• Schools need more money or they'll have to start cutting staff

    Schools are increasingly forced to live beyond the meagre means the government gives them, a situation that can’t last according to the EPI’s Jon Andrews Ten years ago, I was working in the Department for Children, Schools and Families on school efficiency. Amongst other things, I was tasked with developing guidance for local authorities on…

    14.50 Mar. 16th, 2018 | Opinion

  • 'The Parent Pound' - Should schools ask parents for donations to cover squeezed budgets?

    As one school consults parents on regular cash contributions to boost its ailing coffers, editor Laura McInerney considers the implications   Schools are facing a grim financial situation. Planned increases in pensions and national insurance are rocketing staff costs, which are already around 80 per cent of what school budgets are spent on. Heads only…

    11.41 Nov. 18th, 2015 | Opinion

  • Forget (most of) your post-election blues

    Funding cuts, a recruitment crisis . . . what is there to be happy about? Well, the quality of the profession and the initial signals the government is sending about how it will work with it So, the job of steering the school system through its most difficult challenges for a generation falls to Nicky…

    7.30 Jun. 21st, 2015 | Opinion

  • The reality of school funding cuts

    We may know who will govern the country for the next five years, but the detail of education funding under a Conservative administration remains opaque David Cameron has called for greater efficiency and lean management in public bodies, a call that signals a strong intent to make further cuts to public services. In their pre-election…

    6.30 May. 25th, 2015 | Opinion

  • Let’s take a deep breath and make changes

    A Conservative government with Nicky Morgan as secretary of state gives some chance of stability to allow schools to implement changes already in the pipeline In the National Governors’ Association (NGA) manifesto published a year ago we called for a period of stability, the most called-for request by our members – governors and trustees across…

    6.30 May. 18th, 2015 | Opinion

  • Thoughts from after the election

    The Conservatives have a clear majority. So what is the reality for school leaders, governors and teachers? Many of us will remember the 1997 election and the glow of Tony Blair’s campaign mantra: education, education, education! We recall, too, the excellent, school-sympathetic secretaries of state for education under Labour – Blunkett, Morris, Johnson, even Balls…

    7.30 May. 17th, 2015 | Opinion

  • ‘If I were education secretary (again)...’

    Money is not the sole salvation in achieving quality education for all children. However, cutting the money available can have a devastating impact on those schools that have been making the most progress, reaching out and engaging with families and for whom the pupil premium was a lifeline at a time of retrenchment. That is…

    6.00 May. 8th, 2015 | Opinion

  • The practicalities of making students study English to 18

    More teachers will be needed to teach students who don’t really want to be there. . . and just as more budget cuts are about to hit further education. Why hasn’t someone thought this through? After teaching English in secondary schools for 12 or so years, I began working as an FE lecturer in Warwickshire;…

    7.30 May. 2nd, 2015 | Opinion

  • SEN: schools can’t do it alone

    Away from boarding schools and instead looking at SEN provision, Mark Baker discusses the challenges of budget cuts in schools attempting to meet new reforms Children and young people with special educational needs (SEN), their parents and schools are currently facing huge changes. Quite rightly, parents have wanted more of a say in SEN provision,…

    7.30 Nov. 22nd, 2014 | Opinion

  • Get behind research funding

    Tom Sherrington, headteacher at Highbury Grove School, north London, on how research can be absorbed into classroom practice in a meaningful way The aim of my talk was to look at four different kinds of research and get people to consider the extent to which teachers accepted their findings and how they might allow it…

    12.05 Sep. 17th, 2014 | Opinion