JL Dutaut | Schools Week

School support is vital for families being let down by the SEN system

Getting the right placement is fraught and unduly challenging, and school support is vital to families’ uphill battle, writes Bolt Burdon Kemp‘s Mollie Benjamin As a solicitor who acts for children who have suffered brain injuries, I am all too familiar with the difficulties faced by families in navigating the special educational needs (SEN) system and […]

Is future multi-academy trust consolidation inevitable?

Unless the DfE provides an incentive, only a small number of MAT mergers are likely to take place. Dr Chris Hampshire explains why In a recent spat in these pages, National Governance Association CEO Emma Knights signposted ethical concerns with a direction of travel that seems to be towards ever larger MATs. United Learning CEO Jon Coles riposted that we […]

The recovery will need funding – but just what sums are required?

New analysis by the EPI shows the scale of ambition needed to ensure the pandemic recovery plan sets children’s lives right, writes Luke Sibieta For many months, disruption has dominated young lives. Most have missed more than half a year of normal schooling and been starved of childhood experiences. The prime minister has responded with a pledge that no child will be “left behind as a result of the learning […]

Lost generation? This could be the luckiest!

Covid has been damaging in the short-term, but its legacy could see this generation of students benefit from a vastly improved education system, says Matthew Kleiner-Mann The past year’s ceaseless flow of negative headlines has caused us to coin the phrase ‘doomscrolling’. That’s bad enough for adults, but imagine being a child reading again and again about Covid’s ‘lost generation’.  Many have lost loved ones. All have lost some […]

Classrooms are vital to the fight against racism

Stephen Lawrence Day is a reminder that while fighting racism is complex, the educational goal is a simple one, writes Deborah Lawson This Thursday marks Stephen Lawrence Day. A day to celebrate the life and legacy of a young man whose premature death forced a nation to rethink its attitude to race. A day to […]

Robin Conway’s blogs of the week, 19 April 2021

This week’s top blogs cover verbal feedback, non-specialist teaching, video lessons, re-aligning priorities and the transition ‘language leap’ Making the Move from Written Marking Towards Verbal Feedback. Some Practical Tips. @sarahlarsen74 A powerful case for the validity of these feedback methods I am probably not alone in still doing far too much written marking despite […]

Research: Is all our evidence all it’s cracked up to be?

Three new studies call into question the evidence base for feedback, growth mindsets and deliberate practice, reveals Harry Fletcher-Wood The potential of feedback, growth mindset and deliberate practice to boost learning has become familiar through repetition in books, blog posts and training sessions. We don’t always have time to unearth the roots of these claims, but three recent studies have, each shedding new light on the strengths and limits of these approaches. The […]

Young people on the margins

Melissa Benn finds a book that’s both subtle and harrowing, and full of evidence-based lessons on preventing the marginalisation of vulnerable young people Young People On the Margins is a valuable and lucid account of the multiple ways in which generations of vulnerable young people have been failed by our education system and by society itself, […]

A tribute to a great patron for teaching and teachers

The passing of the Chartered College’s patron punctuates a challenging year for the profession but the Duke of Edinburgh’s support for teachers should continue to drive us forward, writes Alison Peacock In 2017, the Duke of Edinburgh relinquished his patronage of many organisations. We were delighted that the Chartered College of Teaching was not one […]