JL Dutaut | Schools Week

Book review: The Educated Guess

Do you know how a fridge works? Think carefully before answering. Most people say yes, but when tested we realise we don’t know very much at all. We mistake basic familiarity with understanding. This is one of the many ‘thinking biases’ explored in The Educated Guess, a book designed to make us aware of our […]

Change management lessons for education policy makers

As our system continues to struggle to improve the achievement of learners from poorer backgrounds, Mel Ainscow argues the ‘what works’ mantra is symptomatic of a failure to grasp the complexities of change management This month, another school in England has been rapped for off-rolling in the full knowledge, and with the support, of its […]

The computer science revolution needs processing power

The new computing curriculum in England regards computer science in exactly the same way as the more familiar natural sciences. This is an ambitious recoding of the curriculum, says NCCE chair Simon Peyton Jones, but do we have the capacity to deliver it? Ask yourself this: why do we invite every child to learn elementary […]

Kate Owbridge’s top edu-blogs of the week, 14 October 2019

How to grow a school @PTE_Campaign Mark Lehain, the director of Parents and Teachers for Excellence, takes time out from the Tory Party conference to visit MEA Central, a new secondary in Levenshulme, Manchester. I don’t blame him, I’d take time out of any party conference to visit a school! I got a sense […]

Book review: The Teacher’s Guide to Research

At the heart of Jonathan Firth’s book is the premise that “research is a key part of teacher professionalism”. All good research questions its own assumptions, and The Teacher’s Guide to Research tips its hat to that by opening, somewhat rhetorically, on a question. Firth asks: if education is not informed by research, then what […]

Profile: Loic Menzies

An 11-year-old Loic Menzies made a choice many parents completing secondary school applications this month would struggle to support. As his time at Newham Croft primary in Cambridge ended, he chose to forego the nearby and well-reputed Parkside and Comberton schools to attend the more distant and (at the time) more challenging Chesterton Community College. […]

Can schools be expected to solve the obesity crisis?

Setting aside the moral question as to whether this is what schools should be doing, how easy is it to actually make a difference? A school’s core activities are difficult enough. Where activities are, arguably, tangential to that core, the challenges may be even greater. Schools are often seen as the first line of defence […]

Challenges weigh on undervalued school business leaders

Survey results show a bleak and unsustainable situation for the school business leadership community. Hilary Goldsmith calls for action in the face of impending crisis At the start of September, 324 respondents completed my survey of school business leadership (SBL) salaries across the UK. I asked a number of questions about how SBLs are regarded […]

Case studies will help to show the benefits of flexible working

The fifth #WomenEd unconference highlighted the need for flexible working to become standard in schools, says Vivienne Porritt. But she admits that won’t happen without collaboration and a willingness to innovate When 300 women and men gathered at Sheffield Hallam University recently for #WomenEd’s unconference, values-led discussions were the hallmark of the event. They included […]