Opinion | Schools Week

Opinion: SEND

An Ofsted report found gaps in SEND support in mainstream schools.

I’ve had to tell 17 SEND pupils they can’t come to school – and I’m furious

Reading a recent report by ASK Research with the NFER about children at special education schools and colleges, I…

Jess Staufenberg

DOMINIC WALL

Exams

Ministers can’t muddle their way through to summer 2021 exams

Schools needed a plan for next summer’s exams weeks ago. Without it, we are already risking another fiasco, writes…

JL Dutaut

SARAH HANNAFIN

Opinion

Suspensions among pupils back up during second year of pandemic

Heightened risks mean more should be done to prevent exclusions now

The reality for excluded children is already dismaying and Covid could make it worse. It’s time for concerted action,…

JL Dutaut

CLAIRE HEALD

Opinion

We’d planned the first day back at school perfectly. Then it rained

It would be no exaggeration to say the last few months rank up there with the toughest of my…

Jess Staufenberg

ALASTAIR O’CONNOR

Opinion

Refusing to fund Covid costs will plunge schools like mine back into the red

Yesterday felt like the final straw for many school leaders up and down the country. Schools minister Nick Gibb…

Jess Staufenberg

PAUL GOSLING

Opinion

While schools leaders continue to deliver, Westminster continues to fail them

Schools will do their job as they have throughout this crisis – now it’s time politicians do theirs, writes…

JL Dutaut

PAUL WHITEMAN

Opinion

Government and teachers’ realities are increasingly worlds apart

Ongoing UCL research shows the Covid crisis has widened a chasm between teachers and government that threatens to become…

JL Dutaut

ALICE BRADBURY

Opinion

To solve the exam mess, we need to go Bacc to the future

Political schemes and partial solutions are how our qualification system got into this mess – it’s time for something…

JL Dutaut

TOM SHERRINGTON

Opinion

Overcoming the new challenges facing EAL learners and their teachers

Supporting learners with English as an additional language will be more challenging than ever this year, but also more…

JL Dutaut

SILVANA RICHARDSON

Must Read

Opinion: Solutions

Attendance: What to do now to prevent September no-shows

For some students, the summer break can create a chasm between home and school they can’t easily cross come…

JL Dutaut

Mikaela Shalders

Opinion: Legal

How Labour should (and shouldn’t) reform SEND tribunals

Holding local authorities to account for repeatedly abusing the tribunal process (and bad faith engagement in mediation) is key

JL Dutaut

Qaisar Sheikh

Opinion: Policy

More power to those who can deliver the PM’s five missions

The prime minister will put rocket boosters under his priorities, not by joining up Whitehall but by joining up…

JL Dutaut

20h

Steve Chalke

20h

ITT

Degree apprenticeships are key to increasing and diversifying recruitment

Work to deliver the new qualification should continue at pace to meet recruitment challenges by making teaching more accessible,…

JL Dutaut

Melanie Renowden

ITT

ITT: Which is the odd one out?

The deeply flawed ITT reforms are a threat to sustainable teacher supply for purely ideological purposes, writes David Spendlove

JL Dutaut

David Spendlove

EXAMS

Exams

How sitting an exam re-affirmed my respect for our students

I still believe exams to be the best way of testing academic knowledge and understanding but they’re no bagatelle,…

JL Dutaut

James Handscombe

Exams

The number of penalties handed out to students caught cheating has risen for a second year

The stereotype that could be feeding exam anxiety

The ‘snowflake’ stereotype is damaging and unjustified, but a more pervasive idea may be perpetuating exam anxiety, says Stephen…

JL Dutaut

Stephen Caldwell

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