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23 June 2026

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Opinion

Our specialist approach to alerting our pupils to extremism

The emergence of extremist ideologies should be taught within academic disciplines such as history. Only then will pupils understand the root causes and have vital reference points The Counter Terrorism and Security Act 2015 that comes into force on July 1 mandates all schools with a duty to prevent the radicalisation of young people. Many […]

How much pay can be withheld if you go on strike?

You are not entitled to be paid for the time you spend on strike, but the amount docked will depend on what type of institution you teach in In maintained schools in England the Burgundy Book says that deductions for teachers on strike should be calculated on the basis of a day’s salary being 1/365th […]

Developing great teaching: eight lessons from new research

Good CPD focuses on subject or topic-based pupil issues and outcomes, uses collaborative problem-solving approaches over several months and moves away from the one-size-fits-nobody approach Too much CPD is unproductive but the evidence suggests a better way. No teacher has ever got to the end of their day with an empty to-do list; we’re an […]

Bradford school stabbing: “Response must be proportional to risk”

The news that another teacher has been stabbed sent shudders up my spine. Last year, Ann Maguire became the first teacher to die at the hands of a pupil in a school for nearly 20 years. Fortunately, schools are among the safest of public places but incidents do happen. As I know to my own […]

Education research: The intractable problems

One of the more curious aspects of our profession is the way in which knowledge about what makes effective practice has been created and disseminated to its own practitioners. We are I think, singularly myopic in this regard. Education research has traditionally been one-way traffic. Research has been something done to teachers and not something […]

Measure teacher quality: not student results

An overreliance on standardised data undermines our efforts to keep schools improving. If we really want to help our pupils then the best thing we can do is make sure that the people educating them also have the chance to keep on learning I recently completed a strategic review for one of the largest academy […]

How we could abandon GCSEs and make 14-19 education work

Expecting students to take a plethora of exams at 16 makes little sense in a modern context. By stripping back the number of externally-assessed subjects for this age group, we could introduce far greater flexibility into our education system To my mind, many of the reforms to qualifications made in the life cycle of the […]

Embracing my dyslexia makes me a better teacher

Tasks such as writing and alphabetising can be time-consuming and tricky, but children learn more helpful lessons when we are honest about the challenges we face in life than when we try to conceal them What is it like to be a teacher with dyslexia? I have been staring at that question for 20 minutes […]

How do exam writers put together questions for tests?

After an Edexcel GCSE maths question about Hannah’s sweets went viral on Twitter yesterday, exam writer Paula Goddard gives an insight into the way question papers are put together. The probability of orange sweeties and calculating the size of a lump of cheese – clearly the examination question writer was feeling a bit peckish when […]