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25 April 2026

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Opinion

How worrying is the drop in Science results?

GCSE results out. Ofqual have released numbers showing the dips and rises in school numbers. It shows a quirk with science. Each year on results day Ofqual produce boring-sounding ‘variability charts’. Dull name, but important data. These charts show how many ‘centres’ (schools or colleges) dropped or increased their results compared to the previous year. […]

To halt the decline in arts A-levels, government needs to change its story

There has been a steep decline in A-Level entries to arts subjects this year. Lorenza Antonucci has a hypothesis about why this might be While a record number of students have been accepted onto degree courses in the UK this year, the recent A-level results also reveal that labour market returns play a large part […]

What we can, and cannot tell, from A-Level and GCSE results this year

A tricky part of reporting A-level and GCSE results this year is that school leaders will want different information than we, in the media, will have available. Editor Laura McInerney looks at what we will be able to say from the data. Previously, for GCSE, schools were focused on how many of their pupils passed […]

A-level results 2016: How Schools Week will report the day and why

Last year we canvassed opinion on what people dislike about coverage of results days – A-level and GCSE – and what they would like to see instead. Editor Laura McInerney explains how Schools Week will be covering the day.   People really dislike: – Stories focused on kids getting billions of A*s – Kids sobbing […]

Forget opening more grammars, get PRIVATE schools to open up instead

There are more imaginative ways to improve social mobility than opening more grammar schools, explains former political advisor Adam McNicholas I’m 30. In the not too distant future, I might have kids. Friends of mine are starting. Soon, when we get together, discussions will shift from plans for weekends away to plans for dealing with […]

Can the council force an academy named on an EHCP to meet a pupil’s need?

Can a local authority enforce a school named on an Education, Health and Care Plan to meet a pupil’s need, if that school is within a multi-academy trust and schools in MATs have no legal status? Antony says: In answering this question, it is important to consider the key principles in respect of naming a placement, […]

Teacher top-ups: a solution to under-performance in Northern schools?

Ofsted’s annual report for 2014/15 highlighted an educational gap, not only between primary and secondary, but also between the north and south of England. Duncan Sim offers some concrete proposals to address the discrepancies in both funding and attainment. The north-south divide starts young. This is, at any rate, what the statistics about the relative performance of secondary […]

What makes a great middle leader?

Middle leadership is under-researched, but there are steps heads of department can take to make their departments run efficiently, write Sam Baars and Andy Buck This summer, teachers around the country will be preparing to step into new roles. Many will be taking their first step into management as Heads of Department, a role that is often overlooked […]