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26 April 2026

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Opinion

So you want to join an academy trust? Make sure you ask these 7 questions first

Many schools will be thinking about joining a trust or federation. This is probably a sensible response to rising costs, falling budgets, diminishing services and ever-more demanding accountability. But groups of schools come in all shapes and sizes. We have to look behind the label and discover what is really going on. These sorts of […]

The 5 things we look for in schools wanting to join our academy trust

Educationists often are asked to behave like used car salesmen to promote their wares, but always take a proper look under the bonnet before you make long-term commitments. When I’m considering schools that want to join the Ormiston Academies Trust (OAT) – and we’re not short of requests – I go through a number of […]

‘My child was supposed to go to grammar school – we shop at Waitrose!’

When Joanne Bartley’s daughter failed her 11-plus, her opportunities contracted drastically. She has done well, but now faces a move to a third Kent secondary before she goes on to university. Selection, says her mother, is a self-perpetuating system that has little to do with social mobility When my daughter failed her 11-plus I was […]

The 3 ideas every teacher should bin in 2016

Most teachers will already have thought about what they’d like to achieve this new year. But what about the things they’d like to see the back of? During the festive season I thought about the teaching ideas posed by the Department for Education (DfE) that I’d like to see banished this year. Here are my […]

‘Why a campaign group was wrong to complain about my school’s racial intake’

Religious schools have been accused of racial segregation – but is the picture accurate? Headteacher Paul Halliewell says his school was unfairly targeted. In Science we teach pupils not to make an evaluation without evidence to back it up. During research, if you only choose to use the evidence that supports your original hypothesis and […]

Our longer school day engages our students

Setting up a new school is, in equal measure, the hardest, most frustrating, most time consuming and most enjoyable thing I have ever done in my 17 years in education. In 2013, our new secondary school emerged into an education system with growing challenges, not least squeezing a stimulating and varied programme of study and […]

Leading Learning: privilege and responsibility

The opportunity to lead learning is a great privilege and responsibility. In recent years too many school and classroom leaders have got caught up in looking for quick fixes under the dual pressures of our accountability system and a genuine desire to do the best for the children in our care. A simple touch stone […]

Why pupils must feel connected to their learning

We must close the achievement gap” is a familiar phrase among today’s educators and politicians, reflecting the international focus on how students, schools, and nations perform on standardised tests. To narrow the achievement gap we must first understand the achievement gap is a symptom of a much greater challenge – the participation gap. Students can […]