Schools
The fine art of talking bunkum
At the last minute, a friend invited me to a ‘Distinguished Speakers Dinner’ at the Oxford and Cambridge Club earlier…
She could be a contender
Education Secretary Nicky Morgan thinks a woman should run to be the next Tory leader
The cruellest month
My August-born toddler is being marked out for failure – thank God the rules are changing
How to build a school
Lessons from the first year of our specialist maths school
The lessons of exam results season
Every year without fail, as the trees start thinking about losing their leaves, the papers are full of the same…
Don’t act white, act migrant
Black British boys are being held back by fear of betraying their background. Immigrant children know how to deal with that
Portrait of the week
Home At least 30 British people were among 38 shot dead at a beach resort at Sousse in Tunisia by…
The best way to end the ‘poshness test’
There’s a warning buried in the detail of the new report by the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission on…
Diary
For the first time since the terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan team six years ago, a Test match side…
Dear Mary
Q. I felt uncomfortable during a dinner for 20 in a private house. The young man on my left had…
Recorded delivery
‘You can hear pretty clearly the sound of one of the helicopters and you can see it in the darkness,’…
Migrant muddle
For a long while, the Conservatives have been puzzled about their lack of popularity among immigrants. In theory, the Conservative…
A lesson in bias
What aid experts and academics don’t want to hear about private schools in developing countries
Will the perfect school always be a pipe dream?
Civitas has just published an interesting book called The Ins and Outs of Selective Secondary Schools. Edited by Anastasia de…
State of the arts
The season of cringe-making acceptance speeches at arts awards ceremonies is nearly over, thank heavens. But it hasn’t passed without…
The end of childhood
When the state excuses underage sex, what chance do our children have?
Michael Gove’s secret fan club
Meet the teachers who are (quietly) grateful to the former education secretary
School’s not out
For those who assumed that the removal of Michael Gove as Education Secretary marked the end of the Conservatives’ scholastic…
Barometer
Female bishops The Reverend Libby Lane was ordained as Bishop of Stockport, the Church of England’s first female bishop. —…
The silent victory
Schools are the one area where this government has made a real, positive difference – but it’s scared stiff of saying so
All together now
It was a bit of a surprise to hear Jarvis Cocker, the embodiment of cool and former frontman of Pulp,…
Nicky Morgan vs Socrates
After the Philae space-lab’s triumph, one can see why Education Secretary Nicky Morgan should have hymned the ‘Stem’ subjects (science, technology, engineering…
Want an argument against positive discrimination? Just look at me
I read with some interest the proposal for Oxford and Cambridge to set up state-school-only colleges in the Guardian this…
Diary
Oh God, it’s happened again. Another evening where I’m surrounded by people I know personally or have interviewed, and I…
There’s no such thing as an Etonian
Finally, just in the last few years I’d say, we’ve all begun to accept the role of nature in the…
