Expert Contributor | Schools Week

Don’t ditch internal data in inspections

School leaders will surely welcome Ofsted’s stated intention to ‘dial down’ the influence that data has on inspection outcomes and the consequent reduction that this will have on workload, but as ever, the devil is in the detail, says Ian Hartwright The draft inspection handbook goes much further than ‘dialling down’. From September Ofsted proposes […]

Leading on Pastoral Care

I have to admit to being annoyed that I didn’t write this book… or, even better, that I wasn’t able to read it earlier in my career. It would have saved me a huge amount of time over the 13 years I’ve spent teaching. The author starts by making a clear social justice argument supported […]

No to cost-cutting, yes to optimisation

There is an important distinction between efficiency in the context of austerity and the optimisation of available resources, says Stephen Morales The role of the school business leader is to work with the resources that are available and to make sure they stretch as far as possible in the interests of the learning community that […]

Amir Arezoo’s top blogs of the week 25 Mar 2019

This is interleaving: a concrete example @MrTSci409 I am an advocate of evidence-based practice. The problem is the number of filters (blogs, presentations, conversations, books etc) from the original source (ie, the academic literature). The greater variety of filters and media through which the evidence is presented, the greater likelihood of misconceptions – all of […]

Improving the oral language skills of disadvantaged pupils

One barrier common to disadvantaged pupils across our trust is poor oral language and communication skills on entry. Aspirer Research School is based within a multi-academy trust of ten primary schools across the northwest (most with above-average proportions of disadvantaged pupils). We use a range of diagnostic tools to assess pupils’ language skills, including Wellcomm […]

These children need more than a system of escalating consequences

Ofsted’s new framework must recognise the enormous hurdles that some children have to overcome – and inspectors must make sure that funding to support them is used in the right way, says Becky White At three years old, Jade* often ate until she was sick. In between meals, she sneaked other people’s leftovers out of […]

Secondary moderns can be really great schools too

“High scores” in school accountability measures does not always mean that grammars are better schools, says Ian Widdows The grammar school debate inevitably triggers passionate responses on both sides. But many of the arguments put forward share a common factor – an assumption that grammar schools are “superior” to their non-selective, secondary modern neighbours. A […]

For richer, for poorer – should MATs have a joint bank account?

What are the pros and cons of pooling funds across a multi academy trust? Mat Smith takes a look… Lord Agnew, the under-secretary of state for the school system, stated that one of the greatest freedoms a multi academy trust has is the ability to pool its schools’ funds into a central pot. His stance […]

The Unexpected Leader

Serendipity: I had just come home from an afternoon talking to a group of NPQH trainees and had been struck by the diverse group of would-be headteachers in the room. One of the senior teachers had approached me and said, “I like what you said, but I could never be you!”. “Thank goodness for that,” […]