Jess Staufenberg | Schools Week

Civil servants spend too much time in a room with other civil servants

After four years in the job, Jonathan Slater was unceremoniously sacked as permanent secretary of the Department for Education. Now he’s calling for much more accountability within the civil service Jonathan Slater is on the phone to one of his daughters. The former Department for Education permanent secretary and his family have just moved to […]

Next year’s exams could be statistically contentious if we don’t act now

Clear conversations about next year’s exams are needed right away, writes Sharon Witherspoon The last two years have been a rollercoaster when it comes to exams. While last year the government abandoned their poorly considered plans to use an algorithm to award individual grades, this year they took a different approach and delegated responsibility to […]

Ahead of results, let’s remember how hard everyone’s worked

Both the workload and the level of responsibility staff have shouldered in providing accurate results need to be duly recognised, writes Julie McCulloch With A-level and other results imminent, let’s just remind ourselves how we got here. Because this is, of course, a results day like no other. The global pandemic and the educational disruption […]

Our proposals on home education need not be intrusive

MPs understand that if council powers are used inappropriately it will negatively impact relationships, writes Robert Halfon This week, cross-party colleagues and I on the House of Commons education select committee were delighted to see the release of our report, Strengthening Home Education. This report brought together the input of experts such as former children’s […]

Here’s how to solve the ‘hyper problem’ of interrupted learning

Delivering ‘more but faster’ is not what the evidence advises about improving learning, writes Tim Oates The development of a national approach to “learning after interruption” has been controversial. There are plenty of headline grabbing suggestions about what we might do, but it’s tricky to all at once hold in our heads everything we need to do. It’s one of those […]

PE departments shouldn’t make girls ashamed of their bodies

Women in the Olympics still have their outfits policed more than men – and it’s the same for girls in schools, writes Jules Daulby The 2021 Olympics sends a positive message to all girls in schools. More GB women than ever before are in Tokyo and these role models could encourage more girls into sport. […]

Introducing… Ndidi Okezie

Ndidi Okezie has done that rare thing and crossed the divide between teaching and youth work. Always the problem-solver, she’s now launching a cross-sector leadership programme If you’re a real education nerd, you might recognise Ndidi Okezie’s dulcet tones – and infectious giggle – from the Are You Convinced? podcast. The general premise is that Okezie and Teacher Tapp’s Laura […]

Introducing… Peps Mccrea

Peps Mccrea is ‘obsessed with the mechanics of teaching’. Here he explains why he wants to take the mystery out of the classroom Peps Mccrea, dean of learning design at Ambition Institute, must have one of the best names (and possibly one of the best job titles) in education. It certainly makes him a memorable […]

The Interview: Roger Taylor

Roger Taylor, the former chair of Ofqual, has spent much of his life thinking and writing about transparency and data. Here he says why no algorithm would have worked – and why Ofqual didn’t share it “An unsolvable problem.” That is how Roger Taylor, former chair of Ofqual, describes what the regulator was tasked with […]