Welcome to the discussion forums.

The forums are intended to enable the users of the site to talk to each other and to share good practice with one another, as well as to comment on and give feedback about the Standards Site overall. The idea is that the forums should enable users of the site to talk to each other and share good practice, rather than be just another question-and-answer channel to the DfES

The main forums currently available are:

Site announcements: a read-only board where announcements about the Standards Site and the forums are made. Useful to subscribe to in order to get the latest updates.

The Newsroom: education in the headlines: pointers to news stories about raising standards in education, and discussion arising from those news stories.

The Staffroom: questions, advice and discussion: a forum for discussion of any matters regarding the Standards Site policy areas, teaching matters or any burning questions about education.

The Lounge: off-duty, off-topic: a more easy-going area for 'soft' discussions such as introductions. Please do stop by this board to post a little something about yourself when you first start posting on the forums!

Site feedback: if you're encountering any problems or need help using the Standards Site, or would like to give some general feedback then please post in this forum.

We also have forums covering specific areas of the Standards Site, such as:

Pupil Achievement Tracker: a general area for discussion of all aspects of the PAT software tool.

Study Support: discussion about how best to support out-of-school-hours learning.

Please keep in mind that these forums are intended for proper, professional conversations on issues relating to standards in education as well as the Standards Site and these forums. We ask that people respect others, and show goodwill to and assume goodwill from the people they correspond with. Anyone not keeping to these ground rules may be removed from the forums and their posts deleted. Further details on this can be found in our terms and conditions of use.

Please note: some company IT departments have started to block emails which include password or registration information, or that they misidentify as 'spam'. If you do not receive emails from the Standards Site that you are expecting, please contact your IT department in the first instance or try using an alternative email address.