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15 May 2026

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Opinion

How can we improve outcomes for excluded pupils?

Fifteen years ago I met a vicar in a bar in Oxford who had spent 20 years working in prisons with violent male offenders. He told me that the youngest ones only had two shots at turning their lives around. “Either they find Jesus, or their girlfriend gets pregnant and they suddenly get the preciousness […]

Academy trusts: don’t hide your deficits!

Schools shouldn’t try to hide their deficits, writes Phillip Reynolds, or they’ll only get into more trouble down the line. The budget forecast return outturn (BFRO) deadline is creeping up on academies, and business managers have no doubt taken advantage of the “quiet” time at school this past couple of weeks to begin working on […]

Our estate management site will save schools money

The schools minister Lord Agnew has prepared and launched new guidance for our schools to help save money on their running costs. Every penny saved on energy and upkeep outgoings is money that can be ploughed back into teaching, he says As residents of one of the most prosperous countries in the world, every child […]

Forget behaviour policies: we need behaviour culture!

Alternative provision takes in pupils who’ve proved too challenging for mainstream education, but the techniques AP teachers use are transferable, writes Sarah Holding Building positive relationships is at the heart of effective behaviour management. A strong relationship connects us to our students and without that connection our ability to influence and lead them is diminished. […]

Teaching thinking skills makes children more intelligent

All the evidence points to significant benefits of teaching children to think as well as cram for exams, argues John Perry The good news that we’re all aware of is that schools are improving. A quick look at the DfE’s performance tables makes it clear that more children achieve more highly than they did 20 […]

How should schools manage out-of-hours emails?

Four months ago, Teacher Tapp data revealed that half of teachers had answered emails during the Christmas holidays. This sounds innocuous enough, but the figures caused a bit of a battle on social media. Email answerers were at pains to explain it wasn’t necessary for other people to answer their emails out-of-hours or reply to […]

Virtual schools: beware ‘mission creep’

Guidance for virtual school heads was updated recently to expand their statutory duties to include previously looked-after children. Sally Kelly welcomes the changes, but warns of mission creep and funding shortfalls I have been a virtual school head (VSH) for seven years now. This revelation used to draw strange looks, but most people, especially in […]

Cheating at key stage 2 SATs: what does it mean for secondary schools?

What if the reason a secondary school had a poor progress rate was not due to its own teaching, but because the pupils arrived with overinflated results from primary school? Researchers at the number-crunching powerhouse Education Datalab believe this theory holds true, after they looked at secondary schools that took pupils from 30 different primary […]

Educational disadvantage: how does England compare?

We know there’s work to do with the disadvantage gap in this country – but where do we stand on the international scale, asks Natalie Perera? The gap in attainment between disadvantaged pupils and their peers is the leading measure used by policymakers to gauge the state of educational inequality in England. Organisations such as […]