Open in app

Sign In

Write

Sign In

Jonathan Simons
Jonathan Simons

581 Followers

Home

About

22 hours ago

Sunday thoughts: Is it time to take a look at Ofsted reform?

I turn this week, slightly reluctantly, to Ofsted. Not really to talk about Ruth Perry. It’s an utterly tragic case and I can’t imagine I have anything useful to say about it beyond the sheer human heartbreak for all involved. There’s a reason that they say hard cases make bad…

Schools

7 min read

Sunday thoughts: Is it time to take a look at Ofsted reform?
Sunday thoughts: Is it time to take a look at Ofsted reform?
Schools

7 min read


Mar 12

Sunday thoughts: Will Labour’s plan to replace Ofsted with a School Report Card work?

Bridget Phillipson’s speech to ASCL conference this weekend was interesting for a number of reasons. It’s a shame we couldn’t contrast it with Gillian Keegan’s, but as she said in her apology, that college visit to Darlington just couldn’t wait. Or maybe she was locked in pay negotiations. I can’t…

Education

8 min read

Sunday thoughts: Will Labour’s plan to replace Ofsted with a School Report Card work?
Sunday thoughts: Will Labour’s plan to replace Ofsted with a School Report Card work?
Education

8 min read


Mar 5

Sunday thoughts: Should more secondary schools run admissions like Free Schools?

This week, slightly unnoticed, a lengthy but important report on school admissions landed from Simon Burgess and colleagues from Bristol. It’s a fascinating report, because it creates for the first time since mass academisation a dataset of how all 3,000 odd secondary schools in England run school admissions. (It’s also…

Schools

6 min read

Sunday thoughts: Should more secondary schools run admissions like Free Schools?
Sunday thoughts: Should more secondary schools run admissions like Free Schools?
Schools

6 min read


Feb 19

Sunday thoughts: What should DSIT and Michelle Donelan *not* do?

John Gill’s editorial in this fortnight’s Times Higher sets out the challenges for the new Secretary of State for DSIT (apparently known in Whitehall shorthand as ‘Technology Secretary’, ugh). As opposed to the normal “these are some things you can do”, he’s terribly meanly gone for “things you should not…

Science

4 min read

Sunday thoughts: What should DSIT and Michelle Donelan *not* do?
Sunday thoughts: What should DSIT and Michelle Donelan *not* do?
Science

4 min read


Feb 12

Sunday thoughts: Are we seeing a ‘technocratic’ family policy emerging? (and if so, good)

This week, the Prime Minister visited one of the new Family Hubs set up around the country and announced an expansion of them to more LAs. Although it was covered by the media, it hasn’t featured in any of the round ups of the PMs Big Political Week, which focused…

Children

5 min read

Sunday thoughts: Are we seeing a ‘technocratic’ family policy emerging? (and if so, good)
Sunday thoughts: Are we seeing a ‘technocratic’ family policy emerging? (and if so, good)
Children

5 min read


Jan 22

Sunday thoughts: Why haven’t the planned teacher strikes been resolved yet, and how does this end?

The NEU is about to go on strike across 7 days next month and into March. …

Education

8 min read

Sunday thoughts: Why haven’t the planned teacher strikes been resolved yet, and how does this end?
Sunday thoughts: Why haven’t the planned teacher strikes been resolved yet, and how does this end?
Education

8 min read


Jan 8

Sunday thoughts: What can we expect in education in 2023?

2023. New Year, new you. Though for the education sector, a little of the same old you might be preferable following the events of the previous 12 months. But what will we see in education in 2023? Here’s 10 predictions for the forthcoming year (with the 11th being, is this…

Education

13 min read

Sunday thoughts: What can we expect in education in 2023?
Sunday thoughts: What can we expect in education in 2023?
Education

13 min read


Dec 18, 2022

Sunday thoughts: Shall we give some awards out, then?

As we approach the end of 2022, which in many ways seems to have gone on for around a decade (the tiering system for Covid was at the beginning of this year? Really?), …

6 min read

Sunday thoughts: Shall we give some awards out, then?
Sunday thoughts: Shall we give some awards out, then?

6 min read


Dec 4, 2022

Sunday thoughts: Why are MPs standing down, and should we care?

Sajid Javid this week became the twelfth Conservative MP to say that he’d be standing down at the next election. Is this just rats fleeing a sinking ship, and jumping before being forcibly deselected by the voters? Maybe. But there’s a number of reasons to suggest it might be more…

Politics

5 min read

Sunday thoughts: Why are MPs standing down, and should we care?
Sunday thoughts: Why are MPs standing down, and should we care?
Politics

5 min read


Nov 20, 2022

Sunday thoughts: What do you get when you send two British edu policy consultants to New Zealand?

Myself and my colleague Jess Lister are currently midway through a project in New Zealand, where we are here for a couple of weeks to do some fieldwork for a really interesting project for the University of Canterbury (UC) in Christchurch, ahead of their 150th anniversary next year. We’ve been…

University

9 min read

Sunday thoughts: What do you get when you send two British edu policy consultants to New Zealand?
Sunday thoughts: What do you get when you send two British edu policy consultants to New Zealand?
University

9 min read

Jonathan Simons

Jonathan Simons

581 Followers

Js

Following
  • Daisy Christodoulou

    Daisy Christodoulou

  • Anthony Painter

    Anthony Painter

  • Conservative Friends of Education

    Conservative Friends of Education

  • Michael Shaw

    Michael Shaw

  • Tom Beresford

    Tom Beresford

Help

Status

Writers

Blog

Careers

Privacy

Terms

About

Text to speech