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12 April 2026

Tag: politics

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. […]

Why does Labour now see independent schools as the saviour of the rest

When I hear politicians championing their latest plan to improve state education I turn my mind back a year to when I worked at a challenging London state school and ask myself: “would this policy have helped me become a better classroom teacher? Would it have reduced the piles of books to mark or solved […]

What is Tristram Hunt’s private school tax plan?

Tristram Hunt declined to comment. Those words leapt out in a New Statesman article earlier this year describing how private and state schools could demolish walls between them. Andrew Adonis, Michael Gove, Anthony Seldon, even myself, all wrote articles. Tristram Hunt? He declined to comment. The shadow education secretary was rightly lampooned for his silence. […]

A desperate hunt for the middle classes

Labour’s threat  to end “generous state subsidies” for private schools may be well meaning, but will end up harming the least well off It was only a matter of time before Labour launched an attack on the independent sector. The general election is just months away, and given that several senior Tories have recently blown […]

More a quiet gathering than a party…

It was steady as it goes at the three main party conferences this year with education ministers signalling their intentions to reduce structural change The party conferences had one element in common this year when it came to education – an emerging sense of stability in a sector in which there has been significant reform […]

Reflecting on the 2014 party conference season

What can we learn about the future of education from the party conference season? Little of substance I’m afraid. Nicky Morgan got the best joke – ‘Nick Gibb – so good they appointed him twice’ – although I did like Tristram’s ‘continuity Gove’ jibe. Of course, politicians are extraordinarily grateful to teachers. The Conservatives are […]

Three days of stalking David Laws: Lib Dem Conference round-up

In politics there’s a thin line between ‘boring’ and ‘professional’. Over the four days of Liberal Democrat conference in Glasgow, however, the Schools Minister – David Laws – somehow managed to be both. I knew entering his final session – a Ministerial Q&A – that there would likely be little of note for teachers. A […]

Teachers need the time to get out more

Excessive workloads are preventing teachers from spending time on activities that would make them better at their jobs Education is enough of a national concern that there is no shortage of organisations arranging meetings and conferences about different aspects of the subject. Being addicted to Twitter has allowed me to keep up with much of […]

Can ‘apps’ help schools communicate better?

There are encouraging signs that the new education secretary is interested in the potential of technology to improve learning outcomes. The use of technology to improve learning has been a hot topic for governments past and present. Almost four years after taking office Michael Gove opened the inaugural meeting of the Education Technology Action Group […]