For once both main political parties agree on one thing – that schools shouldn’t be closed. And they are right. Children have spent six months out of school already this year and further time missing classes could see irreversible harm to their education. Those who are affected most are the less able and the disadvantaged…
Alarming figures have shown that in every region in the country except inner London the number of male teachers leaving the profession grew between 2010 and 2019. The fall is led by white men with almost 13,000 quitting in ten years – that is a 17 per cent drop in the number of white male…
The Covid-19 pandemic has brought into sharp focus the importance of data and how it is represented. The teaching of this occurs in several subject areas including maths, the sciences and geography. Equally important, is to teach children to understand that data can be represented to support specific arguments or opinions. These are four of…
It was inevitable that cancelling examinations would cause conflicts and chaos, whatever alternative system was used to grade students. I said in March that the decision would lead to terrible problems. We were aware then that the peak of the virus outbreak was likely to be in April. While holding GCSEs would have posed difficulties…
Primary school children should be taught basic numeracy and literacy when schools resume in September. The lockdown inevitably means many children will be behind, and knowing these basic building blocks is vital. Even for those who are on top of the subjects, a refresher term is no bad thing because numeracy and literacy are so…