Why every day in school must count

This is an edited version of an article that appeared in The Yorkshire Post on 18 September 2024 in which Matt Bromley argues every day in school must count… The Labour government elected on 4 July acknowledged the need to transform the education system so that young people got the opportunities they deserved. In anContinue reading “Why every day in school must count”

Effective school governance: 3 Evaluation and assessment

This is the third in a 3-part series first published in SecEd Magazine. Read part 1 and part 2. So far in this series, we’ve explored the features of effective governance and governing body structures. In the final part, we will explore two aspects to governors’ evaluative role: Evaluating governance: Self-review The new governance guideContinue reading “Effective school governance: 3 Evaluation and assessment”

Effective school governance: 2 Making use of link governors

This is the second in a 3-part series first published in SecEd Magazine. Read part 1. In the first of these three articles on effective governance, I explained that school leaders need to develop good working relationships with governors, especially the chairs of the various governors’ committees through which important information can be fed, and theContinue reading “Effective school governance: 2 Making use of link governors”

Effective school governance: 1 Duties, processes and structures

This is the first in a 3-part series first published in SecEd Magazine. The new Department for Education governance guides, which recently replaced the governance handbook, serve as the primary source of governance information. There are two versions, one for maintained schools and one for academies (DfE, 2024). In this series, for ease and concision,Continue reading “Effective school governance: 1 Duties, processes and structures”

The ABC of Equity 5: C is for community

This is the fifth in a 5-part series first published in SecEd Magazine. Read part 1 here, part 2 here, part 3 here, and part 4 here. This is the final instalment of my five-part series in which I am sharing my ABC of equity in education. A stands for attendance, B stands for behaviours,Continue reading “The ABC of Equity 5: C is for community”

The ABC of Equity 4: B is for behaviours

This is the fourth in a 5-part series first published in SecEd Magazine. Read part 1 here, part 2 here, and part 3 here. In this five-part series for SecEd, I’m sharing a road-map for inclusion – a way to build more equity in education so that schools might become engines for social change. PartContinue reading “The ABC of Equity 4: B is for behaviours”

The ABC of Equity 3: The push and pull of school

This is the third in a 5-part series first published in SecEd Magazine. Read part 1 here and part 2 here. In part two of this series, I explained that disadvantaged learners are more than twice as likely to be absent from school as their non-disadvantaged peers. I also shared five factors that lead to lowerContinue reading “The ABC of Equity 3: The push and pull of school”

The ABC of Equity 2: A is for attendance

This is the second in a 5-part series first published in SecEd Magazine. Read part 1 here. In the first part of this five-part series on building equity in education, I set out my ABC of inclusion: The causes of educational disadvantage are complex. The way in which those causes manifest themselves in the classroom areContinue reading “The ABC of Equity 2: A is for attendance”

The ABC of Equity 1: A plan to tackle disadvantage in schools

This is the first in a 5-part series first published in SecEd Magazine. I am in the middle of writing a book about achieving equity in education. I must admit, I’m feeling more optimistic about this goal of late. The new government has already acknowledged the need to transform the education system so that youngContinue reading “The ABC of Equity 1: A plan to tackle disadvantage in schools”

The stories we tell ourselves

This is an edited extract from The Stories We Tell by Matt Bromley, which is published by Routledge. It is available now. For more details, please click here. We only remember something once. Every subsequent memory is a memory of a memory and each time we ‘remember’ a memory, we change it, reshape it, polishContinue reading “The stories we tell ourselves”