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Sweating the small stuff applies to finances as well as results

Rowena Hackwood says her list of efficiency suggestions have prompted a flurry of support, but achieving sustainable savings come from creating a value-for-money culture When it comes to efficiencies, the steps we are taking at DRET make educational and staff sense, as well as giving the trust opportunities to make savings. We are not alone […]

A response to some open letters

Being in the privileged position of re-elected Chair of both the best and most important select committee at Westminster (and I’m not at all biased), I welcome the clear enthusiasm and passion for our role shown by Mark Lehain and Debra Kidd in their open letters to the new committee. It is absolutely right that […]

An open letter to the new members of the Education Select Committee

Congratulations! Not only did you get appointed onto the best of the select committees (I may be biased) but you’ve already been blessed with unsolicited advice on how to conduct your business. May I please take this opportunity to add my tuppenceworth? The education select committee is privileged to have access to the best and […]

An open letter to the new members of the Education Select Committee

Congratulations! Not only did you win an election to Westminster, you’ve now got the cherry on the cake: a place on the most important committee of them all. (I might be a bit biased.) It’s a great opportunity to access additional expertise and experience to ensure education legislation, guidance, and practice are as good as […]

Too little data on restraint puts children at risk

Growing concern about the use of restraint in schools has led the Equality and Human Rights Commission to launch a formal inquiry. Laura Lucking explains why Despite being encouraged to do so, there is no legal duty on schools to record incidents of the use of restraint. As a result, there is a lack of […]

Trainee teachers’ mental health should be ringing alarm bells

Beyond the rhetoric of greater mental health provision in schools for both pupils and staff, not enough has been done – and is being done – to support trainee teachers, writes Emma Hollis It appears that everyone now understands that for teachers to best support children in their care, looking out for their own wellbeing […]

Are teachers leading double lives to make ends meet?

It’s a given that teachers are superheroes but we’re only beginning to unmask their secret identities, writes Laura McInerney Superman was a journalist. Batman a billionaire playboy. But did you know that Spiderman was a teacher? In 2001, J Michael Straczynski took on the authorship of the Marvel comic book series and made Peter Parker […]

Schools and MATs need to take urgent action on GDPR

Data safeguarding is as important as any other safeguarding and more work needs to be done to ensure schools act on that fact, writes Lynne Taylor If these were Ofsted gradings, a political reckoning would be under way. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has audited compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) across over […]

Jon Hutchinson’s top edu blogs of the week, 10 February 2020

Teaching writing, ranking schools, structuring curriculum and powerful knowledge for leaders are Jon Hutchinson’s top picks of the education topics this week   How should we teach writing in primary schools? @solomon_teach Any primary school teacher knows that teaching writing is perhaps the most complex and challenging aspect of the job. Solomon Kingsnorth points out […]