Schools Week Reporter | Schools Week

No evidence for “no excuses” behaviour policies

Until there is evidence that “zero tolerance” behaviour policies work, schools should prioritise approaches that have proved successful, a professor of child psychiatry told the Mental Health in Education conference on Wednesday. “Whilst a lack of evidence is not evidence of lack, there is very little that suggests that those punitive measures are effective. But […]

Duchess of Cambridge: teachers need more mental health support

Teachers are essential frontline workers who need more mental health support, the Duchess of Cambridge told education leaders on Wednesday. “It is vital that we support teachers with their own wellbeing so that they can find the best level of care for all children, in their schools and communities in which they work,” she told […]

Navdeep Sanghara, executive headteacher, Inspire Partnership

Navdeep Sanghara is the only interviewee ever to have interpreted my question about what makes a great gift as something other than a birthday present. “A book” – the most common response – would have been an easy choice for Sanghara, who waxes lyrical about how her five-school southeast London primary trust has designed a […]

The Shanghai teacher exchange – was it worth it?

Research released last week on the Shanghai teacher exchange reveals that despite sending 60-plus teachers to and from China every year since 2014 – and supporting them to establish mastery practices in their schools – there has been no improvement to key stage 2 SATs in the first cohort of pupils. The report was commissioned […]

The debate: No excuses v nurture – what’s the best behaviour policy?

Hannah Wilson heads up Aureus School in Didcot, whose strapline is “nurturing hearts and minds”. Stuart Lock runs Bedford Free School, which adopts the “no excuses” approach. We invited them to discuss the differences and similarities in how they manage behaviour. How do you create your behaviour culture? Stuart Lock: We’re very routines- and structures-based. […]

Clive Webster, chief executive, Kent Catholic Schools Partnership

Clive Webster has vivid memories of the day Muhammad Ali visited his family home in Harlesden, a north-west London neighbourhood that he describes as “Afro-Caribbean-Gaelic”, sometime in the mid-1970s. He drops this into the conversation when I ask him the three people – dead or alive – he’d invite to dinner. Ali would be there, […]

AP school opens with just eight pupils

The first alternative provision school to be run in the UK by a major charity that believes in personalising learning for each child is preparing to open in Doncaster – with eight pupils. The Big Picture School, which is based on a philosophy of adapting the environment to each child, is due to receive its […]

Thomas Tallis – The school using inclusion to reduce exclusion

How can schools reduce exclusions? Last year groups from the education select committee to Ofsted to the mainstream press berated schools over bad practice without offering much in the way of solutions or guidance as to what “good or promising” practice (the Department for Education’s new buzz phrase – “best practice” is apparently now banned) […]

Making Kids Cleverer

David Didau’s new book is basically a trad manifesto for closing the advantage gap, whose core argument runs: we should try to make children cleverer because it’s the best bet for improving their welfare. Schools can do this by teaching them a knowledge-rich curriculum full of powerful, culturally useful information, using the principles of cognitive […]