Leading Article: Sorry, Mr Balls, no holiday for you

Thursday, 24 July 2008

As Ed Balls packs his suitcase for his summer holidays, he must be wondering how much time he will have to play with his children and read novels. The Schools Secretary has a full in-tray and plenty of issues to mull over. The SATs debacle is just one of his headaches. Another issue threatening to destabilise the exam system is that more and more schools – including some in the state sector – are preparing to ditch A-levels in favour of the new Cambridge Pre-U exam, to be offered to pupils for the first time in September.

Diary of a Primary School Mum: 'Five-hundred quid! I could dress all my children for that'

Thursday, 24 July 2008

I would never do this to my child, I had always thought. Year after penny-pinching year, I'd be dressed for school in clothes that were too large on the grounds that I would grow into them. The humiliation was such that I truly did believe no child of mine would be allowed to suffer in the same way. Yet here I am, sitting in a uniform shop with my youngest, fitting her up for her posh new private school, and I'm a caricature of my mum. "Ooh," I pull a face at the kilt that skims Rosie's skinny shins, "that won't last two minutes." "Oh, no," I shake my head at the assistant after she's rolled the sweatshirt's sleeves up a third time. "I think it needs to be bigger." Modelling the whole caboodle, my daughter looks like an upside-down broom wearing size 20.

Education Quandary: 'My children's teachers are good. Where are the bad ones?'

Thursday, 24 July 2008

Independent/Bosch Technology Horizons Award: Writers capture China rising

Thursday, 17 July 2008

Technology is driving global change, but how exactly? Young writers put their fingers on the engineering button

Small is beautiful: The tiny rural school teaching big cities a lesson

Thursday, 17 July 2008

Deep in the heart of rural Herefordshire, one comprehensive is proving why size matters. Liz Lightfoot meets its successful head teacher

Leading Article: At last, action on knife possession

Thursday, 17 July 2008

This week's report by Sir Alan Steer, the Government's chief adviser on school behaviour, contains some common-sense advice about how schools should tackle disciplinary problems. Paradoxically, although teachers have the legal right to stop and search pupils for illegal weapons (granted as a result of an earlier report by Sir Alan), they do not have the legal power to search for alcohol, drugs or stolen property. Many people assumed that they did have the right to search their pupils for these items but, as has been demonstrated by Sir Alan, they do not. His earlier recommendation to give a legal carte blanche to search for weapons raised the question of what would happen if – during a search for them – teachers found alcohol or drugs. Surely they would not simply mutter, "Oh, drugs and alcohol are OK because they're beyond my powers"? So, Sir Alan's recommendation that the legal scope of searches should be extended is welcome and not surprisingly has been accepted by ministers.

Diary of a Primary School Mum: 'Maths is now fun – was I hearing things?'

Thursday, 17 July 2008

The shine has gone off school for Claire. Time was she'd have a hissy fit when term came to an end and cry every day of the holidays. "I want to be with Miss Perry, it's not fair."

Education Quandary: 'Our 11-year-old wants to be a vet. He is academically above-average – should we encourage him?'

Thursday, 17 July 2008

Meet the head who is blazing a trail for high standards

Thursday, 10 July 2008

In the last of a series of profiles, Francis Beckett meets Janice Howkins, the head who refused to let a fire get in the way of good results

Education Diary: Shakespeare for five year olds

Thursday, 10 July 2008

This week it was announced that Shakespeare will soon become a headache for children as young as five, as part of a government education package for primary schools. Still, youngsters should thank their lucky stars that Barry Sheerman won't have his way. Sheerman, chairman of the Education Select Committee, asked at this week's hearing whether John Clare, the poet, could be included in the national curriculum. Heavens, no! But if you bear in mind that Clare used words like "pooty" and "crizzle", he's probably not a million miles away from the rappers of today.