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22 May 2026

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Opinion

Segregation is holding our children back

Next month a report on segregation will be published for the prime minister. Hopefully it will mark the point when England starts to take integration seriously In England, our faith-based admissions system has evolved a side-effect of keeping children of faith separate from children of other faiths and none. The majority of Sikh, Muslim and […]

Teachers must learn to tame technology

There are powerful tools already available in schools. Staff must realise they don’t need to upgrade, they need to maximise the use of what they have I went to the Bett Show recently. Four days – and half a mile – long, bigger than ever, stand after stand showing the latest educational technology. The show […]

Factory-farmed teachers will fail our children

The new-look training courses are trying to turn out fully-formed teachers in a matter of weeks, when what they need is time to think and support as they develop. We can’t dismiss the great educational thinkers of the past The increased focus on competition in education has produced a conveyor belt of quick fixes in […]

EBacc and primary testing pushing arts out of the curriculum

New findings from The National Society for Education in Art and Design (NSEAD) Survey Report 2015-16 published this week indicate that art, craft and design education in England has been significantly side-lined. The results from more than 1,100 NSEAD respondents are dismal, indicating a systemic marginalisation of the visual arts across all education sectors since […]

‘How the new SEND statement replacements work’

A new special educational needs (SEN) system has been in place for more than a year. But have the changes been positive? Laxmi Patel gives them a broad thumbs up – but warns that cuts are taking their toll 1. More involvement from children, young people and families The new system puts children and young people […]

‘Can I fail Ofsted if a child I teach goes to fight in Syria?’

Despite Ofsted’s changes to the framework, we are already doing what we can – and how is this new duty imposed on us any different to what went before? This week I received more than 50 emails trying to sell me things for our school – 15 of them related to radicalisation, extremism or the […]

Let’s give Ofsted’s short inspections two cheers (for now)

The lighter-touch regime is a welcome move, but why is the chief inspector still obsessing over pupils being well behaved and showing respect when finding after finding shows this is the norm in the vast majority of schools? Sir Michael Wilshaw, Ofsted’s chief inspector is right to point out that since September 2015 it has […]

Would you teach differently if there was a gun at your head?

Do our current teaching methods always achieve the goals we hope for – and if not, why not? It’s time to plan with the intention of securing long term retention I sighed as I looked through the GCSE mock exam scripts. I thought to myself: “It’s not my fault some struggled. What can you do? […]

‘Schools Week hasn’t done the maths on commas’

It isn’t unreasonable to expect an 11-year-old to use a comma as a thousands separator – this is a policy that has been made clear since the sample tests were published in July 2015 I am under no illusion that year 6 teachers have an extra challenge this year preparing for the new Key Stage […]