What do we look for in an ideal member of the House of Lords? They should bring with them a range of personal and professional experiences, which they can draw upon as they interrogate ministers, contribute to debates and examine legislation. Being able to consider issues from a number of different perspectives means laws that […]
If you’re a school obsessive like me, then today is one of the major feast days on the ‘edugeek’ calendar. Yes, it’s provisional GCSE results day! You can now go and look up how every secondary school in the country did in the exams last summer. If you’re a parent of a child in Year […]
Have you ever seen the note that George H Bush sent Bill Clinton on his first day in office? It’s a beautiful thing for many reasons, but the line that’s always stood out for me is this one: ‘You will be our President when you read this note. I wish you well. I wish your […]
After all the rumours and off-record briefings, yesterday we finally found out what the Prime Minister means by long-term decisions for a brighter future. And when it comes to schools, it means pretty substantial changes to what and how 16 to 19-year-olds study. So it’s bye-bye to A and T-levels and many of the other […]
Labour’s U-turn over stripping charitable status from private schools is not a complete surprise. It was never going to be an easy venture. Undoing centuries of charity law to target one particular type of organisation wasn’t going to end well for anyone other than the lawyers required in the inevitable court cases. Labour is still […]
Ah, back-to-school time. That lovely feeling of new shoes and stationery. The excitement of fresh starts. The smell of new exercise books and whiteboard pens. Recent times have seen some new things added to the season. Heated debates about what pupils should and shouldn’t be taught about contested topics. Teacher pay and industrial action. Reform […]
Having run a school myself for five years, I know first hand that there’s never a good time to close a school at short notice. Having to do so just before staff and students are due back for a new school year is pretty awful. And to have to do it because there is a […]
Every family that chooses boarding school will have their own reasons for doing so. For some it’s a long-standing tradition. For others it’s because it offers their child opportunities that they’d otherwise not have living at home. And for some it’s because their parents move around with work, or aren’t at home enough to provide […]
There are some terrible ideas in education that just refuse to die. Whether it’s ‘learning styles’, ‘project-based learning’, ‘teaching kids critical thinking’ or some other equally unevidenced concept, like the monster in a horror movie, just when you think you’ve seen the last of them they rise from the dead to cause more havoc. One […]
Given the harsh rhetoric used only last week during the latest school strikes, to have the teaching unions, Education Secretary and Prime Minister unite yesterday to announce they’d agreed a deal on pay was pretty damned amazing. It’s a great example of what politicians and officials can achieve, away from the public eye, when they […]
In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death, taxes… and schools being criticised for having and enforcing rules. The current storm-in-a-tweetcup is about a secondary school locking (most of) its toilets during lessons. Apparently, asking teenagers to go as long as a whole hour between toilet trips is an infringement on […]
I wondered aloud back in February what Labour’s ‘mission’ for education would look like. Yesterday we finally found out. And for the most part it’s pretty thin gruel. Labour has done an excellent job of engaging significant parts of the sector in recent times. I know quite a few really great people who have been […]
However you feel about the prospect of Labour winning the next election, if they do they should at least be ready to rule. In particular, our children need them to hit the ground running with an evidence-informed platform. And right now, listening to Labour’s schools policies, it just doesn’t feel like that. Instead, it feels […]
Whether you want people to be healthier, happier, richer or live longer lives, education is pretty much a silver bullet. Schools play a key part in this, and they have improved markedly in England in the last few decades. There is no doubt that the pandemic and its aftermath have made things much harder, but […]
If the briefing to The Sun is anything to go by, then pretty soon we should finally see the guidance for schools on all things related to gender identity and trans issues. Work on this was kicked off several Education Secretaries ago, by Nadhim Zahawi. In the absence of clear direction from the Government, schools […]
As long as there are children to be educated there will be debates as to what they should be taught. That is only right and natural in a free society. There are at least as many opinions as to the purpose of education as there are families, and what you think that purpose is will […]
Amidst all the difficulties schools currently face, the results from the 2021 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) released today are a ray of sunshine. Only Singapore, Hong Kong and Russia – places that have long been lauded for educational excellence – are ahead of England in the PIRLS rankings now. This is because […]
There aren’t many benefits to being an opposition party but one of the few is the opportunity to think deeply about what you’d do when you get back into government. Without the burdens or media spotlight that comes with power, opposition gives people a chance to get a clear idea of their priorities. It also […]
The neverending debate about what and how Ofsted inspects has really heated up in recent weeks. We’ve had unions call for inspections to be paused, and threaten legal action if they’re not. Various Headteachers have gone public with the impact that poor judgements have had on their mental health and careers. Some have even shared […]
Today hundreds of thousands of families found out which primary school their children have been offered a place at for this September. It can be a truly nerve-wracking experience. Getting your child off to a good start in their schooling is vital, and for many parents only School X or Y will do. The good […]
