education leadership | Schools Week

Unpaid DfE coaching scheme for women teachers criticised as ‘tick-box exercise’

A government scheme to encourage more women to become school leaders has been dubbed a “tick-box exercise” by those involved in the initiative. Launched by the Department for Education (DfE) and National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL) nearly eight months ago, the scheme promised to link 1,000 women teachers with 1,000 coaches and school […]

Some school leaders are taking us for fools – we need to stand up to them

The high-stakes accountability system is no excuse. Schools are funded by public money and it’s time to reclaim their moral purpose, says Emma Knights. Tight budgets and policy changes are making it tough for many in schools at the moment, whether you are a teacher, a school leader, a governor or a trustee. So, it’s […]

Multi-academy trusts 6 times more likely to be named after men than women

Multi-academy trusts are six times more likely to be named after men than women, a Schools Week investigation has revealed. Analysis of the names given to multi-academy trusts (MATs) show 63 are named after men while only 10 are named after a woman – and none after a female MAT founder. Free schools, opened since […]

How to be an LGBT+ ally in schools

Posters on walls in schools don’t cut it – it’s how teachers and school leaders deal with specific incidents that really makes a difference, says Annette Pryce. Here’s a story: it’s about a teenage girl who was 14 when she came out at school as a lesbian. After months of verbal abuse and no support, […]

Respecting teachers’ professionalism

Winning friends and influencing people are important, especially when new ministers are appointed and new policies are introduced. Suggestions for the Consideration of Teachers was published in 1905 by officials very aware of the strained relationship with the teaching profession as a result of payment by results, which had recently ended. This was their attempt […]

We are rewarding the wrong school leaders

The UK is falling behind in international league tables because it is appointing, rewarding and recognising the wrong school leaders, say Alex Hill and Ben Laker Why does the UK educational system fall behind its peers? In the 2012 Program for International Assessment (PISA) study, the UK invested the 8th largest amount of 34 OECD […]

Historians make the best superheads. Ugh.

While it is easy to lie with statistics, it is even easier to lie without them. And if you are going to accuse teachers from certain subjects of being worse school leaders than others, you probably ought to have some numbers to back you up. Researchers Alex Hill and Ben Laker are no stranger to […]

Making school leadership more accessible to women

For the first time we have a woman prime minister, home secretary and education secretary in office at the same time. But that doesn’t mean equality of opportunity for women in education is secure, says Jon Chaloner Last year #WomenEd was created by a number of female leaders as a grassroots movement to connect existing […]

Mary Bousted, general secretary of ATL and TUC president

Mary Bousted is sitting in her central London office near Trafalgar Square and quibbling with my first question. “It’s funny you say I’m strident, because that’s not how I feel. “It’s simply that it has always been apparent to me that the direction of travel set in train by Michael Gove would come unravelled. And […]