The recent progress of "co-operative schools" both confirms and disrupts many assumptions surrounding contemporary compulsory schooling. The term itself refers to an eclectic array of schools, both primary and secondary, of which there were, by June 2012, almost 300 in England that have adopted co-operative values, in terms of…

This article, updated and expanded from one written for "The Times Educational Supplement", 10 December 2010, asks whether politicians are right to quote the country's performance in international tests in support of such policies as re-introducing O levels. It finds reasons to doubt that the tests give an adequate picture of children's…

The Inner London education authority was a notable example of a radical and powerful local government body from which the fight for the comprehensive principle in English secondary education emerged. Building on previous work of women's contribution to state education in London, this articles focuses on Anglo-Jewish educator activists who helped…

Every school community is made up of several key partners, each of whom has a significant role in relation to the children. These are parents--who are their children's first educators, staff--all staff, the local community, the local authority and the governing body which represents all of these and is ultimately responsible for the school. All…

The main developments in this broad curriculum area are traced decade by decade with key signpost successes highlighted, along with examples of retrenchment and opposition to the march of progress. The drivers for change and regression were often central government initiatives but, all along, the activity of progressive educationists/academics and…

Use of local environments and stakeholders to illuminate the school curriculum, and increase ownership of it, has been demonstrated by international research as an effective means by which to make the curriculum more relevant and engaging to students. Localism is a key tenet of the Government's policy platform, and in education policy the…

Poor social mobility has become controversial, with the stranglehold of the independent schools over elite universities intensifying during the New Labour period. The author identifies the failure of New Labour's Mark 2 A level reforms to deal with the situation, particularly the introduction of the A star at A level, which has given the…

The author argues that the decisions primary teachers make about the curriculum need to be informed by well-developed expertise in the subjects they are planning and teaching. This expertise is necessary when teachers are exercising professional autonomy in areas such as curriculum design, securing breadth and balance, and managing curriculum…

This article examines an eight-year-old's story as a literary work which throws light on the extent of a young child's knowledge of the human condition and on the child's capacity to set forth her knowledge in measured prose.

This article addresses the question of what "radical school geography" might look like in the present historical moment. It traces the history of a distinctive "radical" tradition in school geography, most prominently associated with the work of John Huckle, who argued for the importance of understanding the content and pedagogy of school…

This article revisits methods and debates about teaching mathematics that were common in the 1980s and early 1990s, and then moves up to date with the findings from three mathematics departments that set out to make a difference for their lowest attaining students. The methods they used were distinctly focused on core mathematical ideas, and how…

The extent to which education can compensate for social disadvantage is a matter of political controversy, especially in the context of policies for social mobility. On the one hand, to blame poor achievement on social class or poverty was seen to dodge the professional responsibility of teachers. On the other, the strong correlation between…

Recent governments have transformed the English education system from an arrangement of local, democratically managed, groups of schools into a market free-for-all in which individual schools compete for pupils, status and resources. Elements of a market exist in the relationship between parents and private schools but much market behaviour is…

The author, a former headteacher and now a county councillor, argues that the structural changes to the education system put in place in the first weeks of the new government in the summer of 2010 will exacerbate the gap between the highest and lowest achieving schools, will destabilise the state-funded education system, will expose it to…

The threat of the National Health Service being privatised has led to such strong opposition that the Government has been forced to backtrack; and yet, through the development of "Academies" and "Free Schools", our education system is being stealthily privatised, right under our noses, without so much as a word from politicians…