JL Dutaut

  • Five priorities to help trusts come back stronger

    Running ‘trust diaganostics’ has revealed the common challenges all MATs face in unlocking improvement in the coming months, writes David Carter When I first stepped into the trust CEO role ten years ago, I was set the challenge leading school improvement across three very different schools. Despite being one of the most vibrant, multicultural cities…

    9.29 Jul. 13th, 2020 | Opinion

  • How to prepare for a likely summer of subject access requests

    This year’s appeals process will be far from straightforward, say Esther Maxwell and Geraldine Swanton. But schools can avoid unwanted disputes The cancellation of this year’s exams represents an unprecedented challenge to the awarding of grades. Ofqual’s consultation to decide how this should happen determined that awarding calculated grades provided the fairest means of promptly allowing…

    5.00 Jul. 11th, 2020 | Opinion

  • Lockdown diary. A week in the life of...

    Students bring vitality back to school but there is precious little certainty about the future for independent school headteacher, Allana Gay   Monday 29 June Being with each other brings vitality back into the building The final piece falls into place. After rewrites, reconsiderations and reviews, the timetable that brings all our class groups back…

    5.00 Jul. 12th, 2020 | Opinion

  • We must rethink league tables in light of the Covid crisis

    League tables are here to stay, but a different approach could reduce volatility and have long-term benefits for schoo leaders too, write John Jerrim and Loic Menzies Unions and head teachers have said it would be unfair to compare schools’ performance next year, given the uneven impact of lockdown. They are right. There is clear…

    5.00 Jul. 10th, 2020 | Opinion

  • What are the active ingredients of effective teacher development?

    Our research shows the consensus view of how best to conduct effective professional development in education is flawed, write Sam Sims and Harry Fletcher-Wood Effective and sustained professional development is collaborative, subject-specific and practice-based, and should be supported by external expertise and teachers’ buy-in. So goes the consensus view of the research community. But in…

    5.00 Jul. 13th, 2020 | Opinion

  • Schools in their Communities: Taking action and developing civic life

    Gerry Robinson finds this celebration of stakeholder engagement is a life-affirming call to action In many ways, chapter five of Schools in their Communities offers an apt summary of the collection of essays that make up this book. The chapter tells the story of School21’s community choir, a process described as “life-affirming”, “enriching and empowering”. The…

    5.00 Jul. 12th, 2020 | Reviews

  • James Murphy's top edu blogs of the week, 6 July 2020

    This week’s top blogs are all about resisting the pressures of the moment and keeping the main thing the main thing Education is, as we all know, a vast and endlessly complicated subject. One of the main reasons for the deluge of blogs in recent years is that there is much to write about –…

    6.00 Jul. 11th, 2020 | Reviews

  • Careers education must be part of our recovery programme

    This summer, around 800,000 16- and 18-year olds (Yr11 and Yr13) will be collecting their exam results and trying to decide what to do next. But this year is like no other and, as well as having had their exams cancelled, these young people are facing some serious challenges. The post Covid-19 economy will almost…

    15.33 Jul. 8th, 2020 | Opinion

  • The programme placing social workers in schools

    A DfE programme is placing social workers directly in schools – and getting promising results. Schools love it, but what about their new staff member? Jess Staufenberg investigates One set of statistics has made for particularly alarming reading in Whitehall in recent years. The number of pupils needing involvement from social services has been climbing…

    11.51 Jul. 7th, 2020 | Features

  • Lockdown diary. A week in the life of...

    It’s all give, give, give, but the gratification is forever delayed in this week’s lockdown diary from David Phillips   Monday 22 June We discuss the September curriculum, but we are awaiting the government update Key worker provision continues and year 10 and 12 students are starting their second week. Faculty leaders discuss structuring the…

    5.00 Jul. 4th, 2020 | Opinion

  • Flexible governance is key to solving MAT problems

    Many trusts have proved that they are able to cope with the unpredictable – and the flexibility within their structure has helped them, says Sam Henson The pandemic has taught us much about school accountability, but also about the flexibilities school structures give to organisations that need to act quickly and effectively. Across the country,…

    5.00 Jul. 6th, 2020 | Opinion