JL Dutaut

  • Profile: Ava Sturridge-Packer

    Ava Sturridge-Packer’s sparkling CV is the result of overcoming injustice, writes Jess Staufenberg It was 1982, and now-education consultant Ava Sturridge-Packer rang a school where she had an upcoming interview to warn she wasn’t Catholic. Invited along anyway, she waited patiently in reception. But the school’s headteacher never appeared. Eventually, his secretary came out and…

    5.00 Jan. 21st, 2020 | Features

  • The Equal Classroom: life-changing thinking about gender

    Leader of inclusion, Claire Nicholls discovers a powerful and helpful book full of righteous anger, but too few expert voices The Equal Classroom opens with a story of unwanted touching. To some, this will be shocking. To others, sadly familiar. It serves as an introduction to Lucy Rycroft-Smith’s style: honest, personal and to the point.…

    5.00 Jan. 19th, 2020 | Reviews

  • James Pope's top edu blogs of the week, 13 January 2020

    Accountability, complexity and diversity, diversity, diversity are the top picks of this week’s education topics Time to find and compare Schools – Start Now @LeadingLearner Stephen Tierney kicks off the new decade with a succinct description of a perennial problem.   Focusing on a seemingly innocuous date in the calendar, the ‘third Thursday in January’, he…

    5.00 Jan. 18th, 2020 | Reviews

  • Funding and pay take centre stage (again) as Commons returns

    Teacher pay increases are likely to dampen funding increases and will be felt unequally across the education system, writes Jon Andrews This week, education returned to the House of Commons with Gavin Williamson given his first opportunity since the election to set out his agenda for schools. There were few surprises in the Conservative manifesto.…

    5.00 Jan. 18th, 2020 | Opinion

  • Save music education to beat the drum for 'Global Britain'

    After nine years of austerity, the Conservatives have promised a spending spree. But will it be enough to rescue music education, asks Matt Griffiths We have seen some big figures bandied about since the general election, all wrapped up in rhetoric about post-Brexit Britain’s place on the global stage. Amid all of that, the government…

    5.00 Jan. 19th, 2020 | Opinion

  • How much do teachers really need to know about the science of learning?

    The last few years have seen an explosion of interest in the science of learning from the education sector. It is informing teachers, whole schools and even national policy, but rethinking our approaches is never completely straightforward. A number of key principles from cognitive science have emerged, as set out in the Deans for Impact…

    5.00 Jan. 20th, 2020 | Opinion

  • Transforming Ofsted's 'stuck schools' is a moral imperative

    The challenges facing 400 ‘stuck’ schools are complex and unique to each, but getting stuck into overcoming them is what all educators should aspire to, writes Julie Slater Ofsted’s finding that more than 400 schools have not been ‘good’ or better since 2006 represents a national scandal. The inspectorate is absolutely right to shine a…

    15.58 Jan. 13th, 2020 | Opinion

  • 'No judgment' can't become Ofsted's new 'inadequate'

    Rethinking the inspectorate’s approach to ‘stuck’ schools is a great idea but the policy isn’t without risks, writes Cassandra Young. This week’s Ofsted announcement gives hope to anyone currently working in a ‘stuck’ school. It’s a proposal that truly offers a better chance for a more constructive, more sustainable model of school improvement. It pushes…

    15.44 Jan. 13th, 2020 | Opinion

  • Government has a dangerous lack of ambition for teacher training

    The teacher training core content framework is an unambitious document, writes David Spendlove. It’s the opposite of what the profession needs to improve retention and recruitment. Rushed out last November – ahead of schedule to avoid election purdah rules – the initial teacher training core content framework (CCF) was an attempt to reverse engineer the…

    13.40 Jan. 10th, 2020 | Opinion

  • What's preventing more schools from accessing apprenticeships?

    Almost three years after the launch of the apprenticeship levy, schools are still struggling to find ways to spend their money. But some schools are bucking the trend. Freddie Whittaker investigates Schools meeting the government’s apprenticeship target have done so by upskilling support staff and even recruiting former pupils, while training companies are now running…

    10.34 Jan. 10th, 2020 | Feature, News

  • What can parental engagement really do for schools?

    My last research piece in these pages looked at the difficulties facing schools when addressing a whole-community issue (fitness and obesity), but what are the challenges when trying to get the community to support a school issue? The research on parental engagement has been fairly consistent over the past few years. It is clear that…

    5.00 Jan. 13th, 2020 | Opinion