Opinion

After four days of politics but very few policies at the Conservative Party conference, schools are still none the wiser about how the government can make life easier for them. Reporting from Birmingham, Schools Week chief reporter and political editor Freddie Whittaker rounds up what school leaders learned from Damian Hinds’s first conference as education […]

For a little under two decades as a teacher, I had never heard of, let alone attended, an education conference. The closest I got was the odd off-site INSET where I met with other teachers in my borough or surrounding boroughs. When I networked at these events, conversation revolved around what was happening in our […]

Every month Stuart Kime trawls through his greatest research hits to offer practical implementation tips for using evidence in practice It’s mid-September, Sunday evening, Norwich. In search of a healthy, tasty post-train journey dinner, I head to Namaste, the place I consider to serve the best curry in the world. Closed. Hasty, hunger-induced and quasi-maniacal […]

Make sure that you don’t mix up peer review with inspection, but do ensure that both are effective, valid and reliable, says Leora Cruddas I was interested to read “Three things the government must do to better support MATs”, Michael Pain’s recent article in Schools Week in which he talks about a reformed inspectorate and […]

School leaders want to focus on pedagogy, the curriculum and the purpose of education. Politicians, should not bog them down with more structural change, says Julie McCulloch It’s a fair bet that most parents don’t think about schools in terms of organisational structures, of multi-academy trusts, regional schools commissioners, brokering, headteacher boards, and the rest […]

Don’t knock “low-cost” schools – they have the potential to improve efficiency across the sector, says James Croft Affordable fee-based private schools have a long tradition in England and, as late as 2012, the best value schools in the independent sector (from the point of view of both education quality and their low fees) were […]

What incentives are there for schools to be inclusive? Not many, says Anne Heavey, who has some suggestions on how to improve matters Here’s a question for you: What recognition do headteachers get for running schools that are inclusive for SEND learners? What are the systemic incentives to prioritise SEND provision in our schools? Beyond […]