Opinion

Keeping students engaged in STEM while schools are shut presents unique challenges. To solve those, Jane Dowden says project-based learning is an idea whose time has come If things are hard for teachers and schools in this crisis, they are certainly no easier for families acclimatising to home learning. As mentioned in these pages last […]

The most disadvantaged students could lose their hard-won offers from competitive institutions if universities are content to rely on this year’s A level grades, writes Jane Cahill Universities must consider whether they can trust the new grade allocations announced last week. It is comforting that higher education institutions have pledged to work with schools during […]

Teacher training is already facing severe challenges because of COVID-19 and reforms due to be implemented this year threaten the sector with a perfect storm, writes Professor David Spendlove As the political parlance goes, you should never let a crisis go to waste. In 2010, in response to the banking crisis, the coalition government launched […]

Closures have revealed the inadequacies of our school system and are causing us to rethink what we value. Are we ready to be the change we want to see? asks Alice Barnard In a matter of weeks the world and our lives as we know them have changed. We’ve seen the call for engineers to […]

Schools provide much more than academic learning, and home education shouldn’t mean students miss out on the important aspect of character development, writes Rachael Hunter With the announcement of school closures came a raft of online materials to support parents with home learning. Three weeks on, schools are already settling into providing students with work, […]

As schools’ attention naturally shifts from crisis management to establishing new norms, Giancarlo Brotto offers some insights on how to build sustainably The urgency of school closures meant that many children were sent home with a hard copy learning pack to keep them going for a short period. But when the activities in the packs […]

At this time of rapid and dramatic change for teachers, the best solution is to keep calm and carry on with what we know works. Daniel Muijs, Dominique Sluijsmans and their co-authors draw on their forthcoming book, Lessons for Learning: 12 Building Blocks for Effective Teaching to set out what that is The sudden switch […]

Our research shows old inequalities persist and could get worse while new ones are emerging we didn’t suspect, writes Baz Ramaiah A history teacher of mine used to say: “There are decades where nothing happens; and then there are weeks where decades happen.” For teachers, the last few weeks have felt like the latter. What […]

Faultlines are emerging in the home-based school system, but there are ways to protect families and teachers from the aftershocks, writes Dr Sarah Charles Educational technology’s potential for positive impact is plain for all to see, but parents and teachers alike are quickly learning its limitations. After the task of managing the initial, massive shock […]