Opinion | Schools Week

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Leadership can mean knowing when to let go

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

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Voters back Burnham on education. The challenge is delivery

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

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There is no single blueprint for inclusion bases

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

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Why Ofsted’s deferral system needs an overhaul

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

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The ‘wicked problem’ of SEND provision

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

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1w | Opinion

Migrant children need targeted support through lockdown

These are the strategies we need in order to address the particular problems faced by migrant children during the Covid lockdowns, write Dr Shoba Arun and Aleksandra Szymczyk When children with migrant backgrounds are discussed in educational terms, much is made of immigrant communities’ high levels of aspiration – particularly educational ambition. This is in […]

New year’s revolutions

Dan Morrow opens his lockdown diary to document another topsy-turvy week in education leadership

Our media are making the hardest of situations harder

The venom habitually directed at the teaching profession by the media commentariat has plumbed new lows during the lockdowns, writes Sarah Gallagher I was 16 and my teachers were on strike when I first saw the profession smeared in the press. I remember my parents saying it would be ever thus. “If you choose this, […]

What are schools’ emerging priorities in this new lockdown?

Lockdown 2.0 is having a much greater effect on primaries while inequalities continue to manifest, writes Laura McInerney This year’s lockdown is not like the other! Despite the fact that this year’s spin to remote learning actually came with less warning (in that it happened literally overnight), schools were nevertheless readier for its consequences. Since […]

School improvement doesn’t come in a flat-pack

We’ll only get sustained school improvement when we start to treat teachers and school leaders as masters of their craft rather than furnish them with flat-pack solutions, writes Chris Kirkham-Knowles Thirty-two years ago, my first year of teaching was signed off by a local authority adviser who gave me professional development advice I’ve never forgotten. […]

The 2020 ‘holidays’

The lockdown diary is back and this term’s first instalment catalogues the cluster-farce that led to its announcement

Repeated omission of special schools points to an ableist department

Special schools could be forgiven for thinking the department is ableist given that they are routinely treated as less important than their mainstream peers, writes Dr Lauran Doak Amid the widespread frustration of families and teachers struggling with the Department for Education’s rapidly changing COVID-19 education contingency plans, none can be more justified than those […]

Cancelling exams is the wrong decision. They should be reinstated

Far from the worst thing the DfE could do, changing its mind and reinstating exams would be the best for all concerned, writes Stuart Lock “Why are they cancelling exams, Sir?” I don’t know. I can’t even think of a plausible reason for the decision several months before it was necessary to make it. And […]

Could education research be leading the profession astray?

Applying metascientific methods to education research reveals some worrying biases but simple steps can help us navigate our way to a more secure grasp of its results, writes Baz Ramaiah There have been some pretty provocative article titles in the history of science. But few come close to John Ioannidis’ 2005 essay “Why most published […]

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