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25 April 2026

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Opinion

Budget 2017: A missed opportunity for schools

Philip Hammond’s 2017 Budget will be remembered as a missed opportunity for education, says Russell Hobby When the government announced extra money to expand grammar schools yesterday, it was clear today’s Budget would offer nothing for existing schools. And so it has proved. The question for Philip Hammond now is not how schools can make […]

Who started the Association of School and College Leaders?

Geoff Barton has emerged as victor in the battle for the coveted general secretary post at the Association of School and College Leaders. He takes over from interim general secretary Malcolm Trobe, who took over from Brian Lightman, who took over from John Dunford. In a world where we increasingly worry about women’s place in […]

How to make Opportunity Areas work: build sustainable programmes

As long as pupils from independent schools are still more than twice as likely to attend a Russell Group university, we should all focus on doing everything we can to support social mobility in the UK. The secretary of state’s intent and the philosophy behind opportunity areas is therefore a wholly good thing and we […]

How to make Opportunity Areas work: invest in local people

Opportunity areas are a welcome commitment to social mobility. They demonstrate a legitimate concern that all parts of the country should have a high quality education system. They target resources, support and attention and are no doubt inspired by the success of the London Challenge – which has been surprisingly difficult to transfer to other […]

What are ‘T-Levels’?

Following the Treasury’s announcement of additional budget funding for technical education, ‘T-levels’ have been touted as the new alternative to A-Levels, but what exactly are they? Technical qualifications expert Gemma Gathercole explains 1. What are ‘T-Levels’? ‘T-Levels’ is the name that has been given by the media to government’s planned overhaul of technical education. Between now […]

What does an ethical code for school leaders look like?

Carolyn Roberts outlines what an ethical leadership code might look like and why it is needed The Association of School and College Leaders is launching a year-long project to develop a code of ethical leadership. Between this year’s ASCL annual conference, which opens next Friday in Birmingham, and next year’s conference, we will invite experts […]

Words are all we have – let’s choose them carefully

In a bid to recover some of the optimism of the 1990s, I’ve been listening to Boyzone this week. (You can judge, I don’t care, they’re great.) Their 1996 cover of the BeeGee’s Words was a particularly apt soundtrack for something I saw during my daily morning perusal of the Department for Education’s job listings. […]

How to prepare year 6 for KS2 maths SATs

Education blogger @thatboycanteach explains what we can learn from studying the 2016 Key Stage 2 SATs results After the release of RAISEonline’s QLA data, teachers, Maths coordinators, and SLT alike will have scrambled to analyse the initial report on 2016s maths SATs results. It’s a resource with huge potential, offering ways for us to reconsider the effectiveness […]

Here’s why ‘low-cost’ private schools in England WON’T work

State school campaigner Janet Downs explains why proposals for a new ‘no frills’ private school in England – charging parents just £52-a-week – will flop… Low fee paying (LFP) schools already exist in England. They are schools not affiliated to the Independent Schools Council and likely to charge lower fees. But even their low fees […]