Opinion

England’s schools make more use of within-school “ability” grouping than those in other similar countries, yet there is no evidence that this practice results in better outcomes overall for students. In fact, the Education Endowment Foundation toolkit reviews the best evidence available from experimental studies and concludes that there is a small negative impact of […]

As evidence grows that the role is at risk of becoming untenable, Emma Knights warns that we can’t afford to take our chairs of trustees for granted Today, the National Governance Association reports on interviews with 18 MAT chairs and sounds a warning about the sustainability of the role. This new publication follows our 2019 […]

Unless we come to terms with these five questions, we’ll never put the academic selection genie back in its lamp, writes Nick Hillman If I were to be granted three wishes by a genie, one of them would be that I never have to speak about grammar schools ever again. Whenever we at the Higher […]

The National Foundation for Education Research and Teacher Development Trust have partnered up to research CPD’s impact on teacher retention and develop resources to help break the ‘autonomy ceiling’ Much has been written on the pressing teacher supply challenge facing the school system. Rising pupil numbers, combined with too few teachers entering the profession, makes […]

Despite criticism, the case for ensuring schools deliver a broad and balanced curriculum is unarguable and Ofsted are right to take a dim view of those that don’t, writes Jon Coles In its approach to curriculum breadth, the UK (and England in particular) is an absolute outlier. No similar country specialises as early or as […]

Harry Fletcher-Wood reviews recent findings on the causes and consequences of burnout, and effective strategies for its prevention According to the World Health Organisation, people who suffer burnout lack energy, feel greater distance or cynicism about their job and are less professionally effective. Left unchecked, burnout can cause disaffection and lead teachers to quit their […]

Love it or hate it, if you’re going to the 2020 BETT show, Cat Scutt has some tips to make sure you get the most out of it I have something of a love-hate relationship with the BETT show. On a practical level, its scale is such that after just a couple of hours wandering […]

Teacher pay increases are likely to dampen funding increases and will be felt unequally across the education system, writes Jon Andrews This week, education returned to the House of Commons with Gavin Williamson given his first opportunity since the election to set out his agenda for schools. There were few surprises in the Conservative manifesto. […]