Opinion | Schools Week

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Leadership can mean knowing when to let go

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1w | Opinion

We are transferring two schools. It is the right decision in the interests of the schools – and their pupils

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1w | Opinion
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Voters back Burnham on education. The challenge is delivery

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7d | Opinion

The public agrees education is failing to serve its purpose. That's both a risk and an opportunity

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7d | Opinion
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There is no single blueprint for inclusion bases

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2d | Opinion

Start by being clear about who the base is intended to support – and the needs it is there to meet

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2d | Opinion
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Why Ofsted’s deferral system needs an overhaul

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2d | Opinion

The welfare of staff and pupils should have a higher priority when a school requests an inspection deferral

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2d | Opinion
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The ‘wicked problem’ of SEND provision

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1w | Opinion

Schools won’t be able to bear the costs when the broader system does not reward inclusive practice

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1w | Opinion

Pandemic teacher training is a privilege, not a hardship

The most valuable lesson of teacher training during Covid has been the importance of practising what you teach, writes Amber Smith Term 2 of teacher training and my placement is completely online at this point. I am only able to observe classes, and progress towards teaching is made infinitely harder by the fact that my […]

An inspector (video) calls. Our experience of Ofsted remote visits

The regulator has a difficult balance to strike between accountability and distraction but our Ofsted inspection team got the tone just right, writes Carly Waterman It’s only 18 months ago that – to general acclaim – Ofsted launched its new inspection framework. Since then, the regulator has been relegated to the educational sidelines. Their absence […]

How can we help students transfer learning to new contexts?

Getting students to apply knowledge and skills in new contexts isn’t easy but some approaches are more likely to yield results, writes Harry Fletcher-Wood Let’s say we’ve successfully taught students something new: they understand it, can apply it and retain it. We now face a harder challenge: helping students transfer their learning to new contexts. […]

Language teaching will suffer the loss of Erasmus

The programme’s impact on language teaching has been phenomenal and the new Turing scheme will have big shoes to fill, writes Paul Harrison Among the responses to the UK opting out of continuing its membership of the Erasmus+ programme, one of the losses to this country has had little coverage. Much of the focus has […]

Testing times

Emma Marshall opens her lockdown diary to reveal hope for young people’s futures amid testing times for schools

Plotting a ten-year course is the sensible response to Covid

A ten-year education plan like Blackpool’s is precisely the kind of policymaking our communities need and deserve, writes Frank Norris When a town is viewed as having an educational problem, it affects so many things. Senior school leaders looking for a new challenge think twice about applying. Teaching positions, particularly in shortage subjects, go unfilled. […]

We must secure education technology’s great leap forward

Education technology has taken great strides in the past year. Now the legacy of its impact must be secured for a generation, writes Gavin Williamson There haven’t been many rays of sunshine during this pandemic but one we can celebrate is the incredible way education communities have been using technology to deliver remote education. Even […]

What have we learned about moving education online?

After the initial buzz of moving our curriculum online, the new lockdown is slowly revealing the pedagogical approaches we need to keep our students engaged, writes Amy Curtis Twelve months ago, terms such as ‘online learning’ and ‘virtual schooling’ were virtually unheard of and held no importance in school improvement plans. However, with the turn […]

Our assessment system contributes to poor mental health

There is plenty of inspiration to draw on worldwide if we seek to reform our assessment system – as we surely must now do, writes Olly Newton As we all know too well by now, the announcement of another drawn-out lockdown is terrible news for our mental health, and especially that of young people. The […]

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