Opinion

Year in review: a headteacher’s perspective on 2015

It’s all very different from the Michael Gove years (and they weren’t great), with layers of “extra things” now...

Nicky Phillips
Nicky Phillips
Opinion

You’re not the ‘mastery’ of me

The masculine narrative of current education reformers won’t lead to freedom. It is infiltrating teachers’ consciousness; changing perceptions of...

Nicky Phillips
Nicky Phillips
Opinion

‘No one agrees on anything in education – can we sort that out, please?’

Planning an education conference led Heidi Williams to question whether ever-shifting policy at the whim of ministers was really...

Nick Linford
Nick Linford
Opinion

Mary Bousted: ‘Don’t tell me I have low expectations’

Teachers care passionately about their pupils and strive to close the education achievement gap, but their job becomes more...

Nicky Phillips
Nicky Phillips
Opinion

‘Extending childcare must not become another burden on schools’

Extending out-of-hours childcare is a good idea in principle – but the government needs to clarify its proposals, including...

Nicky Phillips
Nicky Phillips
Opinion

Finding NiMo’s sparkle is easy. Her policies less so.

Anyone who ever endured the pain of sweating over a piece of work only to have it disappear off...

Nicky Phillips
Nicky Phillips
Opinion

‘Precious little’ to tackle money, teacher and pay challenges

The political context for education over the next five years can be summed up crudely as ‘more pupils and...

Nicky Phillips
Nicky Phillips
Opinion

The Prime Minister mentioning our school in an article made us an open target

What would your response be if, within a month, your school moves from being a shining example of all...

Nicky Phillips
Nicky Phillips
Opinion

Will Lucy Powell be a great shadow education secretary?

It’s too soon to say and she got off to a slightly shaky start, but three speeches in and...

Nicky Phillips
Nicky Phillips