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22 May 2026

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Opinion

The case against allowing grammars to expand

Only 38 per cent of adults would support the building of more grammar schools. That’s what a YouGov Poll for the Times found last November. Despite this lack of enthusiasm, education secretary Nicky Morgan has bowed to a noisy campaign to allow Weald of Kent Grammar School to establish a satellite grammar at Sevenoaks. The […]

Was the removal of assessment levels a good idea? Yes

Liz Goldspink: Was the removal of assessment levels a good idea? No It’s easy to see why people have been anxious about the removal of levels but, until we have gone through the whole year, no one will really know what impact their removal will have. At present, every local authority and school has to […]

Was the removal of assessment levels a good idea? No

Jane Powell: Was the removal of assessment levels a good idea? Yes There simply hasn’t been enough guidance for schools as to how they can now monitor pupil progress. We have been told that we can’t use traditional levels, as teachers should be given “greater autonomy” over the way students are monitored. However, the lack […]

‘Extending childcare must not become another burden on schools’

Extending out-of-hours childcare is a good idea in principle – but the government needs to clarify its proposals, including the age range it has in mind and who will foot the bill There has been a lot of discussion at the Conservative conference this week about the importance of giving young people the skills and […]

Finding NiMo’s sparkle is easy. Her policies less so.

Anyone who ever endured the pain of sweating over a piece of work only to have it disappear off the computer at the last minute will have empathy for Nicky Morgan this week. Toiling hard, she was the government minister with the most number of fringe events at the Conservative party’s annual conference. As I […]

‘Precious little’ to tackle money, teacher and pay challenges

The political context for education over the next five years can be summed up crudely as ‘more pupils and more demands — with less money, fewer teachers and lower pay’. So what did we hear from the Conservative Party conference to tackle these genuine challenges? Precious little. he debate in our governing party is still […]

3 ideas for improving pupils’ enterprise skills

What if schools were to focus on the soft skills with as much vigour as they do on core subjects and academic rigour? Rigour and results will get students to the interview stage, but it is the soft skills that show the real ingenuity and potential that lasts a lifetime When students leave school or […]

2 ways to switch girls on to engineering

Engineering can be a cool career choice – but ingrained biases mean that girls don’t always agree. One solution is to grab their attention between the ages of 11 and 14; it’s the prime time to turn their perceptions around Women have made great strides in the workforce on many fronts in the past few […]

How can we make schools more efficient?

Schools lose 80 per cent of their budgets to salaries, but they could be more creative with the remaining 20 per cent and drive down costs The education sector has grappled with efficiency for a number of years now and various initiatives have gone some way to improving operational effectiveness and a commitment to value […]