JL Dutaut | Schools Week

The Ofsted Annual Report Launch

The Wars of the Reformers are in full swing, and Jonathan Simons had a front-row seat as the monarchy pushed back against unruly barons this week I’m reading a child’s Shakespeare series to my daughter at the moment. We’ve just got onto Richard III, where the protagonist explains that, when fighting has stopped and one […]

Julia Skinner’s top edu blogs of the week, 20 January 2020

Cultural capital, lifelong learning, diversity, leadership and, of course, governance are Julia Skinner’s top picks of this week’s education topics Cultural Capital Matters @LTeacher123 As soon as the word ‘culture’ became prominent in Ofsted’s frameworks, its definition has been the subject of much debate, some of it heated, and I have to admit that I’m […]

How can we prevent teacher burnout?

Harry Fletcher-Wood reviews recent findings on the causes and consequences of burnout, and effective strategies for its prevention According to the World Health Organisation, people who suffer burnout lack energy, feel greater distance or cynicism about their job and are less professionally effective. Left unchecked, burnout can cause disaffection and lead teachers to quit their […]

The best bets for having a good BETT

Love it or hate it, if you’re going to the 2020 BETT show, Cat Scutt has some tips to make sure you get the most out of it I have something of a love-hate relationship with the BETT show. On a practical level, its scale is such that after just a couple of hours wandering […]

Profile: Ava Sturridge-Packer

Ava Sturridge-Packer’s sparkling CV is the result of overcoming injustice, writes Jess Staufenberg It was 1982, and now-education consultant Ava Sturridge-Packer rang a school where she had an upcoming interview to warn she wasn’t Catholic. Invited along anyway, she waited patiently in reception. But the school’s headteacher never appeared. Eventually, his secretary came out and […]

The Equal Classroom: life-changing thinking about gender

Leader of inclusion, Claire Nicholls discovers a powerful and helpful book full of righteous anger, but too few expert voices The Equal Classroom opens with a story of unwanted touching. To some, this will be shocking. To others, sadly familiar. It serves as an introduction to Lucy Rycroft-Smith’s style: honest, personal and to the point. […]

Funding and pay take centre stage (again) as Commons returns

Teacher pay increases are likely to dampen funding increases and will be felt unequally across the education system, writes Jon Andrews This week, education returned to the House of Commons with Gavin Williamson given his first opportunity since the election to set out his agenda for schools. There were few surprises in the Conservative manifesto. […]

James Pope’s top edu blogs of the week, 13 January 2020

Accountability, complexity and diversity, diversity, diversity are the top picks of this week’s education topics Time to find and compare Schools – Start Now @LeadingLearner Stephen Tierney kicks off the new decade with a succinct description of a perennial problem. Focusing on a seemingly innocuous date in the calendar, the ‘third Thursday in January’, he […]

Save music education to beat the drum for ‘Global Britain’

After nine years of austerity, the Conservatives have promised a spending spree. But will it be enough to rescue music education, asks Matt Griffiths We have seen some big figures bandied about since the general election, all wrapped up in rhetoric about post-Brexit Britain’s place on the global stage. Amid all of that, the government […]