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Invent a Job for Teachers: How to create a job worth leaving school for

Here’s some bad news. You know that person you want to be in 2016? The one who eats healthily, has time for family, and achieves their goals? Well, you have almost zero chance of making it. Research suggests that while about half of us make resolutions at the start of a new year: fewer than […]

Preliminary findings from the Spoken British National Corpus

Over the years I’ve noticed how some words in education become synonymous with certain noises. If invited to talk in front of an audience, I am guaranteed to get a “boo” if I mention Michael Gove (even if I’m saying nice things) or see an entire room smiling if I mention Tim Brighouse (about whom […]

Why having one exam board isn’t as smart as Nick Gibb thinks it is

Reports that schools minister Nick Gibb wants GCSEs and A levels to be provided by one exam board were greeted with a knowing smile from Michael Gove’s ex-advisor Sam Freedman: The burnt finger wobbles back to the fire… https://t.co/SlPlK4bmig — Sam Freedman (@Samfr) August 9, 2015 The burned fingers are his and his bosses. We […]

The Gove Legacy: Education in Britain after the Coalition

The problem with being in education and reading a book about Michael Gove is that it’s a bit like being in therapy with your abuser. Authors pour over his actions, dispassionately analysing cause or consequence, while I – someone who felt the brunt of his policies as a teacher, and later as a researcher dragged […]

Establishing a new school: and getting it right from the start

Four years ago I wrote a series of blogs about how to open a free school. Unexpectedly, they became a book, sold very well, and became about the only book advising how to open a free school – which is daft, because I’d only been a teacher for four years when I wrote it and […]

Education select committee retrospective

Film: Education select committee retrospective, YouTube Television is democracy at its “ugliest” said Paddy Chayefsky, the American playwright famed for gritty “kitchen sink” dramas. His work recorded the private lives of ordinary people and elevated them to art. By contrast, the education select committee’s video retrospective of its past five years, released this week on […]

5 recommendations from the Trojan Horse: Extremism in Schools Report

The Education Select Committee has today revealed its report into the ‘Trojan Horse’ investigations. It raises concerns that: – Too many agencies were involved in the investigations. There were five in total. – It is not clear why Ofsted initially rated some Birmingham schools as outstanding, but downgraded to inadequate on re-inspection. – Given no […]

Scrapping levels was great says Nick Gibb – but he forgets the impact on workload

Last week, members of the government’s ‘assessment without levels’ commission were announced. Much was made of the fact that Nick Gibb, the minister in charge of the group, had said it would be ‘teacher-led’. However, there are no full-time teachers on the panel. The Department for Education defended itself by pointing to the three current […]

6 super-nerdy things you might have missed in the Policy Exchange free school report

Today’s Policy Exchange ‘research’ conveniently released a bunch of positive facts about free schools on the exact same day that David Cameron announced 49 new ones and committed to opening 500 more. Well, fancy that. There have been endless back and forths about the correctness of the report. People seem to see what they want […]