The Debate: Should we ban smartphones in schools? Opinion As Keir Starmer calls for schools to pay screen Adolescence, could a smartphone ban be next? We get two writers to argue for and against.
City of London great and good raise record £160k for School of Hard Knocks Sport The City of London’s best, brightest, great and good descended on Threadneedle Street’s M Restaurant as a record £161,000 was raised at the annual School of Hard Knocks Long Lunch. Leading City stalwarts including Champions Cup sponsors Investec were joined by the likes of Firethorn Trust, Clarksons, Falko, England international Andy Gomarsall, LBC’s Nick Ferrari [...]
A school reform that could actually help the economy? Teaching financial literacy Opinion It's not just students who would benefit from school reforms to teach financial literacy, but the UK economy, writes Quentin Nason.
Tories push for school smartphone ban to be added to education bill January 25, 2025 The Tories will push for a ban on smartphones in schools to be included in the Government’s education Bill. The Conservatives are tabling an amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill to end the use of mobile phones and other devices during school days by pupils. It is understood that the Labour government has [...]
Disastrous school reform agenda is a solution in search of a problem January 9, 2025 A long time ago I got involved in a battle to help a school leave council control and become an academy. This was shortly after Michael Gove, as education secretary, continued the reforming efforts of his Labour predecessors to inject more choice and freedom into the state education sector. The local council, faced with losing [...]
Freedom and parental choice are under threat from school reforms January 8, 2025 The government’s schools bill will undo all the progress that’s been made in English education and had power over our children’s futures to unions and activists, rather than the people who know best, says Mark Lehain English schools really are better now than 35 years ago, by any number of measures. Things improved by design, [...]
Youth unemployment is at a decade-high. Ignoring it will breed division November 23, 2024 Being left behind while others prosper creates fertile ground for extremism. So we can't afford to ignore youth unemployment, writes Russell Hobby.
School smartphone ban is legislative overreach at its most unnecessary October 21, 2024 Schools already have the power to ban smartphones, adding pointless new laws to the statute book is bad for business and bad for democracy, says Eliot Wilson Parliament should never make law lightly. To legislate is to bring the coercive power of the state to bear in regulating conduct and behaviour as well as maintaining [...]
How do you really improve schools? (Hint: it’s not smaller classes or paying teachers more) October 14, 2024 Malawi, one of the poorest countries in the world with overcrowded classrooms and teacher shortages, is embracing pioneering technology – and turning its schools around, writes Bjorn Lomborg Childrens’ educational test scores are a major cause for concern across the world. Learning plummeted nearly everywhere during the Covid pandemic – but even before that, standardised [...]
‘Challenging policy’: What the pushback to private school VAT plans reveals October 8, 2024 VAT… easy as ABC? It may not quite be Blair’s ‘education, education, education’ mantra, or Michael Gove’s multi-academy trusts. But for Sir Keir ‘my-father-was-a-toolmaker’ Starmer, there’s been one education policy that’s been front and centre of his manifesto and the first 100 days. This is, of course, the plan to impose VAT on private school [...]