Schools

Jo Dibb with pupils in the school playground

The vision thing: How one inner-city head beat the odds

A working-class, racially-mixed comprehensive, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson is shunned by many Islington families. But its principal, Jo Dibb, is busy turning it round.

Inside Schools

Education Quandary: 'I found my 13-year-old watching a vile rap video on the internet. Do parents have any idea what their children look at online?'

Thursday, 12 February 2009

Hilary's adviceNo, I don't think we do. We like to think that our web filters do their job and that unsavoury material is being screened out, but there is always some that gets through. Also, children look at the internet all over the place, not just at home – and who knows whether those outlets are screened or not.

Conor Ryan: Change primary tests – but don't scrap them

Thursday, 12 February 2009

National tests are on the critical list. Lord Sutherland's damning report about last summer's tests saw the Key Stage 3 tests for 14-year-olds scrapped. And the Government has been piloting shorter primary tests that pupils can take when they are ready. Government plans for a new school report card for parents, including test results and Ofsted inspections, would see each school graded on an A to E scale.

Raising children: a 10-point guide to domestic bliss

Thursday, 5 February 2009

Experts say selfish adults are raising a generation of unhappy kids. Mother of four Joanna Moorhead begs to differ.

Trevor Fisher: A storm is brewing over effort to reform A-levels

Thursday, 5 February 2009

The reform of A-level, being attempted for the second time in a decade, raises serious questions. The first attempt, called Curriculum 2000, led to front-page headlines at the start and sustained criticism. The changes broke the A-level into modules and introduced AS exams, but led to complaints about the number of exams students were doing, and the number of A grades they achieved. Top universities complained that the task of identifying truly able students was becoming impossible. Twenty-five per cent of A-level students now achieve at least one A grade, and 10 per cent gain the former gold standard of three A grades. Grade inflation is alleged and complaints about "hard" and "soft" subjects proliferate.

Education Quandary: 'Multiple-choice questions can be harder if a pupil reads the question carefully or has a deeper understanding. Surely this is wrong?'

Thursday, 5 February 2009

Give your exam chances a boost with a revision course

Thursday, 5 February 2009

If there's one thing you need for exams, it is confidence. Perhaps you've just sat your AS mocks and didn't get the grade you expected. Perhaps you don't feel you know how to write a GCSE essay at all. If this is the case – and money is no object – how about an Easter revision course?

The play's the thing: Can young children be wowed by Shakespeare?

Thursday, 5 February 2009

The RSC wants primary school children to become fans of Shakespeare. Could A Midsummer Night's Dream really thrill an eight-year-old? Caitlin Davies finds out

Put your thinking hat on: How Edward de Bono's ideas are transforming schools

Thursday, 29 January 2009

Teaching children how to think has brought academic success to schools in Manchester. But will techniques pioneered by the guru Edward de Bono catch on?

Leading Article: The diploma that could fail

Thursday, 29 January 2009

The whole point of the Government's new diplomas to run alongside A-levels is that they would do away with the old divide between the academic, which meant prestigious and leading to university, and the vocational, which meant low-level and low-status. By devising a new qualification to be taken by all children, the brainy and the not-so-brainy, and by seeking to get universities to take it seriously, the hope was to improve education for all. But now a survey carried out by the National Foundation for Educational Research for the Sutton Trust shows that, far from overcoming the divide, the diplomas could reinforce it.