education policy | Schools Week

Twenty-seven years on from the national curriculum

Will the 2015 drive for curriculum entitlement succeed where 1988 and the national curriculum did not? We’ve been here before. A government re-elected; impatient to press on with education reform; concerned about the way schools respond to change; determined to implement radical curriculum and assessment change. This time it is the proposal that the EBacc […]

Our specialist approach to alerting our pupils to extremism

The emergence of extremist ideologies should be taught within academic disciplines such as history. Only then will pupils understand the root causes and have vital reference points The Counter Terrorism and Security Act 2015 that comes into force on July 1 mandates all schools with a duty to prevent the radicalisation of young people. Many […]

Education research: The intractable problems

One of the more curious aspects of our profession is the way in which knowledge about what makes effective practice has been created and disseminated to its own practitioners. We are I think, singularly myopic in this regard. Education research has traditionally been one-way traffic. Research has been something done to teachers and not something […]

Promises, promises, promises…

After the election results, the government now needs to make good on its election promises. With the recent election outcome, we can now only hope Nicky Morgan keeps to the promises made in the Department for Education’s (DfE) Workload Challenge report published in February. Reading back over the details this half-term, I have decided to […]

Eight key principles to help boost pupils’ mental health

Schools that help their pupils to be mentally healthy give children and young people the opportunity to get the most out of their education and to prepare for adult life. It also means that they get off to a good start as they can better cope with the stresses and strains they might face in […]

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 […]

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 […]

The system could be given the freedoms to be great

It looks like a busy five years for Nicky Morgan: 500 new free schools, an extra 17,500 maths and physics teachers needed, new headteachers for schools “requiring improvement”, and the academisation of failing and coasting secondary schools. The education secretary has a lot to do after wielding her “stick” during the election campaign: primary heads […]

Why we should focus on well-rounded young people – not exceptional grades

Earlier this week the headteacher of Lady Eleanor Holles School, Heather Hanbury, launched an attack at the state of the current education system and its focus on the attainment of high grade test results. For a headteacher, to say that a C grade is perfectly acceptable is not only brave, but something which has been […]