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Home learning: STEM projects could benefit children, families and schools

Keeping students engaged in STEM while schools are shut presents unique challenges. To solve those, Jane Dowden says project-based learning is an idea whose time has come If things are hard for teachers and schools in this crisis, they are certainly no easier for families acclimatising to home learning. As mentioned in these pages last […]

A level grades could prejudice university admissions

The most disadvantaged students could lose their hard-won offers from competitive institutions if universities are content to rely on this year’s A level grades, writes Jane Cahill Universities must consider whether they can trust the new grade allocations announced last week. It is comforting that higher education institutions have pledged to work with schools during […]

Pause reforms that are putting teacher training at higher risk

Teacher training is already facing severe challenges because of COVID-19 and reforms due to be implemented this year threaten the sector with a perfect storm, writes Professor David Spendlove As the political parlance goes, you should never let a crisis go to waste. In 2010, in response to the banking crisis, the coalition government launched […]

School closures are a catalyst for much-needed reform

Closures have revealed the inadequacies of our school system and are causing us to rethink what we value. Are we ready to be the change we want to see? asks Alice Barnard In a matter of weeks the world and our lives as we know them have changed. We’ve seen the call for engineers to […]

Adversity alone doesn’t build character, but teachers can

Schools provide much more than academic learning, and home education shouldn’t mean students miss out on the important aspect of character development, writes Rachael Hunter With the announcement of school closures came a raft of online materials to support parents with home learning. Three weeks on, schools are already settling into providing students with work, […]

How to build sustained and sustainable remote learning

As schools’ attention naturally shifts from crisis management to establishing new norms, Giancarlo Brotto offers some insights on how to build sustainably The urgency of school closures meant that many children were sent home with a hard copy learning pack to keep them going for a short period. But when the activities in the packs […]

Why this is not the time for large-scale educational experiments

At this time of rapid and dramatic change for teachers, the best solution is to keep calm and carry on with what we know works. Daniel Muijs, Dominique Sluijsmans and their co-authors draw on their forthcoming book, Lessons for Learning: 12 Building Blocks for Effective Teaching to set out what that is The sudden switch […]

The trailblazer programme aiming to improve mental health support

Jess Staufenberg visits Greenshaw High School, where a new programme is bringing health and education together to improve mental health In the canteen at Greenshaw High School in south London is a door with a sign that reads The Junction. Posters in nearby corridors point pupils to an online counselling service with questions such as […]

Jon Hutchinson’s top edu blogs of the week, 30 March 2020

Avoiding the blame game, not over-complicating things, building on trust and making time for reflection are Jon Hutchinson’s picks of this week’s education topics   Gloves off: school leadership in uncertain times @Missis_SCS Headteacher Sallie Stanton treats us to an hilarious anecdote setting out a scene in which she yo-yos from disinfecting the kitchen to […]