Opinion

Recently updated schools guidance will make it easier for headteachers to discipline staff for “inappropriate” behaviour outside the school context, explains Graham Burns The Department for Education has published revised guidance for employers on staffing and employment in schools. In the main, the changes are just to update the document, but there is one important […]

Phillip Reynolds explains the big four finance rules academy trusts should be aware of The BBC’s screening of Panorama’s investigation into Bright Tribe Trust has again caused many to question the academies regime and the lack of scrutiny. But what lessons should all academy trusts be drawing from their mistakes? Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) monitoring […]

GCSE results are out. Each year Ofqual produces boring-sounding variability charts. It sounds dull but they show how many centres, i.e. schools or colleges, dropped or increased their results compared with the previous year. This means that if you dropped, say, 25 per cent in one subject, you can see how many other schools also […]

Teachers should get excited about inset days – after all, they’re a luxury most professionals don’t get, says Karen Wespieser, who shares some tips to inject the enthusiasm back into school-based CPD I need to make a confession. Following a period of intense learning and testing, I have for the past 18 years been doing a […]

‘Knowledge-rich’ and ‘enquiry-based’ learning are not mutually exclusive – the government is pursuing a high-risk strategy by allowing ideology to trump research, argues Sandra Leaton Gray Perusing the Department for Education’s latest curriculum-fund tender specifications, I find myself wondering when “knowledge-rich” and “enquiry-based” learning became mutually exclusive. Curriculum materials that are “knowledge-rich, and have teacher-led […]