Jeff Greenidge has a question for you: if you are really going to be servicing your communities, do your staff and your board reflect those communities? The new director of diversity for the Association of Colleges and the Education and Training Foun

What is the best way to teach times tables? To answer that, we may want to look at the work of the Babylonians. Around 4,000 years ago, they were using multiplication grids regularly, so must have had an in-depth understanding of teaching such a skil

As conversation topics to avoid go, politics is right up there, especially in schools, where staff are explicitly advised by the Department for Education not to express political views. But ignoring the topic altogether does our students an enormous

1 Outside cash machine, nick retired bloke wearing a mask (6) 4 Pick over rubbish caught in Geneva’s disorder (8) 9 Argue about a boy (6) 10 One writes: who in Paris left Marine drained of half her energy? (5,3) 12 Yield grain, so to speak? (4) 13 Fl

A teacher for 35 years, Phil Kemp became president of the NASUWT teaching union last weekend. But his proudest achievement, he says, is running an alternative provision unit over the past 10 years, where he has helped more than 1,000 key stage 4 pupi

Moving your whole school online is an enormous task for a headteacher. This would be true even if you had months to prepare. But when the government announced last March that schools would be closing their doors to the vast majority of pupils, leader

Teachers are a group of people who perform day in, day out, to a sometimes hostile crowd. Talking in public? We never bat an eyelid. Teaching children and teenagers is our raison d’etre. The only thing that scares us? Teaching our peers. I’ve been te

As much as most teachers love their job, the Sunday night dread is still a firm fixture of the profession, according to Tes columnist Mark Enser. “For me, the dread would always start shortly after breakfast on a Sunday when my mind turned to all the

Before the Covid-19 lockdown, when travel to international conferences was still a regular feature of academic life, I was one of those people you would overhear in the row in front of you, asking their fellow travellers in a very worried voice, and

Here’s a question that every person working in education will have an answer to: what makes a good curriculum? You wouldn’t get the same answer from everyone you asked but people would definitely have an opinion. There will be those who agree with Am

Arguments over works of literature are usually healthy. Not every text will be seen in the same light by all and debating these differing opinions usually makes the understanding of a text richer: it forces advocacy and thus a greater focus on the de

Litter“ has always been a problem at this school and it always will be.” I still remember hearing an experienced deputy head saying this at a school I used to teach at. Although periodic attempts were made to address the litter problem, the rubbish c

Bear Grylls is an adventurer, outdoorsman and former member of the SAS – and he also serves as chief scout and chief ambassador of World Scouting. He’s hosted many TV shows celebrating the great outdoors, taking some of the most famous people on the

A year ago, I was scheduled to deliver a seminar at the annual Council of British International Schools conference. But, with the Covid-19 crisis escalating, it had to be cancelled. When I was asked to instead deliver my session as a webinar, I was n

There has been a huge focus on mentoring over the past few weeks. It is no wonder, really, as the imminent rollout of the Early Career Framework (ECF) has made schools reflect on their systems and consider whether they have the capacity to provide th

In 2017, schools minister Nick Gibb addressed PGCE students at the University of Buckingham and mentioned busting myths about education. The first myth he mentioned? Learning styles. Left unchecked, he said, myths such as this can “pervade classrooms

Since their inception half a century ago, nurture groups have become commonplace in UK primaries. These small groups (usually no more than 10-12 pupils) are educated away from their mainstream classes, while still maintaining contact with them. They

Try your hand at this tricky cryptic crossword, presented by Tes’ resident wordmaster, Magnus. Can you decipher the complex clues and complete the grid? Answers will be published in next week’s magazine. 1 Crumpled dollar already missing odd bits (7)

An unwise drinks decision on a school trip resulted in a frosty reception and a valuable lesson about rewards for Nathan Burns When I arrived with a big group of students at the NEC, more or less on time, to attend the Big Bang Fair, I couldn’t help