NSW Nationals’ leader Troy Grant has broken new ground by speaking Wiradjuri in parliament and at his party’s election launch – and it reflects a growing Indigenous language revival in NSW.
In what Ofsted has hailed as some of the most radical changes to school inspection in England in its history, the schools regulator has published the results of a consultation into changes due to be introduced…
If anyone thought that another scathing report by MPs into the Coalition’s academies policy might put its expansion on ice, the prime minister has quickly proved them wrong. In a speech laying out the…
The thorny issue of what democracy is, what it’s not and whether it is an appropriate system for government has been at the top of the agenda at the start of 2015. At the same time, we are in the lead-up…
Recruitment of student teachers to begin training in 2015 is well underway, and the government hopes it will lead to well over 30,000 new teachers entering the profession in England. But data from the…
If a school has a good governing body it has a better chance of being a good school. But any governing body will only be as good as its individual members, which puts a real premium on the recruitment…
Is your birthday in June or December? An irrelevant question for most adults, but for children whether they were born in the summer or the winter can have a real impact on how well they perform at school…
In 1982 I was toying with the idea of a career in teaching. That year a controversial film, Made in Britain, starring Tim Roth was released and I almost didn’t become a teacher. The film’s central character…
While teaching unions continue their campaign for higher pay for teachers, there is less clamour for headteachers to earn better salaries. With reports that 40 headteachers are paid more than the prime…
The Department of Education has been issued a clear warning by the National Audit Office (NAO) over the way it oversees schools in England. Its new report recommends the government should be better aware…
As the investigations continue into what happened at the schools implicated in the Trojan Horse extremism affair in Birmingham, the issue of who controls a school’s governing board has received unprecedented…
As a theme for Hollywood filmmakers, the crack team of experts sent in where others dare to tread to rectify wrongdoing and uphold the rights of the downtrodden citizen, is well-worn. Think of the reboots…
The debate about how to build a sound, sustainable system of governance for English schools out of the disarray that the coalition government will bequeath to its successor is gaining momentum. The present…
A recent report by the Victorian Competition & Efficiency Commission has suggested that reducing class sizes in the state has not improved student academic performance. The report said that despite…
Adults and youngsters are willing to queue overnight to get their hands on the latest product release from Apple and children appear to be drawn to iPads because of the immediate feedback they get when…
Classrooms are highly complex environments. Maintaining a positive classroom environment, especially in classrooms that include potentially disruptive children with emotional or social problems, is very…
The government’s announcement of a second phase of its Priority School Building Project demonstrates a commitment to around £2 billion of capital investment in the UK’s school stock. But it also reveals…
As a type of academy operating outside of local authority control, free schools act as their own admissions authority. They can choose the criteria they wish to use to prioritise the allocation of places…
Children are increasingly being given drugs by doctors to help teachers and parents cope with their troublesome behaviour. Certain behaviours or actions by children, such as not sitting still, are being…