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23 July 2026

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Opinion

Why the NGA is on a mission to improve human resources in schools

School governors often spend more time governing than trustees in many other charities. Are staffing issues to blame? This is Trustees’ Week, but I imagine almost all academy trustees will be blissfully unaware of it. That’s entirely understandable; as school improvement is prioritised for volunteers with limited time. It is a shame that school governance […]

Schools Week editorials

Edition eight editorial New DfE building to include gym and art collection When Nicky Morgan said spare money should be spent in schools, she was right. Given we have reported on schools with malfunctioning generators and temporary premises there are plenty of places that need it. Though the government may save money with the move, it […]

A-level decoupling: who’s going to benefit?

A-level reform will leave sixth-form students facing increasingly difficult curriculum decisions and decreased attainment. Change is an inevitability that all teachers have become accustomed to in recent years. Adapting to survive and remain competitive is a necessity. A-level reform, in particular A-level decoupling, is the latest in a raft of government-led changes intended to increase […]

How can schools strengthen mental health for all pupils?

The Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) code of practice will give schools the impetus to review their approaches to supporting mental health. About one in 10 school-aged children has a clinically diagnosable mental health disorder. Many of these difficulties will still be apparent in adulthood, with estimates suggesting that around half of all adult […]

School Funding Changes: Made Simple

The way in which the Dedicated Schools Grant, one of the main components of school funding, is calculated is changing. The Department for Education says that, for the first time in a decade, funding will be based on pupil characteristics rather than historic levels of spending. With additional guidance recently brought out on this recently, […]

Creating a toolkit to help raise teaching standards

UK heads joined school leaders from around the world in Washington to explore ways of developing professional learning and providing effective feedback. Earlier this week, I was fortunate enough to be among 24 UK headteachers who travelled to Washington DC for the Teacher Development Summit organised by the Sutton Trust and the Bill and Melinda […]

Schools Week editorials

Edition seven editorial Free school sixth-form offer £500 recruitment ‘incentive’ to pupils A proposed sixth-form free school advertising £500 incentives to new pupils is at best questionable, but at worst it’s an uncosted bribe. The ‘academic scholarship’ is not a bursary for materials, travel or meals, typically given to pupils with parents on low incomes. It […]

The 13 most critical points in the NAO’s Academies and Schools Oversight report

Today the National Audit Office (NAO) released a document scrutinising the way schools are overseen and intervened on if under-performing. Reading it is illuminating. Academies have been complicated to keep abreast of over the last few years, and it does a good job of explaining who is responsible for what (so far as there actually […]

University-led teacher training should be valued, not derided

The transfer of initial teacher training numbers to the School Direct programme has all the makings of a crisis in future teacher supply There is no doubt that Michael Gove’s reforms to teacher education have left new Education Secretary Nicky Morgan with a dilemma. On the one hand, some of her colleagues still regard university […]