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  • We need to reform the academy system – and stop the power-hungry super-heads

    Our schools have become joyless, stressful places, run by principals who behave like football managers obsessed by tables. Why do we put up with it? This week’s Newsnight investigation into greedy “superheads” of academies coupled with headline claims about other heads involved inmoney-grabbing and cronyism has thrown a spotlight on to the role of headteachers.…

  • Free schools policy fuels social segregation

    The prime minister’s announcement that, if re-elected, he will open 500 new free schools in the next five years, has catapulted this dismal policy initiative back into the headlines. Most commentators had assumed that David Cameron would keep quiet about free schools because it is generally acknowledged that they’ve been a bit of a disaster…

  • Academies are an expensive red herring. Here’s how you really improve school standards

    How many times must academies be discredited before policymakers look at the proven but less headline-grabbing solutionn but less headline-grabbing solution? The prime minister’s announcement today that, if elected, the Tories will force “mediocre” schools to convert to academies was important for a couple of reasons. First, it indicated that the government wants to make…

  • Michael Gove offers social justice in reverse. That’s why I back the strikes

    Gove’s conference speech was misleading – his education policies give more power to the privileged and fuel social segregation The main claim made by Michael Gove at the Conservative party conference was that his education policies are focused on “social justice”. It was a lacklustre speech that sounded more like a list of acknowledgements. For a large…

  • Academy plan to use untrained teachers is an outrage

    Why is Michael Gove instituting this policy when he has praised countries like Finland where teachers are intensively trained? The news today that the education secretary is to remove the requirement for academies to employ qualified teachers sent a shudder down my spine. For a teacher like me, who has taught for more than 20…

  • The special needs system is open to abuse

    Assessment of educational needs should be overhauled, as parents may be encouraging misdiagnosis to access resources (This article was first published by The Guardian) Plans to change the “special needs” system in schools will have a big impact upon teachers like me, as well as millions of pupils and their parents. That said, the system does need an…

  • I blame the free market for exam board cheats

    For secondary school teachers like me, training sessions run by the exam boards are invaluable. And I’ve attended plenty of meetings where there have been strong hints about upcoming questions, similar to those exposed by the Telegraph this week. I’ve never heard an examiner being so open about the sorts of topics that the exam…

  • The government is wrong to devalue vocational qualifications

    Vocational courses help students develop key skills employers are crying out for. League tables should reflect this The government’s decision to drastically downgrade the value of vocational qualificationsis deeply troubling for teachers like me, and must be sending many schools and colleges into a tailspin of despair. At the moment over half a million teenagers are…

  • Exam boards are failing our pupils

    The faceless bureaucracy of exam boards has led to error-strewn papers. Exams should have a single, accountable author My pupils are all looking very stressed these days. Not only are they sitting their mocks, but they’ve also been sitting “modular” exams and have had to endure the nightmare of tackling exam papers sprinkled with errors.…

  • Should climate change be dropped from the national curriculum?

    was shocked to read today that climate change may be dropped from the national curriculum. As a teacher in various state schools for 20 years, I’ve seen how much the education on this issue has really improved in the past decade and how everyone has benefited from it being a prescribed part of the curriculum.…

  • Demobbed soldiers in the classroom: a deeply nostalgic policy

    The education secretary, Michael Gove, is seeking to put more ex-soldiers in the classroom. He has outlined plans in his education white paper for the taxpayer to fund ex-army personnel to be trained as teachers. The subtext of his plans is that our classrooms are so out of control that drastic military action is called…

  • Education white paper: an assault on schools

    This week’s education white paper will seriously undermine standards of teaching in our schools On the surface the new education white paper, due to be published next week but widely leaked in the press today, appears to be all about promoting good teachers. Having a good degree and two decades of experience in the classroom,…

  • Talking beats confiscating

    The new teachers’ powers are welcome, but it’ll take more to instil discipline in our classrooms My pupils seem to carry an increasing number of devices that clink, chime, crash, and even fart of their own accord in my classroom. If the offending gadget makes a particularly loud sound, the intrusion can ruin a peaceful,…

  • Tory free schools will spread inequality

     The heads supporting Tory education plans have self-interest at heart. We need a fair system that gives children an equal chance Perhaps it should come as no surprise that the day after Tory councillors have been publicly criticising their own party’s education plans, a number of headteachers – many of them running selective schools –…

  • Gifts won’t make you teacher’s pet

    More and more pupils are giving teachers presents, but the practice only creates insecurity in parents and staff The strangest present a colleague of mine received was a perfectly formed turd. Michael Whyte was teaching in Plaistow some years ago in a school that’s now closed, when sitting down to teach his first lesson of…

  • The Common Entrance Automatons

     Wellington College’s head knocks state ‘factory schools’, yet his entrance exams see children being drilled as early as year four   Anthony Seldon is one of the most powerful figures in education today, so when he provides 20 recommendations for improving schools we should all take note. Given his ideological closeness with the Conservatives, he…

  • School choice – an overrated concept

    As a teacher for 20 years, I can tell parents that with their support children can flourish anywhere The agony of waiting is over. Yesterday was national offer day, when parents learnt if their children had got into their favoured secondary schools. Unfortunately, as many as 100,000 children and their families have been bitterly disappointed.…

  • Don’t judge teachers by their degrees

    I’ve seen too many graduates with first-class degrees die in the classroom. David Cameron’s ‘elitist’ policies would be destructive So what makes a good teacher? Suddenly, answering this question properly seems to be of crucial importance. Today, with much fanfare, David Cameron, trumpeted plans to stop graduates with poor degrees from so-called “poor” universities from…

  • Truants, bullies and the recession

     We must help families torn apart by truancy, not criminalise them – but the services that help troubled children are under threat The news that truancy rates are soaring won’t surprise many teachers like me. Figures from the Department for Children, Schools and Families show that children skipped more than 8m days of school last…

  • Teaching school texts by txt

    Teachers should relax about pupils’ mobile phones – they can boost standards and liven up the lesson if used imaginatively   It appears lots of teachers like me are up in arms about pupils using mobile phones in the classroom. Teaching unions are terrified that if schools don’t ban them absolutely, chaos will ensue: the…