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Jonathan Simons writes weekly on policy and education

The schools inspectorate is a large and complicated department. It doesn’t need a ‘chief inspector’ at all – it needs someone who excels at management. And that’s what it’s going to get

A mixed local-authority and academy system only makes things unnecessarily complex, for teachers, school leaders and parents, according to an education policy expert

The Ofsted boss should be wary of mission creep as he sets about a number of policy areas beyond the responsibility of the inspectorate, writes one education policy expert

The ideas behind forcing public sector bodies to employ apprentices are sound, but they don’t hold water when it comes to schools, writes one education policy expert

Jonathan Simons, head of education at thinktank Policy Exchange and author of the weekly TES column Whispers from Westminster, comments on today’s spending review