Schools Week Reporter | Schools Week

The Life Project – book review

Cohort studies have taught us everything we know. Well, not quite, but working my way through Helen Pearson’s The Life Project, it started to feel that way. The relationship between smoking and low birth weight, between smoking and cancer, or even that pollutants you’re exposed to during childhood can cause serious diseases in later life […]

Academy conversion advice

Welcome to Schools Week’s agony aunt* column, for all your academisation woes. Whether you’ve already boarded the academisation train, are just browsing the brochure, or remain resolutely sceptical about the safety of high-speed rail, ping us your question and we’ll select our favourites to be answered by a specialist lawyer. Email agonyaunt@schoolsweek.co.uk, including the words ‘agony aunt’ […]

Why some children with language needs are being missed

What have you been working on? A study on language impairment at school entry age, and how we can better identify, diagnose and treat language disorders. Using a sample of 7,267 state school children in Surrey, we assessed language, non-verbal IQ (NVIQ), social, emotional, and behavioural problems among 529 pupils aged 5 to 6. The […]

Do “prison academies” make sense?

In light of Michael Gove’s plan for the prison sector to learn from schools, Peter Dawson of the Prison Reform trust explains why a move towards academy-style autonomy is welcome. Professional leaders enjoy telling others about the uniqueness of their personal challenge. One is often reminded of Ron Manager’s bleat that football management is “the ’ardest job in the […]

Speed read: Coates review of education in prison – the schools bits

Dame Sally Coates published her review of education in prisons today. Michael Gove, as justice secretary, commissioned the review last September from the former headteacher and director of academies south for United Learning. Schools Week has scoured the report for the parts that list what prisons can learn – and take – from schools. What prisons can learn […]

Teaching Assistants: are they worth it?

In light of Durham County’s decision to cut teaching assistants’ pay, and the recent warning that teaching assistants risk being replaced by poorly-paid “interns”, Helen Saddler makes a case for the invaluable classroom support staff – and argues they need better professional development. When you hear ‘Teaching Assistant’- what comes to mind? “Jack of all trades”, first […]

Speed read: mental health in schools – IPPR report

Ofsted should inspect schools’ mental health provision more frequently, says a report published today by a leading policy think tank. Secondary schools are facing a “perfect storm” of mental health problems and early intervention in schools should be a government priority, according to the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) report on mental health in schools, […]

Government plans to change term-time holiday law

The government will look to change the law on term-time holidays, after the high court backed a father who took his daughter to Disney World during the school term and refused to pay the fine. The ruling opens the door to other parents taking their children out of school for holidays, and raises difficult questions […]

Sutton Trust expands Pathways to Law schools programme

GCSE pupils from deprived areas will receive workshops to introduce them to the legal profession, in a drive to increase social diversity after it was revealed that 75% of top judges went to private school. Education foundation the Sutton Trust today announced the expansion of its Pathways to Law programme, aimed at improving access for […]