Thousands of SEN children left without school places

Dozens of councils across the country have called on the education secretary to urgently boost special needs funding as thousands of children have been left at home waiting for school places.

The FIFA World Cup v GCSE revision

Research from Oxford and Bristol Universities has shown that in evenly-numbered years – when the World Cup or the Euros are on – GCSE grades dip. This year, there is an added twist – not only does the World Cup overlap with GCSE exams, the difficulty of the GCSE exams has been ramped up.

Creative Teaching and Learning

A School For Global Leaders of the Future

A high powered international school is being launched in the Middle East with the express mission of creating political and social leaders who can contribute to conflict resolution and environmental security around the world.

Learning Spaces

New ‘gold-standard’ GCSEs geared toward employers

Hundreds of thousands of pupils are preparing to take new, more rigorous GCSE exams this week, which are on a par with the best performing education systems in the world, the School Standards Minister announced today.

Creative Teaching and Learning

Jane Reed believes we are living in unprecedented turbulent times and doubts whether we are equipping current and forthcoming generations of children to meet the big challenges sufficiently. She describes a project which sought to restore the primary focus on learning, provides a set of core practices, and explores the professional development implications.

The Ten Commandments of creative leadership

After a brief encounter with a Harvard Business School book, Jude Brigley put on a (metaphorical) beard and flowing robes and wrote her own commandments of good leadership.

For the love of learning: Lessons from an international school in Hong Kong

Good GCSE results are just a byproduct of the learning journey at Island School in Hong Kong. Vicky Hill reports on this international school’s groundbreaking curriculum for Years 9, 10 and 11, which sees teachers share their passions in exciting courses on art, marine biology, drama, business and more.

Creating risk takers

Children do not learn resourcefulness, responsibility and independence by having everything planned for them. But how far are you willing to let your pupils take charge of designing and managing their own learning experiences? Start small, says Professor Guy Claxton, and you might be surprised how high they can fly.

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Teaching Times author reviewed in Gifted Education International

Author Ann O’Hara and the team here at Teaching Times were pleased to see a review of our primary leadership toolkit, Learning and Assessment Pathways, published in peer-reviewed journal, Gifted Education International.

Tackling extremism

The government’s Prevent duty, imposed on schools without any extra resources, begs lots of questions. What exactly is radicalisation? What are British values? How can schools practically monitor student views, let alone divert them from dangerous ideological paths? Ian Pringle makes some initial suggestions.

Stars, sounds and simple circuits

The new science curriculum for Key Stages 1 and 2 encourages a variety of approaches to pupils’ scientific investigations – but how creative can you be in a subject where the boundaries are so fixed? Ed Walsh inspires with a range of ideas to spark pupils’ imagination in physics and encourage creative, learner-led enquiry.

Is your assessment fit for purpose?

Why do we assess our students? Is it to please Ofsted? The government? External accountability isn’t going away, but the freedom from levels gives schools the unparalleled opportunity to refocus assessment on its true purpose – to drive learning and support mastery for all. Ann O’Hara explains.

Closing the achievement gap with P4C

Philosophy for Children reaps remarkable results for all pupils, but it does seem to work particularly well for those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Now, an exciting new project seeks to harness that power to raise achievement and build resilience, confidence and self-esteem in some of the most deprived regions of the country. Bob House shares the story so far.