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23 May 2026

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Opinion

Academies are vital to May’s reform agenda

The government’s determination to expand selection must be done within the current system – and that includes academies, says Amy Finch. But academy chains vary in their effectiveness; Reform’s new research attempts to find out why Selection in 2016 looks very different from grammars and secondary moderns, Theresa May insinuated last week at prime minister’s […]

Minority ethnic students are baffled by British values

Research corner with Dr Alison Davies, associate lecturer at the Open University. What have you been working on? We are in the midst of a longitudinal study compiling and examining the views of young people from minority ethnic backgrounds. We have been gathering their views on things that improve community cohesion and the barriers they […]

No one is talking about a return to the 11-plus

An element of selection will not necessarily lead to a return of the secondary modern, says Heath Monk. However, making selection work for all will need careful implementation There’s no subject that unites the warring factions of the educational world more than their hatred of grammar schools. Largely abolished in the Sixties and outlawed (twice) in […]

If you can pass the test you’re in. But who benefits?

The grammar schools proposal could be described as a “great right-wing fraud”, says David Blunkett… pretending you are delivering to the many what you know you can only deliver to the few Next month I will take part in a gathering at Ruskin College, Oxford, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of a seminal speech on education […]

Why grammars are a five-sided dice trick

A jumbo five-sided dice is due to land at the Schools Week towers this week. It is smooth, blue, an odd triangular shape, with faces only showing numbers 1 through 5. It’s my “grammar school gamble” dice. The game is easy to play. Imagine you are the parent of a child in the last year […]

The utopian origins of comprehensive schools

The first in a weekly series of columns looking into the archives of education and using the past to make our readers smarter History is not useful. Whatever else the past is, it’s gone. Actually, that’s a lie. It’s the sort of thing I like to say to rile up historians, and watch as their […]

Teacher transfer window: Why can’t we fill our vacancies 365-days-a-year?

The idiosyncratic “teacher transfer windows” model is failing schools and teachers. Notice periods for teachers should come into line with those of the private sector, says Frank Norris. The football transfer window, an agreed period of time when players can transfer from one club to another, has closed for another four months. These two artificial […]

10 ways to make workload less of a challenge

Russell Hobby and Professor Toby Salt explore what more the government can do about teacher workload and what practical steps teachers and senior leaders can take to lessen the load. Despite good intentions and warm words, teacher workload is not under control. Agencies such as Ofsted do their best to tackle myths about expectations, like […]

Small schools should keep meals subsidy until national funding formula comes in

After a leaked report revealed the DfE knew small schools needed extra funds to provide free meals – yet still ended their subsidy – Barbara Taylor issues a fair-funding challenge to government Following a successful initiative giving free fruit to infants, the concept of free infant school meals, providing healthy, nourishing food at lunchtime, was […]