Schools
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…
Lab test
I believe in animal research. But is there really a justification for using animals in biology lessons?
The betrayal of Wales
Devolution has left my country with catastrophic misgovernment
Let’s face it – Ray Honeyford got it right on Islam and education
The Bradford head teacher was dismissed for emphasising nationality over religion. He should have been applauded
This ‘Islamist conspiracy’ is WMD all over again
I can remember where I was when Colin Powell presented to the United Nations his evidence for the existence of…
The wisdom of clouds
Children can teach each other, believes Sugata Mitra — if you give them the internet, a big screen and a helpful granny on Skype
The need to know
It’s scarcely possible to open a newspaper or magazine these days without reading an article about how the latest technological…
Your problems solved
Q. It’s only April and yet I am being emailed by parents who have already taken charge and are drumming…
A dying language
Why I won’t let my children be taught French
Flip
What kind of scientists do school inspectors not need to be? ‘Inspectors don’t need to be rocket scientists.’ For what…
Children with a severe case of the excuses
There is a beautiful symmetry to all things, I think, and probably related somehow to the concept of karma. Only…
Meeting the monster
Michael Gove inspires irrational hatred among my fellow children’s authors. After interviewing him, I can finally see why
Teaching’s war on science
There’s an increasing amount of evidence about how we learn. But you won’t hear about it at teacher training college
Lessons in freedom
How politicians wreck education
It has to stop?
Upspeak can damage your career prospects
Super-heads will roll
The system of parachuting top teachers into failing schools seems to have been a recipe for corruption
Why I want my schools to ban the burka (and the miniskirt)
For most people, the question of whether to ban the burka is a purely theoretical one. Not for me. As…
Dear Mary
Q. Is there a polite way of halting a wannabe novelist from reading his oeuvre aloud to an unwilling audience?…
‘Correct names’
In a very rum letter to the Daily Telegraph, the Mother’s Union of all people joined with some other bodies…

























