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

What would be the benefit of a philosophy GCSE?

The answer’s easy: it would give young people the opportunity to discover the subject as a centuries-long conversation amongst the world’s deepest minds Children are natural philosophers. If you doubt the capacity of young people to engage fruitfully with life’s deepest questions, drop a philosophical question into one of your lessons or a tutor group […]

Why linear A-levels will work best

Recoupling will snatch what space there is in the post-16 curriculum to teach skills that are no longer examined, giving pupils the space to explore subject areas that they’re interested in As a senior leader and English teacher, the removal of coursework meant an end to the relentless chasing of year 11s for those essays […]

Children in care educational outcomes: Public Accounts Committee round-up

Educational outcomes for children in care have been historically low. A Naional Audit Office report last year looked into the matter and found an alarming dearth of data and joined up services. This week, the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee interrogated the matter further. Reporter Freddie Whittaker live-tweeted the details. Click here to view […]

Awards will inspire schools to turn around children’s lives

The whole point of the awards is to highlight successful approaches we didn’t even know existed Scientific evidence shows that well-designed prizes can be powerful drivers of behaviour change. For example, the Ansari X Prize – which offered $10 million for whoever could get a manned spacecraft into space, twice, in two weeks – prompted […]

The third member of a school’s holy trinity

School business managers are more than a finance manager or an admin officer. But exactly what their role is should be clarified as schools take on more responsibility The emphasis on performance and standards in the education sector is exacting; financial pressures are significant. In the future, both will continue to rise and accountability will […]

Rewarding luck is not a formula to beat disadvantage

The Pupil Premium Awards benefit schools that had a little more talent and a lot of luck Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman, when asked to report his ‘favourite equation’, offered the following: Success = talent + luck. Great success = a little more talent + a lot of luck. He illustrates this with an example from […]

Should the civil service be costing the opposition’s education policies?

What does a Labour voter from Morecambe, a Lib Dem voter from Truro and a Green voter from Brighton have in common? Yesterday they made a huge political contribution to the Conservatives. A line-up of Conservative Ministers yesterday published an extensive report, pulled together by officials from the Treasury, which attempted to cost Labour’s commitments […]

So many reforms but do they mean anything?

It’s the last week of term and all through the school everyone’s . . . absolutely exhausted. The year has been brutal. Not that it was a surprise. When Michael Gove finally was shown the door in July, some argued it was because he was too big for his boots and had become mean to […]

What are the implications of Tristram Hunt’s private school plans?

Tristram Hunt’s recent speech turned the spotlight on the benefits independent schools receive as a result of their charitable status. His focus was the business rate relief that all charities enjoy: a mandatory 80% reduction with discretion for the local authority to grant up to 100% relief. Mr Hunt asserted that independent schools did not […]