Shaping Ideas ... Shaping Lives
Analysis, debate & comment
Leading Educationalists write for the NET web site |
Schooling ahead: a tale of fragmentation
Sue Robinson
As the new academic year gets underway I am left wondering what happened to the brave new world of school structural change. Clearly its implementation is proving a lot more complicated than the Coalition government first thought. |
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Happy holidays: life after teaching
David Chidgey
I left teaching three years ago after 34 years of working with young people and leading colleagues forward in their understanding of the rigours of classroom management. The sudden realisation that health is more important than wealth hit hard after a heart attack... |
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What's the future for the General Teaching Council?
Keith Bartley
The Secretary of State's announcement during the debate on the Queen's Speech on 2 June that he intended to bring forward legislation to abolish the GTCE came like a bolt out of the blue to the organisation. |
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COUNTERBLASTS - ASSESSING ACCOUNTABILITY: Beyond Ofsted.
Tony Ashmore & Malcolm Trobe
This paper arises out of a seminar jointly convened by the National Education Trust (NET) and the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL). It follows on from an earlier paper, Assessing Assessment, which we subtitled Politics or Progress? to highlight the tensions faced by both policy makers and teachers as they strive for improved educational outcomes. |
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Do the boundaries between education and politics need to be redrawn? Kate Dethridge
Under the watchful eye of OfSTED, Local Authorities, National Strategies and the Department for Education we have, at times, been manipulated into practice that we were told was 'best'. If we conformed to it, we would be judged kindly; if we did not we wouldn't. |
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Educational excellence is here - let's learn from it.
Anne Nelson
All political parties pledge a commitment to excellence in education. Of course it is differently manifested according to which party is speaking. However they have excellence right under their noses in the maintained sector's nursery schools, but not one of them seems to notice it. |
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Schooling 2020. What should we look for in the political parties' education manifestos?
Roy Blatchford
The futurologist Richard Watson identifies five key trends in the world for the next 50 years: ageing; power shift eastwards; global connectivity; GRIN technologies; the environment. Those in the know will at once recognise GRIN: genetics, robotics, internet and nanotechnology. |
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Enhancing equity in higher education
Geoff Whitty
Despite minor narrowing in the official measure in recent years, there remains a substantial gap between the higher education participation rates of those from higher and lower socio-economic groups of more than 20 percentage points. |
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Course of the Mummy: Children get a taste of University life 
The Trust ran a highly successful conference for Bristol deputy and assistant heads in June on Creative Curriculum Leadership.