JL Dutaut | Schools Week

Can schools make staff vaccination mandatory?

There are good arguments for expecting school staff to get their vaccination against Covid but any policy must consider those who can’t or won’t, writes Paman Singh News of a vaccine is the light at the end of a very long tunnel for many teachers and school staff. Discussions around where in the pecking order […]

Pandemic teacher training is a privilege, not a hardship

The most valuable lesson of teacher training during Covid has been the importance of practising what you teach, writes Amber Smith Term 2 of teacher training and my placement is completely online at this point. I am only able to observe classes, and progress towards teaching is made infinitely harder by the fact that my […]

An inspector (video) calls. Our experience of Ofsted remote visits

The regulator has a difficult balance to strike between accountability and distraction but our Ofsted inspection team got the tone just right, writes Carly Waterman It’s only 18 months ago that – to general acclaim – Ofsted launched its new inspection framework. Since then, the regulator has been relegated to the educational sidelines. Their absence […]

How can we help students transfer learning to new contexts?

Getting students to apply knowledge and skills in new contexts isn’t easy but some approaches are more likely to yield results, writes Harry Fletcher-Wood Let’s say we’ve successfully taught students something new: they understand it, can apply it and retain it. We now face a harder challenge: helping students transfer their learning to new contexts. […]

Lessons from Lockdown by Tony Breslin

Steve Turnbull’s review finds a book with some thought-provoking contributions to imagining post-Covid education, but one grave omission As the nation endures its third lockdown within the space of ten months, it is beyond debate that the Covid pandemic has caused massive and unprecedented disruption to schools. Staff, children and parents alike are under considerable […]

Penny’s Podcasts. 8 February 2021

This half term’s selection of podcasts focuses on LGBT+ representation in schools, from inclusion and anti-bullying to transgender rights Education on Fire podcast @taylormapps This episode focuses on ensuring everyone can show up and be themselves This podcast series shares creative and inspiring learning in schools. The episode I have chosen features Shaun Dellenty, […]

Language teaching will suffer the loss of Erasmus

The programme’s impact on language teaching has been phenomenal and the new Turing scheme will have big shoes to fill, writes Paul Harrison Among the responses to the UK opting out of continuing its membership of the Erasmus+ programme, one of the losses to this country has had little coverage. Much of the focus has […]

Testing times

Emma Marshall opens her lockdown diary to reveal hope for young people’s futures amid testing times for schools

Plotting a ten-year course is the sensible response to Covid

A ten-year education plan like Blackpool’s is precisely the kind of policymaking our communities need and deserve, writes Frank Norris When a town is viewed as having an educational problem, it affects so many things. Senior school leaders looking for a new challenge think twice about applying. Teaching positions, particularly in shortage subjects, go unfilled. […]