Opinion

The Headteachers’ Roundtable’s “Big 5” election manifesto gives a new vision of professionalism and trust, restoring confidence in education, writes Ros McMullen The education system is in crisis. Recruitment and retention, funding, special needs provision, accountability and ethical leadership are all at breaking point, but it won’t do to look at these five factors individually. […]

How we organise our thoughts shapes how we view the world and how we act. At Ambition Institute, we have found that three papers by Mary Kennedy, professor emeritus at Michigan State University, have been incredibly useful in framing our beliefs and actions about the work of teachers and teacher educators. 1: How can we […]

The paths in Andy Byers’ school flood, the science prep room is the size of two toilets and less than half of its classrooms are accessible to wheelchair users. It was due to be rebuilt in 2010. Instead, he will again have to apply for funding just to keep existing buildings safe. Schools deserve better […]

The Chartered College of Teaching believes strongly in the value of teacher professional learning. Yet the term encompasses a huge variety of things; CPD can take myriad forms, many of which are explored in our new report on teacher CPD internationally, full of articles and case studies exploring trends, opportunities and challenges. This variety means […]

Raedwald Trust is taking matters into its own hands on recruitment, retention and workload, writes Angela Ransby, with a project that moves beyond performance management to professional development As chief executive of a multi-academy trust, I’ve come to believe that the true measure of a teacher’s success has much more to do with the lived […]

It would be fair to say that Friday’s proposal by Universities Council for the Education of Teachers (UCET) that all teachers should undertake a Master’s Degree was met with a mixed response. This is perhaps unsurprising in a system where teachers are being asked to do more and more, frequently with fewer resources; where there […]

The ‘raising aspirations’ discourse is dead, and I’m happy to have played a small part in its demise. Over the last decade, a barrage of empirical evidence has shown that few young people in the UK hold ‘low’ or ‘no’ aspirations, or that these are meaningfully linked to their educational attainment and wider outcomes. Seeing […]

Inspiration Trust’s data on exclusions have shocked some, while its actions to tackle the problem have riled others. Lead trustee for inclusion, Colin Diamond explains that the true story lies beyond these emotive responses Dame Rachel de Souza, CEO of Inspiration Trust (IT), made waves last week when she revealed the trust’s fixed-term exclusion rate […]

Headteacher, Kate Frood has seen the education system transformed as her career has progressed. In an age of chief executives and superheads, she argues something valuable will be lost along with the one-school-one-head model As an experienced head with almost 40 years’ experience in education, I find myself in many meetings these days where I […]