I was recently asked to comment upon the Department for Education’s consultation regarding proposed changes to allow schools to employ industry experts to work as instructors in schools more easily. This consultation is geared towards secondary schools and is designed to address the current quality of vocational training, as recommended in the Wolf Report.

This proposal follows recent moves to elevate the status of QTLS and allow qualified teachers from the FE sector to take up posts in compulsory education.

At this year’s BETT conference, Gove also expressed his belief that IT professionals from the world of Microsoft, Google et al could have an important role to play in the new era of UK education.

These debates take me back to the National Agreement in 2004 when primary headteachers were given the opportunity to appoint unqualified teachers who possessed specialist qualifications in their field and whom they deemed “competent” to work under the supervision of class teachers whilst facilitating their PPA time.

What do we mean by character building and why is there ever greater emphasis on it as a necessary part of a child’s development and education?

A dictionary definition of ‘character’ is “the collective qualities or characteristics, especially mental and moral that distinguish a person or thing”. What are those qualities and why are they important?

Consider for a moment, what we look for when choosing our friends and our partners, be they ones with whom we wish to share our lives or different ventures, work-related or otherwise - and people we elect to represent us in public office. While academic or formal qualifications may be a part of the equation, personal attributes and attractive qualities are likely to be the differentiating and deciding factors. Good, strong characters can enrich our lives enormously whilst weak or bad characters can have devastating effects on them.

Finding new ways for schools to save money seems to be the ‘hot potato’ at the moment, and quite understandably so. There is another option though: find new ways to make money. With all that intellectual property, skills and knowledge floating through the corridors, are there any opportunities for new business ventures to emerge from your school?

There has always been a contribution culture amongst teachers: 'We can get hold of lesson plans at the click of a button and reuse someone else’s work', or, as the saying goes: ‘There’s no point reinventing the wheel’. However, should we be more business-minded about giving our hard work away?

In my previous article I discussed ways of minimising misbehaviour and creating a positive classroom climate. But, like an English summer, even the most temperate lesson is prone to showers. The following tips are designed to help you prevent a drizzle of mischief becoming a deluge of disobedience.

Keep the lesson flowing. When dealing with misbehaviour, always start off with the least intrusive intervention possible. For example, a pupil is tapping a pencil whilst you are talking. He might be doing it absent- mindedly, or he might be trying to provoke a reaction. In either case, try ignoring it. (This is called “tactical ignoring”: you are making a positive choice to ignore the behaviour, not failing to act because you are unsure of what to do.) If the tapping doesn’t stop, point your gaze at the source of the noise or move towards it. That will usually be enough to get it to stop. Other low-level intervention techniques include asking a relevant question (which is often all that is needed to bring the pupil back on task), and using non-verbal signals - such as a finger to the lips or even just a raised eyebrow. These enable you to maintain the flow of your lesson and not distract other pupils while ensuring that the class knows you’re monitoring its behaviour. Responding too quickly or too aggressively to minor misdemeanours can leave pupils feeling aggrieved or humiliated – and faced with a choice between defying the teacher and losing face in front of peers, many will defy the teacher. The issue then escalates, the disruption is drawn out, and the lesson flow is interrupted.