Laura McInerney | Schools Week

Sorry, Mr Slater, schools can’t make any more savings

This week Jonathan Slater, the head of the education department, said that if the bottom 75 per cent of schools became as efficient as the most cost-effective 25 per cent of schools then the flat education budget of the next few years wouldn’t be a problem. He knows that isn’t going to happen. It’s optimistic […]

Alison Peacock, CEO, Chartered College of Teaching

According to documents squirrelled away on the Charities Commission website, the new (and not uncontroversial) Chartered College of Teaching aims to “advance education for the benefit of the public” by “the establishment of an independent voluntary and chartered member-driven professional body”. On its website, the organisation says it will “raise the status of the profession […]

When did schools ban corporal punishment?

There is a division running rife through the Schools Week office and it’s not just which radio station we should play as we work. It’s the split between those who attended school when corporal punishment was still possible, and those who cannot believe that there was ever such a thing. This is because the answer […]

Tests for sale makes a mockery of selection

Where, exactly, is the line of “this has gone too far”? That’s a question teachers have to consider almost constantly. When is a pupil “too” loud? When is a short skirt “too” short? One of the main reasons schools have so many rules is to try to avoid the psychological energy needed for such decisions. […]

Why we didn’t do the ‘disadvantage’ school league tables this year…

For the past two years Schools Week won love for publishing annual tables of schools getting great outcomes for pupils from lower-income families. But this year we have changed course. Editor Laura McInerney explains why. I’m going to make a confession. The award-winning Schools Week ‘disadvantage league tables’, which we first published in January 2015, […]

1 in 5 sixth form colleges starts academy conversion process

A fifth of sixth form colleges have already sent formal proposals to convert to academy status, the academies minister has revealed. Lord Nash (pictured above) made the announcement in front of more than 100 college leaders at the sixth form college association’s conference in London today. Schools Week’s sister paper FE Week previously reported that around 70 per cent of sixth […]

The long and the short of school uniforms

Last week a school in Kent gained national headlines for sending home girls whose skirts were deemed as too short. Uniform stories are not rare. Most weeks at least one will surface in a local rag. If the subject is outlandish enough, the national press will also pile in. Headteachers will defend their right to […]

Steve Taylor, executive headteacher, Robin Hood primary academy

On an unremarkable road in Hall Green, on the outskirts of Birmingham city centre, sits a small brick hut that is the front to Robin Hood academy. Beyond its unassuming doors is a labyrinthine school, extending on through tunnel-like corridors, and 38-year-old Steve Taylor is in charge of it all. As executive head of a […]

We can see mentally ill pupils, but what do we do?

I once cried on the tube in London. Tears dripped down my face, an inconsolable stream barely contained by my wet hands. I no longer remember what I was crying about. But I do remember the kindness of a hunched Nigerian woman, dressed in her Sunday best, who from her seat opposite, was watching me […]