Barnaby Lenon: Why scrapping public exams for good, and replacing them with teacher assessment, would be a big mistake

Exams are the essential building block of motivation.  Ask any teacher who has had to teach an unexamined course to 15-year olds.

Robert Halfon: I disagree with our Minister. Schools should focus on preparing pupils for work – not the acquisition of knowledge.

As our labour market thunders towards the digital age, we must urgently reconsider how we can support the skills most needed.

Jonathan Simons: Let’s build on the education reforms we worked for – not tear them down

The first in a mini-series of pieces on ConHome this week about schools after Covid.

The Soviet Union. My part in its downfall.

Arrested by the KGB for bringing in leaflets supporting multilateral disarmament, I was “banned for life” from returning.

The DfE has thrown everything but the kitchen sink at school reopenings. But the perennial problem is communication.

Up against the noisy unions, it’s struggled to convey the safety of schools compared to other environments.

Iain Dale: Davey is the new LibDem leader. But only 57 per cent of his party’s members could be bothered to vote.

Plus: Any Questions, Cross Question, why Williamson and Gibb should go – and why Johnson’s masks policy isn’t a U-turn.

The Education Secretary must lead school openings in less than a month. Which is why his Department needs new leadership now.

Johnson will almost certainly decide to tough it out. But he will have a big problem if school returns prove tricky.

Ministers and Ofqual have hospital-passed the exam fiasco to universities and colleges

Over to them goes the problem of sorting the future of an inrush of students brandishing far better results than were expected.

Why injustices to school students haven’t sparked a revolt by Tory backbenchers. So far.

Many will now be asking whether Williamson is in a position to lead the crucial return to school in only a few weeks time.

Nick Gibb: Fair grades for A Levels and GCSEs, and congratulations to the students

We have worked with Ofqual to put in place the best possible system.

Robert Halfon: Britain is now a moderate social democratic state

Whether moderate right Conservative, or moderate left, austerity is dead, and this new age will be with us for a long time to come.

Beneath the headlines, there’s a case for this having been a continuity reshuffle

The shock departure of Sajid Javid obscures the fact that there was much less churn than one might expect, especially at the lower levels.

“There are kids who can read and write today because of Nick Gibb”

Politicians get a kicking, sometimes deservedly, but if you want an example of committed public service, look no further, on this reshuffle day, than at this one.

Our survey. Gove is Minister of the Year.

He is one of the few elements of continuity in what has been a turbulent year at the Government’s top table.

John Bald: Labour’s education policy of hiding failings by abolishing tests and independent inspection is the way of the ostrich

But there remains important unfinished business for the Conservatives to carry out – if we get the opportunity.