Opinion | Schools Week

Opinion

How to manage a mobile phone ban in schools

Collecting pupils’ phones isn’t an invasion of privacy – it’s a sensible way to run a school, explains Peter…

Expert Contributor

PETER LEE

Opinion

Ofsted requires improvement – but how do we get there?

Ofsted’s name is mud this week. Amanda Spielman’s speech at last week’s Festival of Education went down like a…

Laura McInerney

LAURA MCINERNEY

Opinion

Graduate recruiters are clamouring for more talented women – and schools should be afraid

Gender pay rules are making corporations jittery, and rightly so. As Schools Week recently revealed, academy trusts usually have…

Laura McInerney

LAURA MCINERNEY

Opinion

Booze and backroom deals are under the accounting spotlight

The ESFA’s annual academies accounts direction document is usually fairly dry, but this year there are few more important…

Expert Contributor

PHILLIP REYNOLDS

Opinion

Punk leadership means daring to think outside the system

The education community has a jaundiced view of school leadership at present, which is seen as risk-averse or even…

Keziah Featherstone

KEZIAH FEATHERSTONE

Opinion

Ignore the naysayers, the new early-learning goals are great

Credit where credit is due, writes Clare Sealy; the government has done a really good job on its new…

Expert Contributor

CLARE SEALY

Opinion

No, teachers aren’t overpaid – despite what some think-tanks may claim

Last week, the Taxpayers’ Alliance, a right-wing think-tank, tried to claim that teachers are paid too much, flying in…

Expert Contributor

JACK WORTH

Opinion

Why schools need a coherent curriculum

The curriculum at so many schools has narrowed as the government lays down more and more core targets. Mary…

Expert Contributor

MARY MYATT

Opinion

Five things that work in teachers’ early-career development

Nearly a quarter of teachers leave the profession in their first three years. Cat Scutt believes a focused programme…

Expert Contributor

CAT SCUTT

Must Read

Opinion: Accountability

Ofsted have wasted an opportunity for fundamental reform

The new framework is rushed and doesn’t deliver the change the sector needs. Bridget Phillipson must step in

JL Dutaut

Daniel Kebede

Labour’s first year

Six priorities for Bridget Phillipson’s second year at the helm

Labour has broadened the definition of success for schools. Here’s how it can now ensure everyone works towards this…

JL Dutaut

Liz Robinson

Letters to the editor

Letters to the editor, 5 September 2025

Schools Week’s legendary cartoonist hangs up his pen, perceptions of behaviour diverge, and a data disaster looms

JL Dutaut

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

Sam Sykes

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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