Opinion

Our teachers are seriously overworked even without catering for special needs diets, says Tom Burkard Earlier this year, Warwickshire Education Authority published a radical new document that could go a long way towards resolving the crisis of provision for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities. They announced that poor readers would no longer be […]

Older teachers bring experience, wisdom and resilience, says Katie Waldegrave, and there are many ways in which schools can tempt them into the classroom Four years ago Nicky Morgan commissioned a report into the effect of increasing retirement ages on teachers. It was something of a relief, last week, to read the resulting Department for […]

Forget expensive, complex intervention strategies, says Sir David Carter – the best investment is to focus on the capacity, capability and competence of teachers Teacher development is the responsibility of the whole system. MAT CEOs, school leaders, school improvers, universities, local authorities and, of course, the Department for Education must all place teacher development at […]

Trying to motivate children to higher performance by making learning more enjoyable may have the opposite effect, argues James Croft The idea that pupil enjoyment or ‘happiness’ is key to effective learning is so widely subscribed to among educationists that it is almost never questioned. According to received wisdom of pedagogical authorities since Rousseau, real […]

Artificial intelligence isn’t a threat to education – it’s an opportunity, says Stavros Yiannouka, as long as we’re careful about how we use it The world is both fascinated by and fearful of artificial intelligence. Very few of us understand the technology behind it and even fewer can clearly articulate its social, political, and economic implications. […]

Every month a school from the Research Schools Network – run by the Education Endowment Foundation and Institute for Effective Education – shares a research-based initiative it has implemented Transition is big business at our school. Transition events begin with Year 5 visiting the school every few weeks for Crime Scene Investigation or drum school […]

Specialist teachers should be woven into the DNA of your school, not tacked on as a patch, says Jules Daulby It always strikes when I visit special schools how few interventions outside of the classroom they have. You may, as a mainstream leader be thinking “well, that’s obvious, the specialisms permeate through the school because, […]