Opinion

A recent experience with Ofsted has convinced Daniel Wright that we should be working to strengthen, not to undermine, the watchdog I’ve been a headteacher for six months, and I’m learning at pace. I had imagined myself, two days after “the call”, standing Russell Crowe-like, bloodied but unbowed, shouting “Are you not entertained?” at inspectors […]

The winners-and-losers way of doing things has taken us as far as it can and it’s time for a radical rethink of excellence in education, writes Kate Chhatwal Writing my introduction to this year’s Challenge Partners annual report, my second as CEO, got me thinking about excellence. Many representations make it out to be exclusive […]

Trauma-informed practice is good for everyone and best of all for the most vulnerable. Why would our government favour compliance instead? asks Colin Diamond Speeches like Gavin Williamson’s last week, in which he appeared to endorse the nationwide replication of so-called “no-excuses” or “warm-strict” schools, hardly deserve the attention, let alone the heat, they generate. […]

Schools are moving in the right direction in tackling stigma around mentruation, but how can we ensure results are sustained? Kate Bowen-Viner looks at the research Last year, I spent time in a secondary school talking to girls about how period stigma can be compounded, and mitigated, by their school environment. Girls shared their frustrations […]

Careers education is too important not to be compulsory, and too important to leave to busy, cash-strapped schools. Ruth Gilbert offers an alternative for delivering the Gatsby benchmarks Despite the Gatsby benchmarks, careers education tends to get bundled in with all the things schools are told they should do but don’t have time to. But […]

Calling for change in education is a national pastime but we can all learn from Arkansas about what not to do when implementing reform, writes Jonathan Haslam A famous Pentagon saying, quoted by the journalist Thomas Friedman, is that “a vision without resources is hallucination”. The same might be said of education policies, whether at […]

It is imperative that any new additional pupil premium funding in the budget is used solely for its intended purpose, says Simon Barnes Her Majesty’s chief inspector of schools Amanda Spielman made waves over the half-term by suggesting school leaders could “squander” any additional money allocated to them in the upcoming budget. For all the […]

Looked-after children and their teachers are being let down by a persistent lack of guidance. Closing the training gap is a political priority, writes Dr Sarah Alix As a qualified teacher I always felt frustrated with my own lack of understanding about how best to support looked-after children. I didn’t have the information I needed, […]