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22 May 2026

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Opinion

‘Talking down the job of a headteacher stops people doing it’

Being a headteacher is a tough job: but it is also a brilliant one. Let’s talk up the positives and encourage the best senior leaders to take on the challenge. It is true that being a headteacher is not an easy task, and that’s not surprising: you have hundreds of young people in your care, […]

Top tips for dealing with criticism as an education leader

Education leaders in the limelight often attract criticism and negative attention. How do they stand it? And what techniques can you use if facing the same problem? Former teacher turned PR specialist Janet Murray reveals all. If you are in the public eye – and most education organisations and leaders are – there is something […]

Teachers won’t welcome an ‘apprenticeship’ route into the classroom

Last week we had a poke at Nicky Morgan for being in slow-motion. Slo-Mo, we nicknamed her, and said she needed to get her skates on with some reforms. But, like the headteacher who says at 2.30pm on Friday that “things are remarkably quiet today” inevitably finds herself confronted with a fight five minutes later, […]

‘Health care asks patients to design its services, why don’t we ask pupils?’

Disengaged pupils can be reconnected to their learning by teachers will to take innovative approaches already seen in the health sector. But do schools have the time, funds and courage to try out these ideas? A year on from the launch of the coalition government’s “workload challenge”, the burden on teachers is still under scrutiny. […]

‘Partnering up is the future for academies’

In 2011, two thirds of primary academies were standalone – but by 2015 65 per cent were in a multi-academy trust. For many schools, outcomes have improved because they support each other The government’s academy programme is growing fast. Sixty five per cent of secondary schools and 18 per cent of primaries now operate outside […]

Here’s how to make the pupil premium work

We shouldn’t judge disadvantaged pupils purely by the academic achievements of students in the best schools, but if used well, the premium is the way to lift barriers to learning According to the Fabian Society, the number of children in poverty will increase from 2.5 million today to 4.4 million by Christmas 2030. Whether that […]

Academy contracts are not fit for purpose – so how do we change them?

Academies have been given different freedoms depending on when they signed a funding agreement or what they managed to negotiate with a government minister. Suggested reforms from an IPPR seminar would not threaten school autonomy. Instead they would allow the government to set out a more consistent set of freedoms — and help to reduce bureaucracy in […]