"There’s no point now banging on about behaviour and behaviour tsars. You can’t teach children to behave better by making them feel shit. It doesn’t work." Well said Anna Maxwell Martin. theguardian.com/education/2025…

New (open access) piece: “Tom Bennett’s views on school isolation research are ridiculous” Read here: educationuncovered.co.uk/analysis/tom-b… here: open.substack.com/pub/warwickman…

It would be good to understand if Bennett's misleading & contemptuous views (tweeted from his DfE-marked account) represent Department for Education position. Because increasingly he's not a diplomat, or a leader, or even an activist. He's an arsonist. bennettt.substack.com/p/teachers-you…

A man in Walsall raped a Punjabi woman, calling her a "p*** b****", after following her home and breaking down her door. This act of sexual violence, fuelled by rising anti-immigrant hate, is a harrowing reminder of how misogyny and racism intertwine. We can’t tackle one

The myth of the powerful parent, and what powerlessness really feels like; open.substack.com/pub/johnsonpho… #EduTwitter #SEND #ThisIsAP

"Schools are abusing the use of internal exclusion, and damaging both children's education and their mental health in the process." 👇

"Many children describe school as ‘Victorian’ or ‘prison-like’. We hear of behaviour points, detentions and isolations being given out constantly for minor infractions of the rules such as not sitting facing forward, not tracking the teacher’s eyes [-]or simply having a bad day."

You can’t build a successful education system around shame, embarrassment, detention & exclusion. You can’t create inclusion for all via a curriculum that only works for some. So as the saying goes “If the child doesn’t learn the way you teach, start teaching the way they learn.”

"An unprecedented mental health crisis that demands immediate government action." 👇

Tom Rogers Can you define "abused"? Do you mean "swore at me"? Are you differentiating between a dysregulated 5 y/o & a 15 y/o "almost man"? Are you factoring SEND, mens rea, equality law? I'd love to chat about this with you on a TTR episode. Let's talk 👍

My recent substacks have been fairly popular, so I thought I would share an older one which wasn't but I think is very relevant. This ones is on attendance; open.substack.com/pub/johnsonpho… #EduTwitter #thisisAP #attendance

Richard Tutt Richard Tutt, your school policies literally dictate sanctions for lateness, missing homework, incorrect uniform, 'not being on task', 'lack of pride', body posture & more, and allow points to accumulate into isolation sanctions. Let's not pretend this is about violence or abuse.

Wait till he finds out the guy with no leadership experience has had the nerve to write a book about running a school I'll wait for the posts calling this out this week

I lead two primary schools. 1700 students. No child has ever entered one of our isolation rooms. Because we don't have one and don't need one.

Today would seem to be a good day to encourage families affected by isolation rooms, seclusion rooms, restraint and other restrictive practices to fill this in!

It's great to see more & more big names with big platforms raising the issues in UK education. Thank you Anna Maxwell-Martin for speaking up 🙏

Excellent article from Warwick about the reaction to recent research on the effects of isolation as a behaviour management strategy.

When a child has experienced trauma, their behaviour isn’t a moral failing, it’s communication. The anger you see? That’s pain. The defiance? That’s fear. And the silence? That’s a survival strategy. None of this is about excusing bad behaviour. It’s about understanding it!

Wow!! 👇👇

Some pockets of UK education (mostly the "behaviour above all else" ones who write edu-novels & go to conferences) seem very belligerent today..... In other news, this classic came out in 1968: youtu.be/AM-b8P1yj9w?si…