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23 May 2026

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Opinion

Teachers must tell pupils the importance of voter turnout

The economics of Brexit will be crucial for everyone, says Anand Menon. A smaller economy means more difficult choices – and perhaps a smaller education budget In a recent online piece for Schools Week, Russell Hobby made the sensible point that one outcome of the recent referendum will be “distraction and delay”. He is dead […]

Education reform: How to take back control of schools from government

“The power of the Crown has increased, is increasing and ought to be diminished.” John Dunning, motion in Parliament, 1780. For those working in education, it won’t have taken the act of self-immolation of June 23 to notice a growing feeling of powerlessness and mute rage in the face of an over-centralised, over-mighty state that […]

Ensuring more women progress into education leadership

A 2008 McKinsey report highlighted that the most powerful force holding women back is entrenched beliefs. To address this, at the Festival of Education four of the WomenEd national leaders focused on one of our core values – confidence. Keziah Featherstone explored one of the privileges of headship which is to nurture leadership talent. Both children […]

Schools must hold together even if everything else tears apart

It’s an odd week to go for a positive start. But I can’t do any more negativity. So here it is. The best thing about schools is that they are packed with humans. Funny, challenging, stroppy, coquettish, amazing humans. But the most extraordinary thing about humans is our ability for utter kindness and complete cruelty. […]

Gove vs May: Why education will influence their leadership campaign

Former education secretary Michael Gove is running for Conservative Party leadership but editor Laura McInerney explains why education’s influence may run even deeper than expected in the upcoming campaign. We now know it will be Michael Gove versus Theresa May in the Conservative Party leadership race. Stephen Crabb, Liam Fox and Andrea Leadsom have also […]

How to make EAL pupils feel safer post-EU referendum

“Bye bye, you’re going home”: playground ‘banter’. “Leave the EU/No more Polish vermin”: anonymous leaflets left outside a primary school. “Why are there only 10 white faces in this class? Why are you not educating the English?”: street harassment  reported by a KS1 teacher. On Friday June 24 at 5 am I tweeted what turned out […]

Exams may have got easier, but pupils have an appetite for hard questions

Exam question changes in the past two decades have often been made for clarity and “accessibility”, says Tim Oates. But A-level questions from decades ago now available on the web, are proving that there is still a huge appetite for demanding physics Social media allows global circulation of all sorts of conversations that previously would […]

Could multi-academy trusts be a potential model for the good local authorities?

We’ve heard some local authorities are looking at setting up a multi-academy trust – could this be a potential model for the good local authorities? Antony says: The government has made its policy position on the role of local authorities in education very clear in the white paper. It sees local authorities taking on a “more […]