Opinion | Schools Week

Opinion: Attendance

How small changes can make a big impact on attendance

Focusing on the interactions every student experiences could transform how the most persistently absent feel about school

JL Dutaut

Shaun Brown

Opinion: Policy

Free schools proved the power of innovation. We need more of it

The greatest impact of the free schools programme was embodying a spirit of innovation that our system needs more…

JL Dutaut

Hilary Spencer and Carly Mitchell

Opinion: Leadership

The quiet crisis facing education’s governance heroes

A new NGA report reveals an urgent need to rethink governance remits – especially exclusions

JL Dutaut

Sam Henson

Opinion: Leadership

Identities can bring us together instead of stoking culture wars

Andy Hargreaves explores how the politics if identity can be a force for good if we can escape the…

JL Dutaut

Andy Hargreaves

Opinion: Policy

Thirteen years of free schools: Five lessons for policymakers

Policymakers on all sides must learn the lessons of the free schools programme and commit to its innovative approach…

JL Dutaut

David Ross

Opinion: Workforce

The Education Committee has heard from a panel of experts on how to solve specialist teacher shortages

We can and must make working in schools less toxic

Innovative solutions to the recruitment and retention crisis are emerging but the sector is not keeping pace

JL Dutaut

Penny Swain

The Knowledge

What makes for great primary science teaching?

A new EEF review signposts key considerations for teachers and school leaders

JL Dutaut

Michael J. Reiss

Opinion: Sustainability

A little-known opportunity for more sustainable schools

Working with housing developers could unlock ways to make school sustainability a local priority (and some funding too)

JL Dutaut

Tim Culpin

Opinion: Solutions

Six practices to retain disabled and neurodivergent staff

There is nothing inevitable about staff with needs and disabilities leaving the profession or choosing not to enter it

JL Dutaut

Jane Green

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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