nearly enough for the task that is facing the city." Strategic Commission Manager Matthew Peers echoed that, saying the council needs to spend the money wisely.

Councillor Angela Argenzio, a former secondary school teacher, went further at the meeting, warning that similar approaches have been tried before and will only work if properly enforced.

Sheffield Tree Action Group is getting a plaque at Sheffield Town Hall, recognising its decade-long campaign against what it called the unnecessary felling of healthy street trees across the city.

The unveiling takes place on Friday, 6 March at 12:30pm.

STAG grew out of protests against tree felling under the council's 'Streets Ahead' contract, which ran from 2012 to 2018. Tree felling paused in 2018 following a change in the council's approach, and the Sheffield Street Tree Partnership Strategy was signed in 2021 by both the council and anti-felling campaigners.

Current member Shelley Cockayne told the meeting that the plaque represents the vindication the group had long sought, and the council finally acknowledging it had been wrong.

STAG has also recently been awarded nearly £8,000 in legal funds, which it plans to use to plant more street trees in low-canopy, high-deprivation areas of the city.

A major new UK and Ireland tour of The Full Monty will open in Sheffield on 15 January 2027, marking thirty years since the film first came out. The production is presented by The Everyman Theatre Cheltenham and Buxton Opera House, with producers Mark Goucher and David Pugh.

Written by Simon Beaufoy, who won an Academy Award for Slumdog Millionaire, the stage show follows Gaz and his mates as they plan a strip performance in the face of unemployment and lost purpose. After Sheffield, the tour takes in Cardiff, Nottingham, Manchester, Glasgow, Liverpool, Birmingham and more.

Director Michael Gyngell leads the creative team. Further casting is still to be announced. For a city that gave the world Gaz, Dave and the lads, it feels only right that Sheffield gets to see them come home first.

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