Apparently at the 'arrive at work and sit in the car for 5 minutes watching the raging storm and contemplating my life choices' stage of the term.

Made it. Felt like the longest term ever but it's finally the holidays. I love teaching, but this week was a tough one. I even managed to remain professional with the teacher who joked about me being harsh for doing a 'proper lesson' yesterday while I was teaching it!

🎄⭐️🎅🏻

This is true, but it works the other way around too. The communities around some schools are broken and manners are seen as weakness. Kids aren't used to seeing adults adapt to a professional context so don't have a model for how to do it themselves.

When you throw the kitchen sink at Y11s year after year, at what point does it dawn on you that maybe KS3 is where the effort needs to go. The ability to endure the short term ‘pain’ as the foundations are put in place to allow for long term sustainable outcomes can be a

So today, it appears England is on course for the highest number of school suspensions in a single year. Statements on this today have mentioned ‘mental health issues, unmet needs, curriculum, under funding’……. But nothing about a lack of care, lack of accountability, lack of

A bit scary out there!

I think, like probably all teachers, that exclusions really suck. It's horrible but sadly there are times when it has to happen though. Consistency and compassion are the way forward.

NEW BLOG: I discuss the need for direction and purpose vs the concept of teacher autonomy. thisteacherspeaks.blog/2024/02/14/aut…

Some of the frankly bizarre responses to this show how little accountability some think there should be on pupils. If we reduce expectations we fail kids.

Brilliant thread on the nature of SEND and the exciting potential for reform in this area.

I thought I would fact check this bizarre article from this weekend's Observer (not, as people keep saying, the The Guardian, which normally is much better for quality education coverage). It's almost easier to find out what is true, than to deal with all the inaccuracies. 🧵

This is what I think every time I see bronze, silver and gold learning objectives. Either you are accepting that some kids will opt out of, or that some just can't access what you are teaching. Either way feels like a cop out.

The only thing worse that I've heard against centralised detention is 'Pick up your own tab', as if behavior is solely down to individual teachers and not a fundamental part of the routine and culture of the school.

IMPORTANT PLS SHARE. It's rumoured the English £9,250 tuition fee cap may be raised this pm for the 1st time in 8yrs, as University's finances are strained. As student finance misunderstandings abound, I've bashed out a few notes to help... 1. Higher tuition fees WON'T change

Beloved edu people, the bird place is doing me no favours. If you want to hear more of my opinionated nonsense you can find me on the big blue. Won't be deleting for a while, but won't be posting either.