Opinion

Graduate recruiters are clamouring for more talented women – and schools should be afraid

Gender pay rules are making corporations jittery, and rightly so. As Schools Week recently revealed, academy trusts usually have...

Laura McInerney
LAURA MCINERNEY
Opinion

Forget the 11-plus. Is a world without selection at 18 possible?

In a warm marquee tent on Wednesday, I was one of four people debating a motion: “Academic selection is...

Laura McInerney
LAURA MCINERNEY
Opinion

Teachers are the best careers advisors

When did you first decide an academic school subject wasn’t for you? Perhaps it was the day everyone laughed...

Laura McInerney
Laura McInerney
Opinion

How can we improve outcomes for excluded pupils?

Fifteen years ago I met a vicar in a bar in Oxford who had spent 20 years working in...

Laura McInerney
Laura McInerney
Opinion

How should schools manage out-of-hours emails?

Four months ago, Teacher Tapp data revealed that half of teachers had answered emails during the Christmas holidays. This...

Laura McInerney
Laura McInerney
Opinion

The public services Jenga tower is on the brink of collapse

Are schools going to get more money? That’s the question headteachers keep asking – not least at the ASCL...

Laura McInerney
Laura McInerney
Opinion

Teachers: don’t give up in March – you can make it over ‘the wall’!

In marathon races, mile 20 is known as “the wall”, the point when the energy in your muscles runs...

Laura McInerney
Laura McInerney
Opinion

Why flexible working won’t solve the workload problem

Back in the 2000s, “thinking hats” were a mega-cool concept in schools. Available in six different colours, each one...

Laura McInerney
Laura McInerney
Opinion

Battle of the schools: which one gets closed?

In the summer of 2013, the health secretary was stopped in his tracks. Jeremy Hunt’s decision to close the...

Laura McInerney
Laura McInerney