Max Atkinson

Freelance researcher and consultant who runs courses, coaches, writes books and blogs on public speaking, presentation and speechwriting

Yesterday I was thanking Diane Abbott for adding to my collection of interviewees walking out of interviews (HERE). Today, my thanks go to former dep...

Chris Skidmore

Conservative MP for Kingswood

We cannot opt-out of History: the past a compulsory part of our shared knowledge and culture, forming our national identity. To continue down the road of its slow eradication in schools is to risk losing this common identity for future generations.

Dan Barker

Founder, Yearbook Machine

I left school in 2007. In my entire time at secondary school, I had around 30 hours of computer education, concentrated between the ages of 11 and 12. I was not offered computing as an option at either GCSE or A-Level. Looking back now, it's only because of my learning outside of school that I can do my job today

James Hetterley

Marxist theorist, feminist, queer radical, student, would-be philosopher

Teach sometimes marriage works, teach sometimes marriage doesn't. Teach sometimes single parents are stable family homes, teach sometimes LGBT couples are stable parents. Replace Religious Studies with Philosophy so that children are not taught pseudo-theology but how to critically think.

Stephen Twigg

Shadow Education Secretary and Labour and Co-operative MP for Liverpool West Derby

Michael Gove is obsessed with a number of pet projects affecting a very small proportion of children in England. It is not good enough to offer an education system that focuses on the few, not the many.

Triona Kennedy

Feminist and founder of The Astell Project for gender equality in schooling

This is of interest to anyone who teaches Personal, Social, Health and Economics subjects, including Sex and Relationships, and Citizenship. Did a shudder run through you when Nadine Dorries made the latest - and not the last - assault on gender equality with her proposal for abstinence education for girls only? Please speak up now

theweemo

Freelance journalist and full-time word-mangler

A large source of guilt, manifesting as a Perpetual Slightly Creepy Feeling is the on-tap access to the Leveson Enquiry; thanks to which, theweemo now knows more news scandalisation than she ever did before, because she never read the tabloids.

Lutfur Rahman

Mayor of Tower Hamlets Council

One of the most short sighted policies that the Conservative led government has pushed through has been the abolition of the Education Maintenance Grant.

Triona Kennedy

Feminist and founder of The Astell Project for gender equality in schooling

Gove has made his disrespect for women teachers explicit. The cultural creep in the direction of a dusted-down patriarchy, laid out by his party, is cause for serious concern. Democracy and the rule of law require a more adaptive and inclusive approach. If not, it's women and girls who will pay the price.

Tony Baldry

Member of Parliament for North Oxfordshire

The English baccalaureate is having positive effects on many subjects chosen at GCSE and A-Level but increasingly so it seems, having devastating effe...

Daniel Wood

Blogger

Since Ed Miliband's Shadow Cabinet reshuffle, debate has been reignited regarding the policies Labour should be taking forward. No policy suggestion, though, has received anywhere near the backlash of Stephen Twigg's proposal that the Party should embrace the Government's free schools agenda.

Damian Hinds

Conservative MP and member of the Education Select Committee

To revisit briefly, the germ of this debate and Twigg's latest article: last Friday, an interview appeared in the Liverpool Daily Post entitled 'I will back free schools, says Labour's new shadow education minister Stephen Twigg'. This was a significant (and extremely welcome) shift.

Scott Hill

Cumbria Campaigns Officer for the Liberal Democrats

Undoubtedly, one of the worst things to have happened to this great nation over the last few decades is its Americanisation.

Margot James

MP for Stourbridge

We need to make teachers more aware of the signs to look for in young people who are falling behind due to pressure or bullying associated with their sexuality.

James Dyson

Inventeur, designer industriel

While Osborne calls for a 'march of the makers', Gove considers dropping Design and Technology - the font of modern making - from the national curriculum. Inspirational design and technology lessons nurture problem solvers - people with the good ideas to be developed and exported.

Matthew Wright

London writer on Politics, Arts, Education and the Culture of Cycling.

The knees of rightwing politicians have often turned to jelly when a big man in shiny buttons marches past. Gove should know better. Forcing a military regime on the classroom would not raise standards