Opinion | Schools Week

Opinion

Trustees beware: know your legal duties!

If there is a single part of the academy system that needs our urgent attention, it is trusteeship, argues…

Expert Contributor

Opinion

Free schools can’t be judged as a homogenous group

Tom Richmond is wrong on one thing, argues Thomas Byrne. There already are numerous free school successes – and…

Expert Contributor

Opinion

Schools: you must tell pupils about apprenticeships!

After news broke that only two of the 10 largest multi-academy trusts are actually implementing the so-called Baker Clause,…

Lord Kenneth Baker

Opinion

How school leaders can be sucked into dodgy dealings

Before I became a teacher I briefly worked for KPMG, one of the world’s largest auditors. It was shortly…

Laura McInerney

Opinion

Free schools: do their outcomes justify the cost?

There’s not enough evidence yet to see whether free schools have worked, says Tom Richmond, but what we do…

Expert Contributor

Opinion

The reception year isn’t all about learning to read

The UK’s dogmatic approach to teaching reading does a disservice to the different ways and speeds at which young…

Expert Contributor

Opinion

Education ministers need to stop arguing about skills

It is beyond tedious to watch two ministers argue in public over the meaning of the word ‘skills’ when…

Laura McInerney

Opinion

Progress 8 is biased towards grammar schools – here’s the solution

The school progress measures were a step in the right direction, but in their current form they can only…

Expert Contributor

Opinion

How can the DfE use EdTech to reduce teacher workload?

Justine Greening was making progress on using EdTech to alleviate workload – here’s what she’d achieved so far, and…

Expert Contributor

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

15h

Daniel Kebede

15h

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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