Skip to content
22 May 2026

Become a member today for unlimited access to Schools Week

Enjoy expert journalism on schools policy with fewer ads and exclusive benefits
subscribe

Opinion

‘It’s cushy to be a male primary school teacher’

A Y-chromosome makes male teachers instantly visible in a primary schools. It also benefits them enormously; they are over-represented as school leaders while women are over-represented as cleaners, midday assistants, teaching assistants and dinner ladies. I could produce for you a salacious moan-rant about how hard it is being a man in a female-dominated profession […]

You’re not the ‘mastery’ of me

The masculine narrative of current education reformers won’t lead to freedom. It is infiltrating teachers’ consciousness; changing perceptions of who they are as teachers, what they stand for and what they do. I wrote a blog a few weeks ago about the rise of a peculiarly masculine narrative within British education. Not everyone liked it. […]

‘No one agrees on anything in education – can we sort that out, please?’

Planning an education conference led Heidi Williams to question whether ever-shifting policy at the whim of ministers was really best for the nation’s children. In media partnership with Schools Week, the Politics in Education Summit will consider, could there be a better way?   My background is as an organiser of Summits. At these events […]

Baseline assessments are an impossible idea

From next year, an approved reception baseline assessment will be the only accepted way of measuring how well a primary school’s pupils have progressed to Year 6. Thousands of heads, however, are declining to participate Over the years I have learned, on arrival at a wedding reception, to reconnoitre the best escape route (“My dear, […]

Critical thinking to critical learning: Generation Y as a case study

Since the 1980s the importance of critical thinking and its taxonomy have been the focus of vigorous debate. The ability to progress in any realm using cognition necessitates questioning and analysing, making subtle distinctions between conclusions and hypotheses. Lipman defines this as “thinking that is conducive to good judgment because it is sensitive to context, […]

‘In teaching there’s rarely a flower growing in a field of weeds’

A wonderful teacher made a true difference in my life. My maths lecturer, Dr Peter Neumann at Oxford University, was so intelligent, but could make what he was teaching accessible to those in his classes, taking pleasure in explaining complicated things in simple ways. There is an art to explanation – he really had it […]

Edition 43 editor’s comment

Imagine if there were a quarter of a million people working with the most vulnerable children in our school system and yet receiving some of the lowest pay, working on insecure contracts that don’t include holiday pay and facing incredibly low pensions. We don’t have to imagine. This is the situation for many teaching assistants […]

Mary Bousted: ‘Don’t tell me I have low expectations’

Teachers care passionately about their pupils and strive to close the education achievement gap, but their job becomes more difficult as inequality and poverty levels rise – as they will under Conservative party policies Speaking last week at a Schools and FE Week Fringe at the Conservative party conference, I was accused by Nick Gibb, […]

The case for allowing grammar schools to expand

The comprehensive system is no fairer than the selective schools system, argues campaigner Chris McGovern, and there are many good reasons why we should encourage grammar school expansion A satellite grammar school is to be opened in Sevenoaks and comprehensive school zealots are enraged. The “one size fits all” mantra is being threatened and the “high priests” and “high priestesses” […]