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29 April 2026

Author: Laura McInerney

Jon Yates, strategy director, the Challenge

Jon Yates is slender, ginger and no longer in a meeting that he should be in. He is on the phone being harassed by me – and it’s all the Queen’s fault. Amid weeks of chat about academy conversions, almost no one noticed that new laws were being planned (and announced in Wednesday’s Queen’s Speech) […]

Ignore social media, pupils can cope with hard GCSE exams

What do drunk rats, teenage boys and an independent drugs company have in common? Despite sounding like key components from a song in the 1980s they are actually items mentioned in AQA’s biology GCSE paper taken earlier this week. Echoing youngsters across generations who walked out of exams and asked “what the heck was all […]

‘Why a campaign group was wrong to complain about my school’s racial intake’

Religious schools have been accused of racial segregation – but is the picture accurate? Headteacher Paul Halliewell says his school was unfairly targeted. In Science we teach pupils not to make an evaluation without evidence to back it up. During research, if you only choose to use the evidence that supports your original hypothesis and […]

Books of the year 2015

1 – The Gove Legacy By Mike Finn Easily the best book on education this year was also the most overlooked. Its high price (almost £40) and dull front cover are likely the reasons why, but they betray the romp that lies inside. Written by commentators from “within” the Gove era – including a super […]

Blogs of the year 2015

Harry Fletcher-Wood picks… My favourite blogger of the year isn’t really a blogger, more a compiler of a latter-day encyclopaedia, gradually sharing entries. Daisy Christodoulou, writing at wingtoheaven.wordpress.com, has probably already forgotten more about assessment than most of us will ever know. In considering key principles of teaching and learning, I find myself visiting her […]

How We Learn: the surprising truth about when, where, why and how it happens

It’s impossible not to notice the increasing volume of books, blogs and articles on how we learn and the implications for teaching and curriculum design. This book by New York journalist Benedict Carey, published last year, is engaging, well researched and has significant implications to how we should teach (lesson to lesson) and how we […]

Andrew Old picks his top blogs of the week 23 October 2015

Is there such a thing as a crap school? By @SurrealAnarchy Sometimes it is the most obviously true statements that are the most controversial. To say that some schools are terrible can lead one to be accused of attacking teachers or children. Here, Martin Robinson describes some schools he’s known where there is no excuse […]

The complicated ‘truths’ of the SAT resit debate

The Conservatives will force year 7 pupils to resit their SAT exams if they don’t achieve a level 4 while at primary school. Is it a good idea? The answer isn’t as black and white as we may initially believe.   Things that are true – Children who don’t get a level 4 in English […]

11 Things You Might Have Missed In Ofsted’s ‘Most Able Students’ Report

Headlines today are focusing on Ofsted’s disappointment at schools over the progress of ‘most able’ students. Having a go at schools is an easy soundbite. It gets onto tv, it gives teachers a ‘kick’, it plays well to people who feel their child’s genius isn’t adequately recognised. But the soundbite misses out the 34 pages […]