Last week, we referred to the surfacing of Submarine Hinds to announce a major shake-up of the school accountability system.
It seems a new metaphor may be in order for our education secretary - Damian Hinds might have kept a low profile during his initial months in the job, but on Friday, he unveiled yet another raft of policy measures:
Mr Hinds was resolving a set of policies first announced in the 2016 education green paper, but thrown into limbo when Theresa May misplaced her Commons majority in last year’s election.
While the grammar news grabbed headlines, the policy - along with Friday’s other announcements - represents a substantial watering down of the original ideas contained in the green paper.
In fact, Tes reporter Martin George revealed that the policies look strikingly similar to a package that the former education secretary, Justine Greening, presented to the prime minister before Christmas.
Another green paper was in the news this week. On Wednesday, MPs published a report castigating the government’s green paper for children and young people’s mental health, which was published in December.
The joint report from the Commons education and health committees said the plans “lack any ambition”, and raised the prospect of “hundreds of thousands of children missing out on getting the help they so desperately need”.
Finally, edu-Twitter might be a tremendously positive force for teachers to connect and discuss pedagogy, but this week we also saw its darker side.
On Thursday, Tes revealed the shocking online abuse that female teachers have been subjected to by men in the same profession.
The harassment ranges from bombardment with inappropriate and unwanted messages commenting on a woman’s appearance, to male teachers sending female teachers unsolicited photos of their genitalia.
The revelations sparked outrage. Could this be education’s #MeToo moment?
