The UK's new Coalition Government looks as if it will make the narrow, traditional school curriculum we have now even narrower and more rooted in the past. The Labour government made timid moves to improve the National Curriculum, not least by equipping it with a few general aims, even though these meshed poorly on to intra-subject aims. Michael…

While the policies of the Coalition Government will divide learners and limit opportunities, education for the upper secondary years will continue to experience a more systematic "credibility crunch" with schools and colleges facing a crisis of legitimacy and posing major challenges for reformers. (Contains 1 note.)

Edmond Holmes was His Majesty's Chief Inspector of Elementary Schools from 1905 to 1910. No full biography of Holmes has been published nor any detailed critique of his contribution to the theory and practice of education. Yet his post-retirement observations on education were widely quoted and, in some quarters, very influential. They remain…

This article looks at the learning of African Caribbean pupils in art and design classrooms in the United Kingdom. It proceeds from the proposition that African Caribbean pupils, as the descendants of enslaved peoples whose cultural lineage has been blurred by the skewed relationship with the white majority group, are uniquely disadvantaged in the…

Zero exclusion schools are possible. More realistically, clusters of schools, with support, coordination and brokering by the local authority (LA) or through local partnerships, can organise and sustain an inclusive educational community. Exclusion from school is a quiet mockery of "Every Child Matters." Even with the coalition…

This article begins by describing a typical Forest School session that takes place in every class every week at The Wroxham School in Potters Bar. It goes on to outline a brief history of Forest School from its inception, its aims and ethos, and how it has been adapted for the ethos and needs of the children at Wroxham. The article also looks at…

This article is an informal description of a forest school outdoor programme designed to boost emotional literacy, inclusion and attainment of secondary school pupils with a range of learning and behavioural difficulties. (Contains 2 online resources.)

"Forest schools" are an increasingly well-known feature of the educational landscape, having been adopted by many local authorities across the United Kingdom in an effort to build children's confidence and self-esteem through learning outdoors in a woodland setting. Their origins are usually described as deriving from a Scandinavian…

In the lead-up to the Copenhagen Climate talks in December 2009, Islington Council's Sustainable Schools Officer involved seven local schools in an engaging citizenship project entitled "Copenhagen Campaigners". The aim of the project was to raise pupil's awareness of this historic global event and empower them to take action on a local…

This article seeks to provide an outline of the basic ideas and approaches used by the Incredible Edible programme, a community enterprise that is based in the United Kingdom. To do this the author briefly (1) defines the context for the programme, (2) defines the concepts that inform the programme, (3) and illustrates some of the action of the…

There is an assumption underlying education for sustainable development that all we need do is learn the skills and knowledge to live sustainably. Yet, many already know the issues and know we "should" act, but we don't. This article argues that a key part of the problem is that we live according to myths and daydreams perpetuated by a…

"Gifted and talented" has become the official way of referring to high-achieving, able school pupils. The author questions the validity and appropriateness of this label and calls for a more sophisticated and inclusive framework.

This article was originally presented at a seminar run by the Secondary Umbrella Group on the theme of "A Review of Labour's Achievement: Where next for secondary education?" It looks at the struggle of one secondary school and its local community to improve educational opportunities and life chances for its students. The author, a…

During the last decade, science in the Primary curriculum has been squeezed from different directions. The literacy and numeracy strategies restricted time for science enquiry, and the perceived importance of the science SAT restricted teachers' imaginations and confidence. The end of this SAT was announced shortly after the publication of the…

Since the election of 1997 New Labour's education policy has been subject to variety of forms of critique--in this journal and others. One of the sources for such critique has been a barrage of letters unleashed for over a decade by Colin Richards in the "Times Educational Supplement". Here are reproduced a self-edited selection of his…