JL Dutaut | Schools Week

Current guidance is failing clinically vulnerable families

Ministers appear to either not understand or not care about the plight of clinically vulnerable parents and guidance only add to their woes, writes Margaret Greenwood For many of the children who live in homes where someone is clinically extremely vulnerable, this year has been especially challenging. It can be hard enough to cope when […]

Christmas reading for teachers and school leaders 2020

What do you get the teacher who has everything? Books of course. JL Dutaut picks 10 you won’t want to have missed from 2020’s bumper slate For curriculum thinkers The Fascist Painting Phil Beadle John Catt Educational “Since its inclusion in Ofsted’s inspection handbook, cultural capital has become a well-worn phrase in schools. But […]

Penny’s podcasts, 7 December 2020

This week’s podcast review focuses on the perspectives of parents and carers of school-aged children. Nice White Parents @serial As a teacher, if you want to understand schools, you have to include the voices, views and ways that parents and carers can influence, or be influenced by them. And if you want to understand […]

Research: How can we foster effective teacher collaboration?

Offline or on, effective collaboration shares some common traits. Cat Scutt explores the evidence about making the most of bringing people together Research suggests that opportunities for teacher collaboration are a key feature of school environments where teachers have higher job satisfaction and continue to develop their effectiveness over time. Not only that, but Matthew […]

The year in governance: New ways of working and new ways of seeing

Governing bodies have discovered new – and sometimes better – ways of working, but more importantly they have seen their school communities in a new light, writes Ruby Bhatti Like other governors everywhere, when the pandemic struck I initially felt helpless in the face of the challenges my schools were facing. The whole world of […]

The year in alternative provision: When we became inclusion leaders

Colleagues were sceptical but my shift into alternative provision is now a source of learning for all, says Hammad Ali For many teachers and school leaders, 2020 will be remembered for the prolonged disruption that came with bubbles, blended learning and school closures. My own professional upheaval began, not during the first lockdown of March, […]

The year in special schools: We have redefined what ‘good’ looks like

During the darkest days of the pandemic, teaching staff dug deep and came up with innovative and creative solutions, writes Madelaine Caplin It is said that something good comes out of every crisis. In the midst of it, that can be hard to see and even harder to say; but as we take our annual opportunity […]

The year in secondary: When we learned how vital our schools are

The fundamental lesson of the pandemic is how much teachers and schools matter to the neighbourhoods they serve – and in a huge variety of ways, says Rita Hindocha An image from March 2020: desperate to continue learning, a year 9 girl sits outside her closed local McDonald’s to catch the wifi and do her […]

The year in primary: A challenging one – but I’ve had worse

The pandemic has brought out the best and the worst in people. In the spirit of Christmas, Kate Owbridge presents the best Stressful. Unexpected. Extraordinary. And not even the worst year I have ever had as a school leader. Why not? In my worst year as a head, the thing that nearly destroyed me was […]