I’ve noticed that student curiosity and questioning has grown because of explicit instruction. When students have a foundation of knowledge, they then have something meaningful to wonder about. Knowledge doesn’t suppress inquiry. It fuels it. We have to know before we can wonder.

Lowest / hardest period of my career in education. Leadership is an intense, lonely place.

Working in a school feels much like running on a treadmill that never slows down - and it gets harder by the day. Every cut and the speed increases. Every new demand and the incline rises - again and again. Exhaustion builds and, with no clear end in sight, confusion and

The ‘sentence’ is a written construct, not a spoken one. Making students talk ‘in full sentences’ can be stilted & impede thought. Hedges, filllers, backtracking etc all support thought. Better surely to say ‘tell me more!’ or ‘develop that idea a bit’. You could have students 1

Small schools want clarity on how new Ofsted inspections will be adapted for their 'unique' circumstances - amid concerns they will continue to place 'unrealistic' demands on leaders schoolsweek.co.uk/small-schools-…

I don’t get this concept of us parents being ‘out of pocket’ by giving our own children breakfast. Isn’t feeding our own kids a basic premise of parenting responsibility, why would any parent regard themselves ‘out of pocket’ for doing so🤔

If a student doesn’t achieve automaticity on lower-level skills, it doesn’t even matter how well the teacher scaffolds a new skill – they won’t be able to do it.

Loved reading this. Such a true reflection.

Neurodivergents will be like ‘I’m so tired’ and then refuse to sleep because they haven’t had enough me time after surviving the day.

So many primaries & especially small primaries have a HT who is also a class teacher; a great number have deputies who have full class responsibility. Lots I support have the HT as the only leader & some HTs paid at L3-5. Where are the leadership savings in these scenarios?

When middle-class children fail through discovery learning, their parents hire tutors who teach them explicitly. Working-class children just fail.

Teachers sometimes assume that school leaders have an easier workload or face fewer pressures. In reality, until you’ve experienced the role yourself, it’s impossible to fully understand the demands and responsibilities it involves.

It’s really hard to give students generic advice about spotting misinformation. Almost any piece of general advice you can give requires context and background knowledge to be useful. substack.nomoremarking.com/p/can-we-teach…

To whoever is tasked with writing the new NC… A few concerns I have.

Martha makes Millers history as our first contracted player to qualify for the World Cup finals 👏 Everyone at Rotherham United would like to say a huge congratulations to Ar'Jany and his teammates on a fantastic achievement! 🌎 #RUFC | #TownCountyUnited

20 yrs ago, ppl said ‘Copy Finland, they are brilliant!’ I said, ‘No, these are the successes of the old trad system. Just wait & see’ 15 yrs ago, ppl said, ‘But Finland…’ I said, ‘Just wait…’ 5 years ago, I said ‘Now you see’ Nowadays no learning is required for success🙄

Home at 9pm, up at 4:30am and currently taking what is likely to be my only opportunity to eat or drink in the next 12 hours (owing to the fact that each leader must man-mark an inspector at all times). I guess this is what Sir Martyn means to ‘feel energised’ by inspection…

Of all the anonymous messages I’ve had about the new Ofsted framework, the most common word used is… horrific. Interestingly , the rare positive has come from secondary teachers

Anyone recognise the preposition icons? Feel like I’ve seen them a lot but can’t find them anywhere!