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21 August 2026

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Opinion

‘Mixed bag’ Conservative manifesto has surprises and threats

Coming last in the publication of your manifesto has its advantages. Other parties have shown their hand. You can tweak your messaging accordingly, exploiting the weaknesses of your opponents. After school funding pledges from Labour and the Liberal Democrats, many school leaders were keen to see if the Conservatives would deliver. We’ve been clear for […]

The Conservative manifesto is about making schools easier to control

This manifesto is essentially about making schools cheaper to run and easier to control. The only saving grace is there’s no target on grammar schools. Let’s run through the problems we have in education, then I shall explain why. First, we are halfway through moving from a local authority-led system to a MAT-led system. The […]

The Tories have scored an own goal on universal free school meals

There is a strange sense of relief in hearing a policy you have criticised for years finally be scrapped. I have long since argued against universal free school meals, for many reasons. But the Tories may come to regret the manner in which they have ended this policy. Make no mistake. The policy remains a […]

The false freedoms of becoming an academy

Many academy heads seem to have swapped local authority and government bureaucracy for strict trust controls, says Christopher Toye One of the main drivers used to persuade schools to opt into the academies programme was that it would set heads and teachers free from micro-managing bureaucrats and from central and local government diktats. Heads knew […]

Why shouldn’t I call my friend a c***? The case for philosophy GCSE

An encounter in the school canteen convinced George Duoblys of the need for a philosophy GCSE. It would help pupils’ attainment, well-being and critical thinking, he says – and it’s fun Until December, I was a teacher in east London. One incident at school really brought home to me the need to teach students philosophy […]

First they came for the teaching assistants…

The reality of budget cuts for many teaching assistants are proposed new contracts and a loss of up to £4,000 a year, says Megan Charlton Teaching assistants may be the canary in the mine as staff face the fall-out from shrinking school budgets. I was in contact recently with a teaching assistant (TA) in the […]

Headteacher boards are not corrupt

The editorial last week led to more responses than any other in Schools Week’s history. Here, one headteacher board member responds to the criticism – and our editor replies. As a member of one of the regional school commissioners’ headteacher advisory boards, it’s perhaps no surprise that claims they are shrouded in secrecy caught my […]

Headteacher boards ARE corrupt but can be fixed – just like Gove fixed GCSEs

The editorial last week led to more responses than any other in schools week’s history. One headteacher board member responded to the criticism – and here, editor Laura McInerney replies. In 2012, Michael Gove set about reforming GCSEs because he believed the exam system to be “corrupt”. At the time, I balked. Was he saying […]

Academy ‘members’ have too much power – but it’s not their fault

Those in charge of multi-academy trusts are not power-mad, says Alison Critchley – but government needs to be clearer about how trust governance should be structured If you work in an academy, do you know the “members” for your trust? And, most importantly, do you know what they are responsible for? No?Well, you’re not alone. […]