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Chalk Talk: Roll up, roll up - if your school is not an academy yet, it soon will be

Wed, 23 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

I must confess my visit to the Academies Show in London's Olympia left me feeling a little mischievous last week. Not sure whether it was the sharp-suited stewards ushering everybody hither and thither with a kind of discipline even new chief schools inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw could only dream of. Or maybe it was the language used by some of the speakers – "structured customer feedback" particularly stuck in the throat. (There had been no mention of children up until then.)

Chalk Talk: Where in the world can you find a decent education?

Wed, 16 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

First it was Michael Gove wanting to embrace the Swedish schools' reforms to try and inject new life into efforts to raise standards in schools.

Chalk Talk: On the doorstep with Boris - Michael Gove reveals all

Wed, 09 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Victorious London mayoralty candidate Boris Johnson was very much on the mind of Michael Gove when he addressed the annual conference of the National Association of Head Teachers last weekend.

Inner Voices : 'We can have a choir as good as Eton's'

Wed, 02 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

It's a sunny April Saturday and Inner Voices have just opened the Mayor of London's St George's Day Festival on Trafalgar Square. Dressed in black with turquoise ties, the choir of 43 teenagers from 11 inner London state schools entertains the crowds with an eclectic 20-minute set ranging from John Bennet's 1599 madrigal "Weep, O Mine Eyes" to an acapella version of Aloe Blacc's "I Need a Dollar".

Chalk Talk: You're late again, Gove – see me after class

Wed, 02 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Eyebrows were raised at last week's Commons Education Select Committee session when the star witness, Michael Gove, failed to turn up on time for his grilling. The penalties for such an offence can be horrendous – police have been known to be despatched to arrest those that fail to turn up.

Steve Iredale: 'I won't be telling six-year-olds that they're failures'

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Steve Iredale is not exactly a reluctant national headteachers' leader. However, the 57-year-old primary school headteacher from Barnsley, south Yorkshire, says he had "no aspiration" for such a role when he turned up at a branch meeting of the National Association of Head Teachers seven years ago.

Two private school headmasters are campaigning to help refurbish a crumbling comprehensive

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 23:00:01 GMT

It is a unique example of co-operation between the state and private sector of schooling. Normally, co-operation means the independent schools open up their plush sports facilities to pupils from the neighbouring state school or share a teacher with them. In this case, though, the two private school headmasters concerned have rolled up their sleeves and got down to some serious campaigning to improve the facilities at a state school.

Chalk Talk: You don't have to be angry to join the NUT, but it helps

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Unions, it is sometimes said, are a broad church, made up of members with a vastly differing array of opinions.

Taunton school hires top consultant to get its pupils into the Ivy League

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Sophie Bowden is set to graduate in four years' time without a penny's worth of student debt. Nor will she have to fret this summer as to whether she will get the necessary A-levels to meet the demands of a conditional offer from a university. The 17-year-old from Taunton School, Somerset, is one of a growing band of young people who have nailed their colours to the masts of American universities.

Chalk Talk: Schools Minister runs the gauntlet at conference

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 23:00:01 GMT

With Michael Gove taking a break (aside from going on Newsnight to launch radical changes to A-levels), it was down to Schools Minister Nick Gibb to don the flak jacket for the Easter conference season. In actual fact, he coped quite well, coming to the Association of Teachers and Lecturers' conference to praise teachers, not bury them.

Students win dream McLaren F1 prize at karting championship

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 17:00:43 GMT

Over 600 teams with more than 1850 students entered the British Schools Karting Championship (BSKC) this year for a chance to not just win a trophy but to win a visit to the famous McLaren Technology Centre.

Christine Blower: 'Teachers feel they deserve better'

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Christine Blower admits to being "very cross" with Education Secretary Michael Gove and his fellow ministers. The teacher in her takes over as she mulls over the way politicians often talk about teachers' unions using poverty as an excuse for the poor performance of disadvantaged pupils in schools.

Chalk Talk: The national curriculum that schools won't be able to resist

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 23:00:01 GMT

I have a feeling Tim Oates, the man chosen by Education Secretary Michael Gove to head his review of the national curriculum, is a glass-half-full man. Speaking at the Association of School and College Leaders conference during a debate on whether there was a need for a new curriculum, he admitted the review was "a gamble".

Striking a chord: The Sage's education projects are testament to the transformative power of music

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 23:00:01 GMT

What will the future of music education in England look like? Anyone seeking an answer should perhaps journey down to the south bank of the River Tyne. There, shimmering in the occasional North East sunshine, resides The Sage.

Chalk Talk: Headteachers give Michael Gove something to think about

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Education Secretary Michael Gove showed a touch of humility when he addressed the annual conference of the Association of School and College Leaders at the weekend.

Joan McVittie: 'We all want the best for our pupils'

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 00:00:01 GMT

It could be a daunting moment for the two 15-year-olds concerned. They will have the task of chaperoning 900 or so headteachers at the annual conference of the Association of School and College Leaders this weekend – and introducing guest speakers such as new chief schools inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw and Education Secretary, Michael Gove.

Chalk Talk: The poorer students getting better grades

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 00:00:01 GMT

It ignites fury over university admissions unlike any other subject. Should oversubscribed universities allow students from disadvantaged areas to take up sought-after places despite having lower A-level qualifications? The debate is now being rekindled by analysis from Birmingham University, which for the past ten years has been targeting potential students from "hard to reach" communities through its A2B (Access to Birmingham) scheme.

Chalk Talk: Can Singapore's schools really teach us a lesson?

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 00:00:01 GMT

MPs on the influential Commons select committee for education have recently been on a trip to Singapore to see if they can pick up some tips from one of the world's top performing education systems that would help us over here.

My hardest job: class 9B for an hour

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 00:00:01 GMT

In a career of assignments, this felt like the most daunting of all. To teach modern history, specifically the origins of the Cold War, to class 9B at Rivers Academy in Feltham, West London. The form comprised 26 14-year-olds of mixed gender, ethnicity and ability. Some were very bright, some had particular learning difficulties, several did not possess English as a first language.

Kick-start the revision process: Easter A-level courses aren't just for pupils with poor grades

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 00:00:01 GMT

Today, 8 March, is results day for all those pupils who took A-level exams in January. Traditionally this was known as retake results day, as most of the candidates in this mid-winter session were resitting their papers from the previous summer to improve their grades or even achieve at least some pass grades. Nowadays, the clientele for this set of exams has changed enormously, as have their academic ambitions. Many January candidates have been taking early AS and A2 modules for the first time, in each of the sixth form years. Whether their results are good or bad, quite a few then take decisive action before the main June sessions and sign up for one of the many organised revision courses that are run by schools, colleges and tutoring agencies during the Easter holidays.

Glad to be gay-friendly: How one faith school is tackling the issue of homophobic bullying

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 00:00:01 GMT

In the end it was a "no-brainer", according to Paddy Storrie, deputy head of St George's, a faith school in Harpenden, Hertfordshire, which today will receive a national award for the way it has tackled homophobic bullying. He had just seen some material produced by Stonewall, the gay rights campaign group, on the effect of homophobic bullying and found it "just jaw-dropping".

Chalk Talk: Meet the most multi-lingual student in the country

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 00:00:01 GMT

Hats off to Alex Rawlings, who has just been voted Britain's most multi-lingual student of the year. At a time when the UK is widely criticised abroad as the language "dunce" of Europe because of the plummeting numbers that take languages at GCSE, Alex has won the award for speaking 11 languages fluently.

Come dine with us: Samworth Academy's restaurant is more than just somewhere to serve lunch

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 00:00:01 GMT

At first sight it could easily be the food hall in a shopping centre or motorway service station, with its self-service counters and random combinations of tables, each one decorated with a small vase of flowers. Not even the clientele gives it away. A group of women sits chattering over coffee, while young mums steer their toddlers safely away from discarded trays. A group of teenagers walks through, grabbing a fruit juice from the dispensers before moving on. Despite appearances to the contrary, this is no public cafeteria. The scene is, in fact, Samworth Enterprise Academy, in Leicester, an all-through school for three to 16-year-olds. The innovative design of the school has placed the dining room – or restaurant, as it is called here – at its heart.

Chalk Talk: So Dickens is too challenging for today’s children? Not for these ones

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:00:01 GMT

There was one voice missing in the debate earlier this month over when children should start reading Dickens – that of the children themselves.

'You could have a job like mine': How successful alumni can inspire pupils

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:00:01 GMT

In the sports hall of a north London comprehensive, Deji Davies, sharp-looking in his banker's suit, is standing in front of an audience of 11- and 12-year-olds explaining what he does for a living. "I work as a trader. In trading you buy and sell things, and what I buy and sell is company debt." But he is also standing in the forefront of a potential revolution in how state schools can tap into their alumni – and grow stronger and prouder as a result.