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14 November 2026

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Opinion

Social mobility isn’t about behaving like the middle class

We need to change the entire conversation on social mobility to have a chance of changing people’s lives for the better, says Prof Sonia Blandford A staggering 2.5 million children and young people in Britain live in poverty, and they are “born to fail” according to social mobility metrics as put forward by those in power. […]

Elite universities shouldn’t be pressured to sponsor schools

Leading universities can better help the underprivileged by widening access and outreach schemes, argues Oxford’s Dr Samin Khan In an interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme last year, Oxford’s vice-chancellor Louise Richardson was asked why her university had not yet sponsored or opened a school. “We’re very good at running a university,” she explained […]

Top universities absolutely should sponsor schools

The success of students from schools sponsored by Exeter University are proof the system works, says Prof Janice Kay The University of Exeter cosponsors five schools, including one of two specialist maths schools in the country. For the university academics who lecture and mentor at the sponsored schools, removing the mystique of university is a […]

Government should write off teachers’ student loans

We need bold new ideas to complement pay rises and beat the retention crisis, claims Russell Hobby There is a truth at the heart of education success that is too often lost in the controversies that attract the headlines. We control the factor with the most impact on children’s education: the quality of teaching they […]

Why Teaching Apprenticeships are a mess — and how to solve it

Will the government’s new teaching apprenticeships be ‘degree level’ or ‘a degree’? The distinction may not be simple, explains editor Laura McInerney   Teaching apprenticeships are on the way whether the profession wants them or not. We first reported on them almost two years ago — in a front page that people called alarmist at […]

Governors and trustees need to listen more. It’s that simple.

Emma Knights explores the latest thinking in school governance Like a number of binary debates in English education, the discussion on skills and stakeholders that school governance has been bogged down in for the past five years is sterile, limited and sometimes even immature. Can we please just agree that we all want skilled, competent […]

Stop labelling summer-born pupils as SEN!

There’s a huge difference in the attainment of older and younger pupils in the same year, and it’s too often misdiagnosed, says Stephen Gorard It is well known that summer-born pupils leave school with lower grades than their peers, but research has now shown that they are also diagnosed by schools with special educational needs […]

Every child can read – don’t write them off

We must stop rating reading skills on a bell curve – it lets us leave struggling pupils behind, says James Murphy It is alarming that so many students arrive at secondary school not reading well enough to access the curriculum. It is even more alarming that we don’t believe these students can catch up. The […]

Why a SEND initial teacher training pathway is a bad idea

Inclusive pedagogy should be built into the fabric of every initial teacher training programme, rather than bolted on as an afterthought, argues Jacqui Ver Loren van Themaat Many people across the sector have called for more in-depth knowledge in initial teacher training (ITT): more behaviour-management strategies, more focus on subject knowledge, and more special educational needs […]