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

Why be a headteacher?

The next generation of school leaders should look to the National Standards of Excellence for Headteachers for inspiration The self-improving school system — an underlying thread in the new headteachers’ standards — needs great future leaders and demands that current heads are nurturing talent spotters. Experience in one urban authority a few years back taught […]

What education questions to ask political canvassers

Forget 24-hour news, the internet and Twitter: parliamentary candidates will still go canvassing before May 7. Be prepared and seize the chance to grill them on education policy The General Election campaign proper doesn’t begin until the end of this month. But that hasn’t stopped the parties vying with each other to offer tasty titbits […]

Lib Dem Conference: Round-up of education policy offers

If this weekend’s Liberal Democrat spring conference taught us anything, it’s that education rises up the agenda when the coalition gloves are off. This partnership between the Lib Dems and the Conservatives is finished in all but name. They have to continue to govern, but no more legislation will pass once the dark cloud of […]

Ofsted should only ‘pass’ or ‘fail’ schools

Ofsted has become too pervasive. It is time now for it to become a regulator, rather than a school improver Ofsted has recognised the need for reform. It has said that good schools will face frequent but shorter visits in the future, and it will give more weight to subjects such as music. But in […]

The myth busters

Education bursts with myths: such as teachers don’t need qualifications, local authorities control schools and academies raise standards. But there are more, all of them easy to disprove. And it’s vital that they are Many things widely supposed in education to be true, simply aren’t. It’s widely supposed that choice, competition and markets are the […]

Scrapping levels was great says Nick Gibb – but he forgets the impact on workload

Last week, members of the government’s ‘assessment without levels’ commission were announced. Much was made of the fact that Nick Gibb, the minister in charge of the group, had said it would be ‘teacher-led’. However, there are no full-time teachers on the panel. The Department for Education defended itself by pointing to the three current […]

Land sharing: it’s going to be difficult to resist

The DfE cannot compel academies to share their land, but changes to funding agreements will make it difficult to resist Amid concerns about the shortage of pupil places at primary schools in England, the Department for Education (DfE) has introduced new provisions into the model funding agreements of academy schools. These are designed to enable […]

Here’s what politicians REALLY think about education

If you ask politicians, of all parties, to tell you what they really think would improve education – what do they say? Education is something that affects all of us. We all go through school, 49% of young people go to university, and later on in life as parents we want to ensure that the […]

6 super-nerdy things you might have missed in the Policy Exchange free school report

Today’s Policy Exchange ‘research’ conveniently released a bunch of positive facts about free schools on the exact same day that David Cameron announced 49 new ones and committed to opening 500 more. Well, fancy that. There have been endless back and forths about the correctness of the report. People seem to see what they want […]