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14 November 2026

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Opinion

How should schools deal with claims of over-age students?

With media headlines alleging that a “30-year-old” had been spotted in a year 11 class, we asked a lawyer to explain how the age of asylum seekers is determined, and how schools should handle such claims Recent headlines have alleged that there was an adult seeking to attend school, claiming to be a child. How […]

Will allowing part-time teaching mean we run out of teachers?

Would more part-time and flexible working for teachers be a good or bad thing for teacher supply? Carole Willis looks at the data The teacher supply challenge in England’s secondary schools continues to grow. This week we launched our new report on teacher retention at an event chaired by journalist Laura McInerney. One of the key recommendations […]

The NHS has a ten-year funding plan, so why doesn’t education?

Next year’s spending review will be a golden opportunity for the government to set out a strategic direction for education and skills spending, and to ensure a system fit for the 21st century, says Robert Halfon Our National Health Service is rightly lauded, but it is not the only sector that impacts the lives of […]

How to avoid project failures in the classroom

Back in 2007, Nassim Nicholas Taleb published The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, a pretty wordy and convoluted tome (makes an excellent doorstop) that pointed out that rare or unlikely events do happen, events such as the 2008 financial crash. Events that we often believe we “couldn’t see coming” before they happened. […]

Silent corridors: what’s all the fuss about?

In response to recent heated debates over the use of silent corridors in schools, Tom Bennett wonders what all the fuss is about A nation erupted as it was revealed last week that a school had been found guilty of child torture on a systematic scale last seen in the poorhouses of Oliver Twist. Please […]

“Little extras”: A failure of presentation, not policy

Philip Hammond could have scored a win today by announcing new capital funding for schools – but he packaged it up all wrong, laments Jonathan Simons There was the abolition of the 10p tax rate in 2007. There was the 75p pension increase in 1999. And there was the omnishambles budget in 2012, with pasty […]

Is the policy of academy re-brokerage improving outcomes?

School re-brokerage is becoming an increasingly important feature of our school system, but what impact does this have on pupil outcomes? Jon Andrews takes a look at the data While it may have seemed that the debate about school structures had moved on, with Angela Rayner’s speech to the Labour Party conference, and the uncharacteristically […]

Is it legal for councils to fine schools for excluding pupils?

The desire to achieve a reduction in exclusions is plainly to be welcomed, but councils can’t just impose a fining system – schools would have to sign up to it, explains Russell Holland Gloucestershire County Council has recently made headlines for proposing to “fine” schools £5,000 for permanently excluding a child. The reality is that […]

How common is burnout in the teaching profession?

The title of Graham Greene’s 1960 novel A Burnt-Out Case refers to an unusual medical condition: lepers who have lost all physical sensitivity to pain, so continually mutilate themselves. But the point of the novel is that the protagonist suffers the psychological equivalent of that disease. He has been ground down by his life and […]