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21 August 2026

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Opinion

Based on data, I believed I would never succeed

Data can inform starting points but should never be used to cap expectations of learners, says Jaz Ampaw-Farr. “Based on data, I believed I would never succeed.” As a child my trajectory was pretty bleak. On paper I was a disadvantaged, female, looked-after child on free school meals with an ethnic background of “other (please […]

We need to document a child’s progress from birth to age 5

Those against data collection in early years are missing the point, says Jan Dubiel. How else will early years’ practitioners know how they (and the child) are doing? The appropriateness and value of collecting data on children has been hotly debated over the past couple of years, sparked in part by the introduction of baseline […]

Man up, Hammond, and show your face to the cameras

I wrote a grumpy thing this week. Twice a year, when the Chancellor announces their budgets in the Commons, Schools Week’s designer and I huddle around a screen to select which photograph will go on the front. In previous years we had lots of choices. George Osborne may not have been a charismatic man, but […]

The 18th century forerunners of the Michaela School model

Last weekend, The Sunday Times published a lengthy article about Michaela, the north London free school that styles itself as “the strictest school” in the country. As one of its teachers tweeted: “When we say strict, we mean strict.” The rights and wrongs of this austere approach are not the concerns of this column. What […]

What schools need to know about the apprenticeship levy

Don’t think that the new levy is all about big business, warns John Deaville. All schools, regardless of size, will feel its impact. Most people are – at least vaguely – aware that the apprenticeship levy, which will be introduced in April 2017, is a payroll tax to fund apprenticeship training, paid by any organisation […]

Don’t underestimate peer-to-peer support in young people’s mental health

Putting more money and resources into current mental health provision is a pointless exercise if the children who need help are rejecting the system, says Sarah Newton. The Institute for Public Policy Research recently recommended that all secondary schools have guaranteed access to at least one day a week of on-site support from a mental […]

Despite popular belief, boxing has never actually been banned in schools

Last week, Sir Michael Wilshaw sent a stern letter to headteachers who failed to stop a mass fight among pupils at their four schools. The leaders ought to have got wind of the event and intervened, he said. It wasn’t always this way though; at one point in time schools literally taught children how to […]

Why councils should check up on academies

There is an accountability gap in the new education landscape that council scrutiny committees could help to fill, just as they do in health, says Su Turner. Accountability matters and is well understood within schools between pupils, teachers and parents, as it is between staff, headteachers and governors. The same is not the case, however, […]