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22 May 2026

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Opinion

From the frontline: thoughts on the school-led system

Former executive principal Ros McMullen sets out her vision of what a school-led system now needs. In the first of a two-part series, she says it is time to think about how to join the social policy agenda with the education reform agenda, and to unleash the best school leaders to operate as community leaders […]

People in education are not saints: we need to have difficult conversations about money

Conversations about money in education are difficult, tinged as they often are with a sense that real teachers are “here for the children” rather than their wallets. But such conversations need to happen. People working in schools aren’t saints. They are professionals swapping time for cash. It’s perfectly possible to care deeply and want to […]

National funding formula: ‘The debate should be a marathon not a sprint’

The publication of the national funding formula consultation yesterday has fired the starting pistol on the race to create a funding framework that is fit for purpose. There is a palpable sense of relief that we are finally underway. After all, we have been waiting, lobbying and training for this debate for years. The argument […]

How my school helped Traveller children

There are simple, practical methods for integrating Traveller children into the education system, as my school has shown, yet local and national government has yet to pick up on them Travellers are one of the most marginalised and vulnerable ethnic minorities in Britain and far too often their needs – in particular for their education […]

Transparency is needed from schools commissioners, not marketing

Six months ago I sat in a room in Oxfordshire full of top school leaders – mostly chiefs of multi-academy trusts – and chaired a discussion where they could ask education policy experts questions. To my surprise, the most popular questions were about regional schools commissioners (RSCs). What were they for? How much of a […]

Forget the local school model, we need to break the housing price influence

The evidence is clear: local schools favour well-off parents, while more enrolment in publicly-funded private schools increases equity. The government should be encouraging more private providers to enter the market Every child should have the opportunity to succeed educationally. But for many, education equity is hard to come by. Disadvantage has proven stubbornly difficult to […]

Why the latest research shows heads should give teaching assistants space to do their jobs

The Education Endowment Foundation has released its latest research on new tools for teaching assistants and called for them to be used more effectively in schools. Here, senior researcher Jonathan Sharples explains why the research is significant. One of the challenging aspects of conducting honest, robust evaluations is that they often suggest, honestly and robustly, […]