Opinion | Schools Week

Opinion

Improving the oral language skills of disadvantaged pupils

One barrier common to disadvantaged pupils across our trust is poor oral language and communication skills on entry. Aspirer…

Expert Contributor

JO ASHCROFT

Opinion

MPs are set to investigate teacher recruitment, training and retention issues in a new inquiry

These children need more than a system of escalating consequences

Ofsted’s new framework must recognise the enormous hurdles that some children have to overcome – and inspectors must make…

Expert Contributor

BECKY WHITE

Opinion

A plan to centralise school reserves and funding at REAch2 is to be paused for ACAS talks

No to cost-cutting, yes to optimisation

There is an important distinction between efficiency in the context of austerity and the optimisation of available resources, says…

Expert Contributor

STEPHEN MORALES

Opinion

For richer, for poorer – should MATs have a joint bank account?

What are the pros and cons of pooling funds across a multi academy trust? Mat Smith takes a look……

Expert Contributor

MAT SMITH

Opinion

Cognitive load theory: what does the research say?

As teachers we may have hunches about why pupils learn certain elements particularly effectively, but often it’s difficult to…

Expert Contributor

JESSICA MASON BLAKEY

Opinion

Children need to see more ethnically diverse school leaders

Few school leaders and senior managers are from non-white backgrounds. How long will education have to wait for that…

Expert Contributor

DAVID HERMITT

Opinion

The real ‘graduate schools’ for teachers already exist

Universities and their postgraduate courses for teachers tend to outlive the whims of ministers and secretaries of state, says…

Expert Contributor

RACHEL LOFTHOUSE

Opinion

Parkfield School and No Outsiders: We must learn from Trojan Horse history in Birmingham

No Outsiders and in particular the teaching of LGBT issues must continue, if we want to protect the values…

Expert Contributor

COLIN DIAMOND

Opinion

Ten things schools can do to address the climate crisis

With a debate raging about whether pupils are taught enough about climate change at school, Fiona Carnie offers some…

Expert Contributor

FIONA CARNIE

Must Read

Opinion

Why digital transformation must be a priority for schools in 2026

AI tools to improve teaching, workloads, admin and pupil results are all here – the challenge is to implement…

Freddie Whittaker

Chris Thackray

Opinion

First 16-year-old voters are already political, but they need schools’ support

Teenagers who will vote in 2029 are forming views without the structure or understanding schools should provide

Freddie Whittaker

Katie Carr

Opinion

Forget the buzzword bingo, here’s how schools can get belonging right

Children show us belonging is simple. If we see them, hear them, know them and accept them for who…

Freddie Whittaker

Anthony Benedict

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

University clearing: How teachers can support students

All the important details school staff need to help youngsters through clearing this year

John Dickens

5mo

Sam Sykes

5mo

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

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