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Tis the season when schools are trying to woo potential parents at open days. How can you tell what a school is really like behind the facade? Here is our guide by those who know: the teachers. This article first appeared in The Guardian. I know from bitter experience that appearances can be deceptive. I [...]

Michael Gove’s flagship policy is a huge waste of money, socially divisive and won’t raise educational standards The free schools policy is the most ideological of all the coalition’s policies. Trumpeted in the Conservative manifesto, it was one of Michael Gove’s first projects as education secretary. His vision was that thousands of schools set up [...]

Why is Michael Gove instituting this policy when he has praised countries like Finland where teachers are intensively trained? The news today that the education secretary is to remove the requirement for academies to employ qualified teachers sent a shudder down my spine. For a teacher like me, who has taught for more than 20 [...]

Are we living in the age of the “oldie”? Recently, many “old people” seem to be thriving. This is particularly striking in the entertainment world. At 76, film-maker and comedian Woody Allen is enjoying his biggest commercial success, 74-year-old Ridley Scott has just directed one of the summer’s most expensive blockbusters, Prometheus, and, in the [...]

The British Educational Association has just published the major correspondence about their President’s (Mary James) involvement with the National Curriculum Review. The documentation details in depth exactly what Mary James and her colleague, primary school expert, Andrew Pollard, objected to in the National Curriculum Review. We already had some information about this from Andrew Pollard’s blog on The Institute of [...]

I filmed Melissa speaking at the Goldsmiths College Teaching and Learning Conference, Future Tense, last week and have just posted the video on YouTube. Posting it now is particularly timely because it lays to rest the myth that private and grammar schools increase social mobility when, as Melissa points out, they do the opposite. Her [...]

In this video, Finnish education expert, Pasi Sahlberg, talks about why the best education system encourage children to play by teaching them less, and teachers to improve their practice by having less contact time in the classroom.

Pasi Sahlberg was the last Chief Inspector for schools in Finland. After that the government got rid of these “hanging judges”, turning them into supportive advisers, and leaving schools to inspect themselves. Here, in his talk in the House of Commons this May, he explains the rationale behind the decision. In the talk below, he identifies “GERM” [...]

I was saddened to hear about the death of the baritone singer, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, this week, surely the greatest interpreters of Schubert’s songs there has ever been. My own favourite are his amazing performances of the Erl-King. Here’s the translation from Wikipedia, which is worth reading: German version, the original Goethe poem: Wer reitet so [...]

I attended, together with the other founder members of the Local Schools Network, a fascinating talk given by Pasi Sahlberg this Thursday, in the House of Commons. Sahlberg is, as his website tells us, ”Director General of CIMO (Centre for International Mobility and Cooperation) in Helsinki, Finland. He has global expertise in educational reforms, training teachers, coaching schools [...]

A version of this article appeared in the Times, Tuesday 8th May. When a pupil of mine, Gerry, presented me with his English Language A level coursework, I couldn’t believe my eyes.  It was A* with knobs on! “Blimey, Gerry, how did you do that?” I asked, “Your last piece scarcely scraped a D grade.” [...]

Assessment of educational needs should be overhauled, as parents may be encouraging misdiagnosis to access resources (This article was first published by The Guardian) Plans to change the “special needs” system in schools will have a big impact upon teachers like me, as well as millions of pupils and their parents. That said, the system does need an [...]

Reform would be smoother and more effective if you worked together, says Francis Gilbert Earlier this month, education secretary Michael Gove said that top academics should reform our A-level system, implying that only the elite Russell Group universities can stop the chronic “dumbing down” going on in our sixth forms. His announcement was on top [...]

For secondary school teachers like me, training sessions run by the exam boards are invaluable. And I’ve attended plenty of meetings where there have been strong hints about upcoming questions, similar to those exposed by the Telegraph this week. I’ve never heard an examiner being so open about the sorts of topics that the exam [...]

The orgy of violent disorder that has swept like wildfire through our cities during the last few weeks has certainly shocked teachers like me, but having said that, knowing young people as we do, I’m not sure that we’re too surprised. But first, a definition: to understand where I’m coming from, it helps to understand [...]

Observer columnist Barbara Ellen and teacher Francis Gilbert debate whether children and parents would benefit from a shorter summer break Barbara Ellen: Francis, I would always have argued that school holidays are too long. For parents, that is. A case of: “My child, I would fight a lion for you, but if you ask me to [...]

Vocational courses help students develop key skills employers are crying out for. League tables should reflect this The government’s decision to drastically downgrade the value of vocational qualificationsis deeply troubling for teachers like me, and must be sending many schools and colleges into a tailspin of despair. At the moment over half a million teenagers are [...]

The news today that assaults on teachers have risen to a five-year-high and that nearly 1,000 children are excluded from school every day got me thinking about behaviour in our schools. I find headlines like this depressing because they actually tell us very little about what is really going on in schools. I suspect, though I [...]