Jess Staufenberg | Schools Week

Interview: Steve Munby

Steve Munby talks to Jess Staufenberg about why he left the National College for School Leadership and whether we really have a ‘self-improving system’ Talking to Steve Munby is a bit like talking to an embodied, institutional memory of the schools system in England. In 2019 he was as relevant as ever, publishing an education […]

It didn’t matter how good my teaching was – I couldn’t save them

Youth violence has increased significantly in the past decade. Iesha Small talks to Jess Staufenberg about trying to turn the tide Iesha Small can remember students she once taught who have lost their lives to youth violence. The head of change at the Youth Endowment Fund – a charity to reduce youth violence – was […]

Setting up a new think tank is a steep learning curve

Tom Richmond and his think tank get everywhere. How is one man who left teaching twice so influential in the busy world of education policy? Jess Staufenberg finds out You have to admire Tom Richmond’s nerve. There aren’t many teachers who, after three years in the classroom, decided the Department for Education was messing up, […]

Being a research school is about best bets

Five years after they were set up, research schools haven’t enjoyed much public hullabaloo. Jess Staufenberg visits a lead school to find out what’s really been happening James Siddle has always been on a search for good evidence. The headteacher at St Margaret’s Church of England primary, a local authority school in Lincolnshire, used to […]

Interview: Joe Hallgarten

The new chief executive of The Centre for Education and Youth, Joe Hallgarten, is interested in the space for schools to innovate. Here he explains why the think tank stays close to practitioners on the ground The journey to the Centre for Education and Youth – on an incredibly slow bus that stops every 30 […]

The battle for the future of assessment: ‘We must hasten slowly’

Commissions, reviews and reports on the future of assessment and exams are springing up everywhere. Schools Week investigates … The headlines have been building for a while. You will have seen them: “Scrap GCSEs”, “Reform exams”, “Focus on skills”. But some of the recent calls for change are not coming from teaching unions, but from voices […]

Interview: Annamarie Hassall

Annamarie Hassall became chief executive of the National Association for Special Educational Needs last week. The former DfE adviser and social worker explains why she wants ‘more visibility’ for its voice Gavin Williamson has had a lot of sweaty conversations with me,” announces Annamarie Hassall, the new boss at Nasen, rather to my surprise. “I’m […]

Interview: Anne Longfield

The former children’s commissioner Anne Longfield has unfinished business, particularly around child poverty. She tells Jess Staufenberg why she’s leading a new commission Anne Longfield is not often out of the headlines. Once a highly vocal children’s commissioner whose parting shot to the government was that it is “institutionally biased against children”, she’s now back […]

Interview: Nadine Bernard

Nadine Bernard, headteacher at Van Gogh primary school, landed her first headship at one of the most infamous academy controversies. She talks to Jess Staufenberg about facing down ghosts of the past… For Nadine Bernard, letting go of feelings of shame or inadequacy has been at the core of getting to where she is now. […]