education policy | Schools Week

What would be the benefit of a philosophy GCSE?

The answer’s easy: it would give young people the opportunity to discover the subject as a centuries-long conversation amongst the world’s deepest minds Children are natural philosophers. If you doubt the capacity of young people to engage fruitfully with life’s deepest questions, drop a philosophical question into one of your lessons or a tutor group […]

Children in care educational outcomes: Public Accounts Committee round-up

Educational outcomes for children in care have been historically low. A Naional Audit Office report last year looked into the matter and found an alarming dearth of data and joined up services. This week, the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee interrogated the matter further. Reporter Freddie Whittaker live-tweeted the details. Click here to view […]

Should the civil service be costing the opposition’s education policies?

What does a Labour voter from Morecambe, a Lib Dem voter from Truro and a Green voter from Brighton have in common? Yesterday they made a huge political contribution to the Conservatives. A line-up of Conservative Ministers yesterday published an extensive report, pulled together by officials from the Treasury, which attempted to cost Labour’s commitments […]

So many reforms but do they mean anything?

It’s the last week of term and all through the school everyone’s . . . absolutely exhausted. The year has been brutal. Not that it was a surprise. When Michael Gove finally was shown the door in July, some argued it was because he was too big for his boots and had become mean to […]

The year the government remembered its duty of care

The end of Michael Gove’s reign as education secretary was the major educational event of the year. Most teachers and school leaders welcomed the departure of this most ideological of politicians. His successor, Nicky Morgan, moved quickly to repair relations with teachers and launched the workload challenge. Just in time before an election, the government […]

Are we really ready for the new, ‘more rigorous’ Maths GCSE?

The principles underlying the changes to GCSE maths are sound. But the practicalities are less so. For a start, where will all the extra teachers come from? When Michael Gove announced last November that maths GCSE was going to get tougher, I doubt many of us realised just how tough. From September, it will almost […]

Can you leave school when you turn 16?

Businesses benefit in all sorts of ways when they take on a young apprentice. It’s now financially easier too — and they can start the day they turn 16. Some kids are just not academically minded, it doesn’t interest them and they would rather be getting their hands into something practical. The kid may be […]

We need more pathways to higher technical skills

Pushing the academic path at the expense of technical education has stretched the link between education and the economy almost to breaking point In 1712, Thomas Newcomen installed the first commercial steam engine at Conygree coalmine in the West Midlands. It pumped 10 gallons of water per stroke from a shaft more than 50yd deep. […]

The proposals will have a tangential impact on attainment in the state sector

When it comes to education policy it is generally true that the efficacy of a particular policy has an inversely proportional relationship with media attention. Unsurprisingly, headline-grabbing gimmicks rarely achieve substantive improvements. Headline-grabbing gimmickry is precisely what Tristram Hunt has engaged in. From a public policy perspective, his private school proposals are almost universally bad. […]