What makes a genuinely good school leader?

Good leadership is easiest to recognise when something goes wrong.

How much classroom pressure comes from waiting for external SEND support?

Waiting is not neutral when a pupil is struggling.

Are schools becoming too dependent on individual staff members to make SEND provision work?

Every school has people who seem to hold an enormous amount of SEND knowledge in their heads.

Are teaching assistants increasingly filling gaps that should be covered by specialist services?

Teaching assistants are often the people closest to pupils with additional needs — which can make them the default solution when specialist support is delayed or unavailable.

Are teachers receiving enough SEND training before entering the classroom?

A new teacher can enter the classroom with strong subject knowledge and still feel underprepared for the range of SEND they will meet in one class.

Have smartphones fundamentally changed behaviour and concentration in classrooms?

The phone may be in a bag, but the habits built around it can still enter the classroom.

Are behaviour policies becoming stricter — and is that working?

A strict behaviour policy can create clarity. Pupils know the boundaries, staff know the response and inconsistency is reduced.

Are schools being expected to solve problems that originate far beyond the school gates?

Schools are education providers, but the problems arriving at the gate are not neatly limited to education.

Should parents face greater responsibility for persistent absence?

Parental responsibility matters, but persistent absence is rarely a useful conversation if it starts by assuming every family is facing the same circumstances.

Has pupil behaviour genuinely worsened, or has the job of managing it changed?

When staff say behaviour feels harder, they may not all be describing the same thing.