Of late, amidst hysteria about academisation and free schools, primary schools have had to work hard for their fair share of coverage in the media. We know of a few isolated supply-side crises--the London borough of Barking and Dagenham, for example, has a shortfall of places thanks to...

Free schools are an interesting experiment in autonomy, and demonstrate the breadth of factors people think contribute to a good education. Alongside justifiable concerns come innovations and unusual motivations for free schools.

There's been a lot of attention paid to the Phoenix Free School in Oldham,...

Living up to their stereotype of mindless inertia and intransigence, the National Union of Teachers (NUT) disliked the new Ofsted chief's recently-announced plans to scrap the "satisfactory" rating from school inspections.

Never mind that every school should be aspiring to excellence; ignore the fact that "satisfactory" will be...

Last week the Education Secretary Michael Gove courted controversy when it emerged he strongly advocated the presentation of a taxpayer-funded yacht to the Queen, to mark the occasion of her Jubilee this summer. Putting aside my ardent small 'r' republicanism for one moment, I can see that the Jubilee is...

I distinctly remember being bored by ICT lessons; maybe it was because little focus was paid to the middle-letter in the acronym, which stands for communications. Recently we've heard a great deal from industry experts and educationalists about the need to radically overhaul how ICT is taught in schools -...

Among the things purportedly lacking in schools are responsibility and motivation. It's often claimed that pupils come to school "because they have to", and that their relationship with their school begins and ends in the classroom. A closely related point of view holds that children are fast becoming...

Over the coming year something very exciting is happening: The Huffington Post is teaming up with Debate Mate, the educational charity I work for, to play host to a number of blogs written by some of the university students who mentor with us.

My partner-in-crime Cerith...