Very excited that my second book,
#BackOnTrack
, is out ONE WEEK TOMORROW. Get it from your usual book shops (or at ). I hope you love it - I’m PROUD AS PUNCH OF IT!
Right, so, errm, tomorrow's a BIG DAY as I very proudly (and also excitedly and nervously) take the reins as Headteacher at Thornhill Community Academy. LET'S DO THIS.
BREAKING: Channel 4 is dusting off Educating Yorkshire, with a new series to be set at Thornhill Community Academy more than a decade after the original series
Having an Aperol Spritz in the kitchen after the longest birthday week of all time in my NEW BIRTHDAY COAT. I’m not cold, I’m just trying it out.
Teachers, school workers, home schooling parents and carers, but most of all you AMAZING CHILDREN of the UK - WELL DONE YOU.
To every year 11 at
@thornhillca
: I’m truly gutted for you. You have worked hard, been nice and done everything asked of you. You deserve your success and you will make the world a better place because of who you are.
Educating Yorkshire was such a wonderful thing to be involved in, and the outpouring of love for a REPEAT, SEVEN YEARS ON, is testament to the bravery, graft and determination of
@MusharafAsghar
.
We're all battling something. Whatever it is, all we can ever do is our best. ❤️
I truly don't mean to brag, but I just wrapped some presents and the scissors caught the sweet spot of the paper and did that thing where they glide through without a moment's complaint. Ssssssssccchhhhhhhhh. Festive bliss.
Since my tweet about starting as Headteacher, I've been amazed at the sheer number of people who have sent lovely messages and their best wishes. THANK YOU! Two weeks in, I am LOVING IT SO MUCH*. We have two rules: be nice, and work hard. Simple.
* = (but I am also very tired)
Without resorting to abuse, swearing or unpleasantness, and with absolute dignity and eloquence, Marcus Rashford has transformed thousands of families’ lives. What a man. Hats off,
@MarcusRashford
.
On my 30th birthday, we were bereft at losing a baby on Christmas Eve and
@MiscarriageA
were amazing.
On my 40th birthday, I’m partying with this Town fan, the youngest little lady is in bed and the oldest lady is at dancing.
Genuinely grateful for everything life gives us. ❤️
Reached the highest point of my role as Headteacher SO FAR this week when I managed to ensure that we now serve Yorkshire Tea in the Staff Room at break. An emotional moment.
If the government is struggling to store mass quantities of the vaccine at -80 degrees, I can recommend the corridors and classrooms of any school on a Monday morning between November and January. Baltic.
Is it normal for a man in his mid-to-late twenties (37) to scrutinise the clock before making a cup of tea on a Sunday night at 20.13 and seriously question whether it’s just a touch on the late side?
Not a time for whinging, or griping, or moaning, or groaning. Not a time for complaining, or scrapping, or arguing. A time for cool heads, calm minds, and a clear focus on what we need to do next. Sleeves up, crack on.
For years, my mum has said stuff like ‘Be safe and do your best’ to me and my brother,
@philburton85
. I hope she takes her own advice today as she heads back at work as a nurse in Pinderfields Hospital. YOU’VE GOT THIS, JANE! ♥️
I’m not saying it’s been a long half term, but as we reach today, the 85th of February, I am very much looking forward to a week off. HAPPY HALF TERM, GANG! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
This is my Nanna - Gwen Burton. She’s 96. She battled through pneumonia last year and is a phenomenal woman. She doesn’t have coronavirus and I REALLY, REALLY don’t want her to get it. If you’re packing up a picnic in the car, then unpack it. Stay at home.
#StayHomeSaveLives
Another year done. And what a year. It’s all been said, but I am SO PROUD of everything, and everyone, at
@thornhillca
.
Be nice, work hard. ❤️👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
If you’re concerned that you haven’t started the week well, I’ve just sent the week’s first email from ‘Meaty’ instead of ‘Matt’. Cheers, autocorrect. Appreciate that.
Does anyone else recall the moment in history where KFC having no chicken was the greatest threat to civilisation there has ever been? Feels a bit weird now, doesn’t it?
TEACHERS CHANGE LIVES. What an amazing, privileged position we are in.
Let’s get back in there tomorrow morning and make the difference. Just…wonderful. ❤️
#AnAudienceWithAdele
My biggest achievement at 18 was managing to fund an entire night out with £5. One cider, three out of date VK Blues and a shared taxi home.
Emma Raducanu is PHENOMENAL. 🇬🇧
#USOpen
Thinking of those school leaders, grafting away at risk assessments and plans ahead of September, utterly sick to the back teeth of the word 'bubble'. Cool heads, calm minds. We'll get there.
A hearty THANK YOU and socially distanced fist bump to the thousands of primary school staff back in today for the first day of partial reopening today. Legends. 🤜🏼
Thinking of every teacher, leader, and member of school staff today...but most of all I’m thinking of students (and their families) who’ve grafted and grafted and grafted for their A Levels today. Sending love and keeping my fingers crossed for you all. ♥️🤞🏻
Lineker’s hoarse voice. Lineker remembering his dad. The look to the sky from the Chairman. Slow motion celebrations in front of the fans. Absolute thunderblaster to win it. Football is BACK!
#FACupFinal
If anyone vulnerable in the Wakefield (or West Yorkshire) areas needs anything doing, delivering or picking up today before the big day tomorrow, please send me a message over.
My army of elves (a five year old and a seven year old) and I are happy to help anyone in need.
Good luck to everyone in a school, back at it tomorrow. Keep calm, work together and we WILL get through the challenges ahead.
Thousands of kids CAN’T WAIT to get back and see you.
This job is an amazing privilege. Let’s do it.
#workhardbenice
Assumed that I was the last person left in school, and started singing Renée and Renato’s famous 1982 hit ‘Save Your Love’ at the top of my voice in my office. Turns out that Maureen, one of our cleaners, was just one stud partition wall away.
I know today's been a very quiet day on the news agenda, so I thought I'd spark it into life at this late hour. Here goes:
This evening I had my first ever Orange Twirl, and it was one of the greatest two minute episodes of my entire life.
A man just came up to me in a pub on to tell me that my school was ‘s**t’ and that he left in 2005 and it ‘hasn’t changed since’. He’s since disappeared. Kindness costs nothing, folks. Work hard. Be nice. 💋
If your plan at the moment is for your child to go to school tomorrow, please think REALLY, REALLY CAREFULLY whether they need to.
If they do, then we’re 100% there.
If there’s any safe alternative, then please keep them at home.
Please be safe.
I don’t want to overstate this, but I’ve managed to get my hands on some Dairy Milk Orange Buttons in a petrol station on the way to work. Let that sink in. This could well be the greatest day of my life. 🍊
I really, really, really, REALLY hope that today's news about GCSEs and A Levels means that every young person gets what they need from this summer to go on and do whatever they want to do. A busy week coming up, but fingers crossed it goes well for everyone. 🤞🏻
Just completed some final shopping for tomorrow in Asda.
I can handle the queues. I can handle people’s growing unrest. I can handle the fist fights to claim the last of the parsnips.
What I cannot handle, however, are boxes of CREME EGGS BEING DISPLAYED ON CHRISTMAS EVE.
My lovely friend Becky sang the first dance at our wedding twelve years ago and now she’s just played Wembley Stadium. I could not be more proud of you,
@SELFESTEEM___
. I always talk about ‘work hard, be nice’ and that’s exactly what she’s done. Incredible. 🥹
Whatever choice you’ve made as a teacher today, it will have involved some tough decisions.
We all want the same things - schools funding properly and this brilliant profession to remain an attractive career for people.
We’re all still colleagues…and that really matters.
@BBCNewsnight
Teachers have been occasionally known to, y’know, work the odd evening and weekend already.
Don’t know if you’re aware of that, but, yeah, it happens.
Midway through watching a Harry Potter film on a Sunday afternoon with the heating on, so consequently I’d like to wish everyone a very merry Christmas and all the very best for a prosperous 2023.
Another day where:
a) I’m incredibly impressed with the articulate and fine young man
@MusharafAsghar
has become, and
b) I really wish I’d not worn an almost flesh coloured t-shirt with a national newspaper
Trust yourself, and trust that teacher who is there ready to support you, says Educating Yorkshire's
@MusharafAsghar
on the teacher who helped him overcome his stammer
10/02/2023 = Half term
12/02/2023 = Fly to Iceland 🇮🇸
15/02/2023 = Return from Iceland
17/02/2023 = Fly to Dublin for the weekend 🇮🇪
19/02/2023 = Return from Dublin
20/02/2023 = Back to work after half term
21/02/2023 = Ofsted call
24/02/2023 = Hibernate for three to four years
Could someone tell me what the bejesus I'm doing sitting at my kitchen table whilst wearing a face mask? I've just realised and I've been here for about 90 minutes.
Well, this is extraordinary. I’d love to hashtag ‘It’s coming home’ but there aren’t any apostrophes in hashtags and that just wouldn’t be right.
#ThreeLions
My Nanna's 93 and gets The
@YorkshirePost
every single day. She was shocked to see me peering out from page nine as she sipped her first cup of tea of the day.
Lovely chatting to
@YP_LauraD
about my job, my hopes for
@thornhillca
and my Liv and Theo...
I'm 38 today, and I'm going to celebrate the joyous occasion by taking the recycling to the pavement. That is, sadly, not a euphemism for a sizzling dance move in the local discotheque.
We all have wonderful days where we feel invincible, and we all have GOD AWFUL days where we want to go back to bed by 7am. Whatever day you’re having, I’m rooting for you.
#WorldMentalHealthDay
Imagine - just IMAGINE - the pub on Tuesday, 22nd June for England V Czech Republic (if everything goes well). Genuinely think I'll cry.
I would never usually frequent a nightclub on a Tuesday (or actually any other day), but - y'know - when in Rome...
I’ve never properly watched
@bbcstrictly
before and I don’t think it’s something that I can ever do again. This level of emotion is quite simply not acceptable.
#StrictlyComeDancing
If it's wrong to be having a glass of wine from a box and listening to Will Young's absolute bangers on Spotify, then, quite frankly, I'm not sure I want to be right.
I’m relentlessly proud of every achievement of every student at
@thornhillca
, but to the last few standing on the dance floor at Friday’s prom, who knew EVERY SINGLE WORD to Céline Dion’s ‘Think Twice’, you are true inspirations.
#powerballadsneverdie
#nononono