Laura McInerney | Schools Week

Robert Halfon, Chair, Education select committee

Robert Halfon, the new chair of the education select committee, campaigned in the corridors of Parliament for the position using leaflets and badges as if he were in a school election for class representative. Having lost his position as skills minister just weeks before, he wasn’t going to let this chance go. The badges and […]

How school leaders can be sucked into dodgy dealings

Before I became a teacher I briefly worked for KPMG, one of the world’s largest auditors. It was shortly after the fall of Enron, itself one of the world’s largest accountancy firms, after its senior leaders were discovered up to their necks in fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy, among other things. The fall of Enron […]

Education ministers need to stop arguing about skills

It is beyond tedious to watch two ministers argue in public over the meaning of the word ‘skills’ when they could be fixing education, writes Laura McInerney One of my favourite questions to ask people is this: “If you were invisible for the day, what would you do?” It always throws them off. Sometimes they […]

29% increase in secondary schools below floor standard in 2017

More secondary schools have fallen below floor standards, but fewer have been defined as “coasting”, according to new figures released by the Department for Education today. This year 365 (12 per cent) of secondary schools dropped below the standard for the 2017 exam series, compared with 282 last year (9.3 per cent) – an increase […]

Beware the return of the grammar school zombies

Is the grammar school policy about to get a second wind? Contributing editor Laura McInerney considers the possibility and how Labour should respond. Ugh. It appears the grammar school zombie may be alive after all. The appointment of grammar-loving Damian Hinds to the top job suggests there may be another attempt to resurrect selective schools […]

Damian Hinds: 9 facts about the new education secretary

Damian Hinds is the new education secretary, having replaced Justine Greening earlier tonight after her unexpected resignation from the government. Here’s what we know about him… Born in 1969, Damian Hinds is 48 years old. The average age of an education secretary is 50. (Coincidentally, this is also the exact same age of Justine Greening who […]

Now the end of 2017 is near, I too face a final curtain

Now the end of 2017 is near, I too face a final curtain. Dear readers, this is my last edition as editor of Schools Week. It’s not a complete swansong from me, as I shall be continuing as a contributing editor: writing columns and popping up every now and then with a profile interview. But […]

New free school wave in 2018 to be targeted in ‘challenging areas’

The next round of applications for free schools will open in early 2018 and will be particularly focused on “challenging areas” that haven’t yet benefited from the programme. Free schools – a form of new school opened via applications to central government – have been a pivotal government policy since 2010. In this year’s general […]

What are the ACTUAL new policies in Greening’s action plan?

Justine Greening has finally published her social mobility action plan, entitled ‘Unlocking Talent, Fulfilling Potential’. Much of it includes policies we already knew and some philosophical underpinnings about how it hangs together, which are quite neat. But the bit you want to know is what’s new? And what’s specific, rather than a vagueish-sounding promise. I’ve […]