Opinion | Schools Week

Opinion: Accountability

Heads’ sharp practices to game Ofsted only raise the stakes

Analysing website traffic to predict Ofsted visits is only the latest form of gaming the system – and such…

JL Dutaut

Seamus Murphy

Opinion: Accountability

Spielman’s offer changes nothing for first and infant schools

Amanda Spielman’s plans to improve inspection are deaf to the framework’s inherent inequity and fall well short of what…

JL Dutaut

David Scott

Exams

Beyond Ofsted? And what about ‘Beyond Ofqual’?

There are striking similarities between Ofsted’s judgments and Ofqual’s exam grades, writes Dennis Sherwood, but who is fighting for…

JL Dutaut

Dennis Sherwood

Academy trusts

In praise of small MATs: Why bigger doesn’t always mean better

Small multi-academy trusts offer an agility the system needs and a family feel many schools and communities desire, explains…

JL Dutaut

Sarah Baker

Academies, Ofsted

MAT inspections are inevitable, so let’s start planning now

There is time for the government, Ofsted and others to invest in a programme of research

Freddie Whittaker

Steve Rollett

School funding

Could GAG pooling undermine the national funding formula?

Pooling school budgets at MAT level doesn’t completely undo the fairer distribution of the NFF, writes Jon Andrews, but…

JL Dutaut

Jon Andrews

Relationships and sex education

Solutions: How to make conversations about consent effective

Many teachers lack the knowledge and confidence to teach consent, writes Monica Bhogal, but this crucial topic doesn’t have…

JL Dutaut

Monica Bhogal

Opinion: Accountability

How can partnerships prosper in a competitive system?

New research highlights how local collaborations can work for all students in spite of competition and fragmentation, explain Mel…

JL Dutaut

Mel Ainscow and Paul Armstrong

Citizenship

How Bradford schools are empowering youth-led change

Bradford’s pupil voice summit offers more than the chance for students to air their priorities, write Carol Dewhurst and…

JL Dutaut

Carol Dewhurst and Esha Din Arbab

Must Read

Recruitment and retention

An impoverished work-life drives too many teachers out

The default position that teaching should be professionally (and sometimes personally) all-encompassing is a retention own-goal

John Dickens

Nansi Ellis and Haili Hughes

SEND solutions

We must reclaim our role as SEND and AP’s fixers. ASAP

New project aims to gather and broadcast the solutions to the SEND funding crisis that are lighting the way…

John Dickens

Emma Bradshaw and Tom Legge

The Knowledge

Are schools pushing views about race on their pupils?

Our new research shows some students’ free speech is being limited – but not in the ways some commentators…

JL Dutaut

Professor Karl Kitching

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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