Jess Staufenberg | Schools Week

George White, inclusion lead, St Paul’s Catholic School

George White, inclusion lead and RE teacher at St Paul’s Catholic School, transitioned while starting a job at his childhood school. He tells Jess Staufenberg why openness about being transgender matters to him – and calls for clearer guidance from government It was a Tuesday night and George White was shopping for a suit to […]

Vijita Patel, principal, Swiss Cottage School

Vijita Patel has led Swiss Cottage School, a local authority special needs school in Camden, through multiple ‘outstanding’ Ofsted outcomes and even entertained visitors from the World Bank. She tells Jess Staufenberg about empowering staff around a research-focused model Anyone who takes an interest in special needs education will have heard of Swiss Cottage School. […]

Gwyn ap Harri, chief design officer, XP School Trust

Gwyn ap Harri, chief design officer at XP School Trust, exploded onto the scene in 2014 with his tiny secondary school, where children don’t wear uniform and are in ‘crews’ rather than tutor groups. Now with eight schools up and running, Jess Staufenberg finds out how ap Harri is expanding his anti-orthodoxy model across the […]

Tracey Cleverly, chief executive, Learning Academy Partnership

Tracey Cleverly, who co-founded and now leads the Learning Academy Partnership, has been at the trust through both successes and financial difficulties. Now, she’s an adviser on the government’s review of academy regulations. She tells Jess Staufenberg of her hopes for the sector Tracey Cleverly had just made what was potentially her “worst career choice”. […]

CPD for free: Meet the open source academy trust

From running a podcast to a book club, staff at the Greenshaw Learning Trust put aside hours of their time to share resources and ideas across the sector – without charging a penny. How did they do it? Jess Staufenberg finds out We’ve all read the headlines: burned out teachers post-pandemic, leaving the profession in […]

Anna Firth, MP and founder, Invicta National Academy

Anna Firth is a co-founder of the online learning platform Invicta Academy and a member of the education select committee. The Conservative MP tells Jess Staufenberg how her teacher mother inspired her – and why she wants the ban on grammar schools lifted “And that’s 246 students now, Mr Cole! You can start.” Teaching assistant […]

The Future of Assessment

A free FE Week and Schools Week supplement in partnership with NCFE, diving into assessment reform

A-level results are no disaster – but the system is not out of the woods

The vast majority of young people who wanted to attend university now can – after that there are some tricky questions, writes Tom Richmond Although A-level results day is always a special moment across thousands of schools and colleges, we should remember that today is particularly special for the young people who took their exams […]

Abbie Thorrington, principal, Ipswich Academy

Abbie Thorrington came within a hair’s breadth of representing Britain at the Olympics. The principal of Ipswich Academy and former professional triathlete tells Jess Staufenberg why she would never now leave schools for sport When Abbie Thorrington was three, she had so much energy that she and her dad cycled from Ipswich to Felixstowe. For […]