Word of the Day is one I keep posting at the end of the year, hoping its time will come. ‘Respair’, from the 16th century, is fresh hope, and a recovery from despair. Here’s to a few drops of respair in 2025.

Every month this year, I intend to give away a full class set of one book via A New Chapter - Children's Bookstore - I truly believe a full class set is one of the most valuable resources a teacher can have when teaching reading. No faff to enter, just retweet and consider yourself in. January.

New Year meaning new school - eeek! After over 10 years at that school I hope I am not to engrained in certain systems to change! Its been hard leaving mid year but relocation made it a must. Great to re-read some Christmas cards and come across something fab:

Wishing, everyone a great week filled with kindness, joy and hope. Remember to be brave and magnificent!

For a lot of people, tomorrow is back to work day. This can bring feelings of anxiety & worry. Try to keep calm. The days are getting longer and Spring is just round the corner. Good Luck!!

A pupil wrote this joke on my board today. Science teachers- this kid is going places!! #edutwitter

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!

If you want to know the truth about Elon Musk, British journalist Ian Hislop nails him. I refuse to entertain anyone's delusions about Elon Musk that he cares about or is working to help anyone other than himself.

It really fucks me off how outraged people are over parents having to pay VAT on private education. Where’s the outrage for parents who struggle to afford school uniforms or even pay school dinners? Just cuz some people are on lower wages doesn’t mean they don’t work just as hard

If I could blanket ban a question from education it would be 'how can I adapt this lesson for my SEND children?' as though that is just a single sized bubble of children who can't access work. SEND is not synonymous with an inability to achieve. We need better shared language.

I've gone 0.8 since Christmas to do a day a week of childcare and it's glorious. A midweek pause on the churn and chaos of work to focus on something very different. I appreciate that I'm in a privileged position to do this but more schools need to embrace flexibility.

A timely reminder.

Do you remember when twitter was lovely? It was full of people being nice to each other & telling jokes. On my little space here, I try to be like that. I'll never change... Unless I'm in the fancy dress shop!!

Why are we blaming schools for low attendance and not parents?

Basically, Ofsted has just created an enormous APP grid. What could possibly go wrong?

My hot take on the Ofsted stuff is that, if you had a well-funded system with lots of extra people, it would help drive school improvement (and *could* reduce stress). As the system currently stands: I’m concerned it’ll drown people in workload.

Word of the day is 'spuddle' (19th century): to be extremely busy whilst achieving absolutely nothing.

Sounds like PPA:

Hard to believe he needs help to suck.