Expert Contributor | Schools Week

FGM is child abuse and schools need to talk about it

Every school leader should be aware of the issues of female genital mutilation, says Hibo Wardere. Female genital mutilation (FGM) is a subject many adults feel uncomfortable discussing, but it doesn’t have to be that way. The young people I speak to don’t share the same reticence. I spend most of my week talking with […]

What works for children in the most privileged schools will not work for everyone

While the media continues to focus on the grammar school debate and the issue of selection, I fear we are in danger of overlooking an equally, if not more important determinant in how education can act as a driver for social mobility and enable children of all abilities and backgrounds to thrive. There is a […]

Free school meals are still the best measure of deprivation

It may not be the clearest way to allocate extra funds to disadvantaged pupils, but it’s the best there is, says Alex Sutherland. Every year, the UK government allocates £2.5 billion to state schools to support disadvantaged pupils via the pupil premium. To figure out how to allocate these funds, the government uses free school […]

If you can pass the test you’re in. But who benefits?

The grammar schools proposal could be described as a “great right-wing fraud”, says David Blunkett… pretending you are delivering to the many what you know you can only deliver to the few Next month I will take part in a gathering at Ruskin College, Oxford, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of a seminal speech on education […]

Teacher transfer window: Why can’t we fill our vacancies 365-days-a-year?

The idiosyncratic “teacher transfer windows” model is failing schools and teachers. Notice periods for teachers should come into line with those of the private sector, says Frank Norris. The football transfer window, an agreed period of time when players can transfer from one club to another, has closed for another four months. These two artificial […]

Small schools should keep meals subsidy until national funding formula comes in

After a leaked report revealed the DfE knew small schools needed extra funds to provide free meals – yet still ended their subsidy – Barbara Taylor issues a fair-funding challenge to government Following a successful initiative giving free fruit to infants, the concept of free infant school meals, providing healthy, nourishing food at lunchtime, was […]

Theresa May should take a look in the mirror on grammar schools

Theresa May’s policy to expand academic selection by allowing grammar schools to expand and other schools to select some of their pupils is an exercise in Orwellian double think. On the Radio 4 Today programme this morning Justine Greening tied herself up in knots trying to argue that grammar schools represented increased choice, an argument […]

Can church schools become stand-alone academies?

Question: Is the memorandum of understanding between the Department for Education and the Church of England/Catholic Church a legally binding document? Can church schools become stand-alone academies or do they have to become part of a diocesan-led trust? Victoria says: In order to answer the above, we need to look first at how a church school […]