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22 May 2026

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Opinion

Mayday, mayday. Too many changes, too often

Independent schools want new regulations to be introduced just once a year – let’s say published on May 1 ready for implementation on September 1 Heads and senior management have only so many hours in the day and we want them to spend a good proportion of those hours educating pupils. Regulations are essential, but […]

High noon in the Ofsted corral

Many of the “desperate” reforms are welcome, but on their own do not re-establish the watchdog’s credibility Ofsted is in a critical condition, educationally as well as financially. Its credibility is at risk. The measures introduced last week are a generally commendable, but somewhat desperate, attempt to shore up a problematic and contestable inspection system. Currently […]

Let’s move towards graduation at 18

Tristram Hunt is right to suggest a move away from exams at 16-plus. But there’s a danger in his proposals for a 14-19 curriculum Most developed countries have graduation at 18. Few tests are taken at 16-plus and if they are, they are restricted to core subjects. The OECD found in 2011 that just 15 […]

‘We were not prepared to accept the status quo’

Should we make the GCSE pass rate harder? In response to Mark Dawes The new GCSEs will be challenging. But schools are in an excellent position to deliver qualifications that at last will prepare students to succeed in a demanding economy In September, schools will begin teaching the new maths and English GCSEs to year […]

What about the pupils caught in the middle?

Should we make the GCSE pass rate harder? Click here for schools minister Nick Gibb’s response to Mark The numbers deemed a fail by the government at GCSE are likely to increase 15 to 20 per cent in summer 2017. That will mean a lot more resits in a system already under tremendous strain. And […]

Four guiding principles of a good assessment system

The confusion, debate and disagreements that have followed the move away from levels are necessary if teachers are to work out the best assessment system for their school A “necessary stage of confusion” is how one commentator recently portrayed the move away from the national system of levels to monitor progress. It seems an apt […]

Forget (most of) your post-election blues

Funding cuts, a recruitment crisis . . . what is there to be happy about? Well, the quality of the profession and the initial signals the government is sending about how it will work with it So, the job of steering the school system through its most difficult challenges for a generation falls to Nicky […]

How many schools should we be trying to help?

The question may not be how many coasting or failing schools need help, but how many we have the resources to help Since the Conservative return to power in May, the papers have been full of Nicky Morgan’s promise to get tough on “coasting” schools. Attracting fewer headlines, but still important, was the government’s commitment […]

Twenty-seven years on from the national curriculum

Will the 2015 drive for curriculum entitlement succeed where 1988 and the national curriculum did not? We’ve been here before. A government re-elected; impatient to press on with education reform; concerned about the way schools respond to change; determined to implement radical curriculum and assessment change. This time it is the proposal that the EBacc […]