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26 April 2026

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Opinion

Do we need autism-specific schools?

All children and young people deserve an inclusive and fulfilling education. But mainstream schools are not always the answer for those with autism who must have access to a range of provision Autism is a spectrum condition so, while all children and young people with the lifelong disability share certain difficulties around social communication and […]

8 Things You Might Have Missed in Ofsted’s Annual Report

At 9.30am yesterday Michael Wilshaw launched Ofsted’s Annual Report. As ever, there were pre-arranged sound bites and heavily suggested take-away points. But if you dig down into the report (and its regional ones) there are a few extra nuggets that you may have missed.   1.Too many academies do not receive effective challenge and support […]

We need more pathways to higher technical skills

Pushing the academic path at the expense of technical education has stretched the link between education and the economy almost to breaking point In 1712, Thomas Newcomen installed the first commercial steam engine at Conygree coalmine in the West Midlands. It pumped 10 gallons of water per stroke from a shaft more than 50yd deep. […]

Should Ofsted police extremism?

Ofsted should be clear what constitutes extremism and how “British values” can be measured before inspectors start making judgments There is a new duty on college and schools to prevent individuals being drawn into terrorism; organisations repeatedly inviting extremist speakers or failing in this duty will need to respond to ministerial directions. The threat of […]

Why teachers are catching the Teachmeet bug

Some whole-school CPD can be misjudged, irrelevant and, often passive. Teachmeet provides the perfect antidote… Teachmeet comes in many guises. The first I attended was a gathering of 10 teachers in a classroom. At the second there were 60, this time on board HMS Victory in Portsmouth. However, both gatherings were defined by the very […]

The proposals will have a tangential impact on attainment in the state sector

When it comes to education policy it is generally true that the efficacy of a particular policy has an inversely proportional relationship with media attention. Unsurprisingly, headline-grabbing gimmicks rarely achieve substantive improvements. Headline-grabbing gimmickry is precisely what Tristram Hunt has engaged in. From a public policy perspective, his private school proposals are almost universally bad. […]

Why does Labour now see independent schools as the saviour of the rest

When I hear politicians championing their latest plan to improve state education I turn my mind back a year to when I worked at a challenging London state school and ask myself: “would this policy have helped me become a better classroom teacher? Would it have reduced the piles of books to mark or solved […]

What is Tristram Hunt’s private school tax plan?

Tristram Hunt declined to comment. Those words leapt out in a New Statesman article earlier this year describing how private and state schools could demolish walls between them. Andrew Adonis, Michael Gove, Anthony Seldon, even myself, all wrote articles. Tristram Hunt? He declined to comment. The shadow education secretary was rightly lampooned for his silence. […]

The private system would still be idealised as something to aspire to

At the heart of the education debate are questions about values, what we mean by a “good” education. I was educated in the private sector, but I have chosen a community education for my own children. Why? Education should be inclusive and equip everyone to participate fully in society and lead a fulfilled life. We should […]