Sian Griffiths

London

Education & parenting editor, The Sunday Times. Pop up GMB, Talk TV, Times Radio. Presenter BBC 2 documentary School Swap. DMs open. Views mine

Articles

The apprentices earning £100,000 while they get a 'free' degree

1 month ago | thetimes.com | Sian Griffiths
Severing the link between gambling advertising and harm

1 month ago | bmj.com | Sian Griffiths

Sian Griffiths, chair of trustees GambleAware, London WC1V 7JH, UK jude.obi{at}gambleaware.org Fenton and Prochaska call for more restrictions on gambling advertising.1 GambleAware, the leading charity and commissioner of gambling harms prevention and treatment services in Great Britain, is supportive of the points raised and has been working to highlight the evidence that gambling advertising disproportionately affects children, with those exposed to it being 2.3 times more likely to...
The apprentices making £100,000 while they get a ‘free’ degree

Dec 7, 2024 | thetimes.com | Sian Griffiths

The number of teenagers choosing to do a degree apprenticeship has more than doubled in the past five years, with many earning as much as £100,000 over the course of their “free” degree. While their friends at school set off for university, and can typically expect to graduate with debts of about £44,000, these 18-year-olds have a paid job for four days a week and go to university on the fifth. Many are able to buy a car and their first home while studying.
Best schools in London 2025

Dec 6, 2024 | thetimes.com | Sian Griffiths |Helen Davies

London dominates as an educational powerhouse in the UK: 15 out of the top 20 schools in the joint league table of independent and state school exam performance are in the capital, and most are single-sex. Top of the class is the £31,593-a-year (excluding VAT) St Paul’s Girls’ School in Hammersmith, west London, where the daughters of KCs, doctors and bankers compete to gain admission. It wins the Independent Secondary School of the Year for Academic Excellence 2025 award.
School league tables 2025: the best UK secondary schools revealed

Dec 6, 2024 | thetimes.com | Sian Griffiths |Helen Davies |Nick Rodrigues

A handful of outstanding state schools have beaten some of the most expensive and famous private schools in the UK, turning in better A-level and GCSE results this summer, according to the 2025 Sunday Times Parent Power league table. But overall, since the pandemic state schools have slipped down the combined rankings* as private schools surge ahead.
Best schools in southeast England 2025

Dec 6, 2024 | thetimes.com | Sian Griffiths |Helen Davies

The schools in the southeast are back to their winning ways. The region is home to four in the top 20 of our combined academic rankings for state and independent schools, and a third of institutions in the top 100. Reigate Grammar School (RGS) in Surrey is Parent Power’s national Independent Secondary School of the Year 2025.
Best state and grammar schools in the UK

Dec 6, 2024 | thetimes.com | Sian Griffiths

When the minibus left Newstead Wood School, Orpington, last week, it was packed not just with the football team, but also with pupils going to a Model UN debate. Girls at the single-sex selective school are also passionate in dedicating their time to local charities, especially those that support women and mental health, and have set up a carbon council. It is this diversity of activity on offer and the diversity of the pupils that has boosted the school’s academic excellence.
Best private schools in the UK

Dec 6, 2024 | thetimes.com | Sian Griffiths

All sixth-formers at Reigate Grammar School (RGS) now have an AI private tutor that squats in the bottom right-hand corner of their computer screen. Some have been given nicknames by the teenagers to personalise them. “We are aiming for every child in the school to have an AI tutor,” says Shaun Fenton, the headmaster of the coeducational private school, “that they can ask questions of and that will help them 24/7 with their learning.
Meet the oldest teacher in Britain, who won’t retire

Dec 6, 2024 | thetimes.com | Sian Griffiths

In more than six decades at the chalkface, “Killer Kershaw”, 82, has dealt with teachers on strike and pupils who swore at and assaulted staff, and he once had to face up to a violent father, who had a racist slogan tattooed across his forehead, after he sent the man’s daughter home for dyeing her hair. He just keeps on going.
Top 1,000 primary schools in England

Dec 6, 2024 | thetimes.com | Sian Griffiths

Primary schools should be more fun to help to bridge the attainment gap in the wake of the pandemic, according to top head teachers. The Sunday Times Parent Power league table of the best primary schools in England shows that schools in London and the southeast are continuing to dominate the top rungs. Four of the top ten schools — ranked on the percentage of pupils who achieved their expected grade in the 2023 Sats tests — are in the capital.