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A week in the life of Ed Vainker

Following the Prime Minister’s Sunday evening announcement, Ed Vainker’s lockdown diary reveals a steady ship amid stormy seas

James Pope’s top edu blogs of the week, 18 May 2020

Re-prioritising education, gearing up for change, the tensions that causes and the need to celebrate those who will implement it are James Pope’s top picks of the education topics   A New Broom @MoreMorrow Focusing on how Covid-19 has exposed the inequalities in our society, Dan Morrow writes about the need to take our collective […]

Review: How Learning Happens by Paul Kirschner and Carl Hendrick

Kirschner and Hendrick cut through the misconceptions that lead to poor application of evidence in the classroom, writes Amir Arezoo Evidence-based practice. We know all of the answers, right? Frequent and regular testing will help students remember better. Developing a growth mindset increases your chances of success in life. Being a good problem solver is […]

The Cardinal Wiseman Catholic School

Jess Staufenberg meets a headteacher for whom a project for refugee children is a career high point Tom Leverage, executive principal at Cardinal Wiseman School, has many strings to his bow. He’s worked in everything from the private, state, and special educational needs schools sectors before his current post at a Catholic academy in a […]

Governing boards will need even more flexibility as schools begin to reopen

As the NGA launches its 2020 governance survey, chief executive, Emma Knights praises the transformation of boards’ practices and warns of more challenges ahead There has been a revolution in the way governing board meetings are held. As with much of governance, it has been going on under the radar, but it has been a […]

Penny’s podcasts, 11 May 2020

This week, Penny Rabiger casts her net wide for podcasts to stretch her educational thinking   Boys Don’t Try For some no-nonsense discussion around boys, masculinities, class and how these play out in schools, here’s a podcast by the authors of the book Boys Don’t Try. The second episode explores the impact that disadvantage has, […]

A week in the life of David Preece

With university application season in disarray, UCAS coordinator, David Preece finds he is missing the joy of seeing those big decision moments in person Monday, May 4 It’s all happening so far away from normal. I miss it. It’s two weeks since our sixth form sent out a letter to students explaining what we knew […]

Review: Zero Tolerance. A novel

Mark Aston finds the edu-Dickens he’s been waiting for is undermined by a too-stark representation of good and evil The American philosopher Martha Nussbaum argues for the purpose of literature as a means to explore moral questions. For her, the novel is a “paradigm of moral activity”, permitting us to see overlapping truths play out […]

Why teacher expertise matters – now, and when schools reopen fully

As the government announce a gradual re-opening of schools, Cat Scutt looks at the challenges teachers will be facing and what they will need to begin closing the widening disadvantage gaps The closure of schools to most pupils is a key part of the approach to tackling the Covid-19 pandemic and fully reopening them too […]