“We’ve under-invested in schools so much that many are not safe to attend.
But you absolutely must attend school even if you are ill to get good exam results.
But don’t worry because in spite of all the pressure nobody really cares about your exam results.”
DfE, summer 2023
@moveincircles
Being happily married in a heterosexual couple doesn’t make you any less bisexual or any more straight. It just makes you monogamous (and even then, not all couples are).
My wife’s school was closed because of RAAC just days before the start of term.
The school has been teaching out of a wedding venue all half term.
The staff are exhausted.
Their families are exhausted from propping them up.
Thank you and happy half term would have done 🤬
Last year, school strikes resulted in 25 million school days being lost cumulatively.
Children should not have to suffer a repeat of this disruption.
I’m announcing that we will introduce minimum service levels in schools so that pupils get the education they need and deserve.
Exams. No exams. Mini exams. Not exams per se.
Poor FSM. Vouchers for FSM. No holiday FSM.
BTECs. No BTECs. BTEC if you want to.
Optional mass testing. Compulsory mass testing. Delayed mass testing. Mass testing not approved.
It’s only January 15th 🤪
The poor teacher. The poor kids, all of them. The poor school and its headteacher in the middle of this, being investigated by the DfE over fake news - during exam season. And the poor school community, turned into a culture war battleground.
Just overheard a year 10 girl who's been in a meeting with Ofsted inspectors at her school today.
"He said to us that from what they'd seen so far the school was really disappointing."
I'm going to stick my neck out here: young people do not need that kind adult interaction
You know who needs telling they’ve done a fucking good job? The 100+ headteachers and their teams dealing with this shambles on the ground.
So I’ll say it.
Good fucking job today, all. You’re all superheroes who deserve better!
Breaking via ITV: Education secretary Gillian Keegan is recorded on camera saying others ‘have been sat on their a***s’ on schools Raac crisis and shares frustration about not being thanked for doing ‘a f***ing good job’
We all came from refugees
Nobody simply just appeared,
Nobody's here without a struggle,
And why should we live in fear
Of the weather or the troubles?
We all came here from somewhere
'Refugees' - Benjamin Zephaniah
Jerry, 43, supply teacher. Trying to work out which kids are engaging in the hilarious game of ‘continuous tuneless whistling’. When he does, he’ll do precisely nothing about it.
#CatTeachers
I used to do revision workshops in schools.
I was brought in to do a day on Animal Farm with a disengaged group of boys once.
When I got there, I learned that they hadn’t even read the book.
🧵
Everyone talking about mobile phones when schools are dealing with RAAC chaos, CAMHS collapsing, attendance off a cliff, ‘elective’ home ed on the up, broken boilers, leaky roofs, a yawning disadvantage gap, soaring costs, hunger, homeless families…
Are we a serious nation?
School closures:
Please spare a thought for those colleagues likely to be hardest hit - supply teachers, whose income could fall off a cliff.
#coronavirus
STAND UP AND FIGHT!
But not if you’re a climate activist, a human rights lawyer, an LGBT advocate, a rejoiner, anti-racist, pro-immigration, anti-war, pro-union, poor, young or otherwise generally disagreeable.
You can sit down and take it, Wokey McWokeface
I can’t bear it.
I struggle to stay neutral anyway, but the idea - knowing we’ve lost a HT to this - that I should support my wife to go in Wednesday has me both seething and fearful.
It’s bollocks.
They’re teachers.
Nowhere was this in the covenant.
#closeschoolsuk
'I understand that they aren't being very nice to you but you have to understand that they are angry about your behaviour. We can support you to change that'
Which is all really quite trite, especially as everyone who follows me is either a teacher or otherwise passionate about education.
I just had a pleasant memory and thought I’d share the story.
The looks on those boys’ faces throughout that day remain a professional highlight.
@GavinWilliamson
@branwenjeffreys
.
@GavinWilliamson
says schools have been creating "bubbles" of children.
"Currently that is 15, what we would be looking at doing is expanding those bubbles to include the whole class"
If the publication of League Tables doesn’t improve education, stop it.
If the Ofsted grading system doesn’t improve schools, stop it.
If testing doesn’t help teachers teach, stop it.
If competition doesn’t help social mobility, stop it.
If austerity hurts kids’ chances, stop it.
Interesting counterpoint to
@Andrew_Adonis
My Y10 son’s school has started live lessons - and we’re very grateful for all the teachers’ efforts - but he just announced matter-of-factory that his learning has slowed as a result. He made better progress with the work set before.
My mum has made it onto the honours list ‘for services to the community, particularly during Covid-19’ and I couldn’t be prouder.
@lmbdessex
organised all the volunteers that made the vaccination programme a local success story.
Give her some ❤️
Happy New Year, teacher friends and colleagues!
My secret’s out! I start a new adventure today, and I couldn’t be prouder and happier to be joining the
@SchoolsWeek
and
@FEWeek
team.
Looking forward to all your pitches. 😍
📢Announcement📢
I’m delighted to announce that
@dutaut
- JL Dutaut has been appointed as the new Commissioning Editor
@SchoolsWeek
&
@FEWeek
.
JL starts his role today and I’m sure you’ll all give him a warm welcome. He can be contacted on mailto:JL.Dutaut
@lsect
.com
Years of below-minimum service level funding
Years of below-minimum service level recruitment
Years of below-minimum service level support from ministers
I know. Let’s punish teachers for pointing that out. That’ll keep them in the classroom
Last year, school strikes resulted in 25 million school days being lost cumulatively.
Children should not have to suffer a repeat of this disruption.
I’m announcing that we will introduce minimum service levels in schools so that pupils get the education they need and deserve.
On Friday, I experienced awe in a way I never have before. You could live your whole life and never see a thing like this - and I saw an otter too!
#Scotland
35,645 full-time teachers have left this year.
How can we make our school environments more nurturing and sustainable?
My latest for
@tes
is on putting an end to our surveillance culture.
So the
#CovidInquiry
has shown government's education decisions were driven by politics, not safety.
@SchoolsWeek
's
#lockdowndiary
is a testament to what the system's real leaders were doing at the time. Take a look...
🧵1/18
You put pressure on attendance.➡️ Parents send their kids in sick.➡️ My kid gets sick.➡️ You send me a letter about attendance. 🤦🏻♂️
What about having a more supportive attendance policy to start with?
#wellbeing
I have no idea how these boys did in their GCSEs. I don’t think for a minute they were armed for it.
But they went in knowing the text the questions were about, at least.
GCSE aside, they are now young men who have ‘read’ Orwell and share that experience with everyone who has.
I was shocked. I was prepared for revolt - or best case a class of sleeping boys.
But no. They absolutely loved it. They were good as gold and listened and engaged. Their reactions were a joy.
And the thing that struck me about these boys was that the connection point for them was the ‘dad reading a bedtime story ’ thing.
For some, it wasn’t part of their lived experience at all. For others, it was a distant memory of an old habit abandoned in the name of maturity.
Nobody grows out of ‘story time’. I sometimes read to my wife when she’s stressed or can’t sleep.
Nobody lacks the capacity to discover and enjoy being read to at any age, or in any culture or sub-culture, or because they’re a boy, or because of any need or disability.
He made MPs queue for hours to vote.
He unlawfully prorogued parliament.
He’s opposed remote debates.
But he was happy to extend MPs’ xmas recess.
Now he’s closing a committee to scrutinise the Brexit deal.
He’s shown us who he is. When do we start believing him?
@adamboxer1
@DKShrewsbury
@maitlis
Bring back Paxman. He tended to be ‘extraordinarily aggressive,unnecessarily rude, biased & confrontational to point of intimidation’. But he had the decency to be a man, so you knew where you stood.
It was an awesome day. We all shared this ordinary classroom and I basically gave them a six-hour one-man performance of Animal Farm - with interludes.
They all left with smiles, handshakes, thank yous. I left pretty elated.
If there’s a comment at all it’s about my assumptions:
- That parents read to their kids
- That reading to kids is a primary-age thing
- That they grow out of it
- That we should stop doing it when they’re a certain size rather than when independent reading has replaced us
In 2010 I was a teacher in a highly deprived school in a selective area when the Tories got rid of CVA, putting us immediately into special measures.
As 2020 dawns I’ve finally picked up the pieces of my life after 5 years in Ofsted hell took everything from me.
#LostDecade
Proud
And angry
And exhausted
But mostly proud
To tell you that the Deputy HT in this story is the incredible Mrs Dutaut
Please leave me some nice messages to read to her the next time she has time to look up 🙏
If this can happen to the Head of Research at Ofsted, tell me again how I and my family have nothing to be concerned about...
Or other far less fortunate EU citizens grafting and paying their taxes here...
Have just found out my application for settled status in UK has been rejected. I now need to find evidence of residence since 2013. Not a good feeling.
How can you revise something you know nothing about?
So I did the only thing I could do: I read it to them, cover to cover.
Proper ‘dad reading his kids a bedtime story’ style. I did all the voices.
If you were judged ‘outstanding’ or ‘good’ overall at your last inspection, you can use a specific logo on your website, banners or signs. Download yours at: .
There’s a picture I’ve seen that I can’t show you.
It’s a classroom in France.
There are 8 children and one teacher.
Each is wearing a face visor.
Nothing has made me more reflective this week than that picture.
@chilternrailway
@KatiePennick
Just a thought, but responding to public scrutiny by trying to move the conversation to a private sphere is not a good look.
There’s no subtext here about this school failing in its duty. No comment on curriculum or pedagogy either.
I don’t even really know why I’m telling this story this morning other than that it came to my mind as I drank my coffee.
I don’t get it. People are paying £3 a head to send their kids into an indoor play area for 5 minutes. FIVE minutes. THREE quid.
And it’s in the middle of a huge park, RIGHT NEXT TO A HUGE, FREE OUTDOOR PLAY AREA!
What is happening?
BBC: “We cut the bit where Johnson was being laughed at to shorten the clip.”
Audience: “But you left the useless footage of him walking onto the stage?”
BBC: “...”
Audience: “That would’ve been a lot easier than what you did, right?”
BBC: “...”
@AaronBastani
@BBCNews
This clip, which was played in full on the 10 o’clock news last night, was shortened for timing reasons in today’s lunchtime bulletin. We’ve fully covered Boris Johnson’s appearance on the BBC QT special, and the reaction to it, across our outlets.
The death throes of toxic masculinity are increasingly hilarious.
I’ve carried all three of mine this way and never felt more full of pride.
Now I even get to embellish my memories with the notion I looked as awesome as Daniel Craig.
Am I the only one left who’s proud to pay taxes?
I don’t want them cut.
I want people to be able to feed themselves and their kids.
I want good schools and hospitals and a humane and accessible bureaucracy.
I want a safety net and I’m happy to pay for it.
Is anyone planning for the possibility that this *is* the new normal? That shcools might not reopen in any recognisable way for a considerable time? What then?
You just know some newly ex-Trump supporters are only distancing themselves because he has failed.
They'll be right in the mix again with the next one.
The man is not the mission.
Breathtaking double-standard by
@educationgovuk
.
How many Headteachers/teachers have been paraded for their endorsement of academisation, free schools, specific pedagogic approaches, or blogs resonant with government policy?
Does the gain from keeping schools open for the last week of term outweighs the cost to the education system of heads on duty at Christmas?
(I won’t accept ‘most of them won’t have to do anything’ as an answer. The feeling of being on duty *is* work.)
@jaketapper
Different traditions, Mr Tapper. The US does regulation through the courts. The UK does it through an independent agency. Neither is perfect, but the latter at least ensures nobody is left unable to afford redress.
I’ll be absolutely honest, I wish this headline was true.
I might even go on pretending it is.
But if this is what evidence-based education has amounted to, then fuck it. We can all go back to whatever dads we please.
Thread.
Met another teacher today, in another department, in another school, slowly breaking under the weight of workload.
I’m pretty sure there isn’t a single academic to be held responsible for it,
@NickGibbUK
. Just data, data, data.
#flipthesystem
I am asking former teachers to come forward to temporarily support school and college workforces in the New Year.
Please share and visit
@GetIntoTeaching
👉🏽
My message to ensure we protect education👇🏽
We stopped and talked about the characters, the plot and the writing from time to time, but how could I get them GCSE-ready in a day? No chance.
So we read, and we talked and we read some more.
No, Mr Carter. Absolutely not.
Parents have already paid for it in taxes. It is the government’s duty to provide it.
Sending schools out with a begging bowl is a shocking policy recommendation.
AND IT IS UNJUST! TEACHERS IN POORER CATCHMENTS WILL GET LESS CPD THAN THEIR PEERS.
I’m reading so many tweets with
“if there’s one upside”
or
“the silver lining”
or
“the good thing to come out of this”
No.
Just no.
Not now.
Not later.
Not after.
Christ on a bike. It hasn’t even started.
I have had all the evidence I need today to conclude that there’s an epic mental health crisis a-brewin’.
Feels like the social fabric itself is fraying.
“It happened so quietly that most people didn’t notice. The entire Ofsted schtick collapsed, and only smoke and mirrors can now continue to persuade anyone that the house of cards still stands.”
My latest on the
@tes
blog.
@Samfr
I don’t see what’s a bad idea about a legal presumption that home time is home time, or an onus on companies to hold themselves accountable to guidelines for what’s reasonable.
In fact, undefined “plus reasonable expectations” is the absolute worse thing on a teacher’s contract.
Love this doing the rounds from the the ever excellent, and now trending, Charlie Stayt. Well researched, brave questions and brimming with passion. How we all aspire to do it. Give it a share and a watch. 👏👍🏻
Is a school that's been 'good' for the past decade without ever attaining an 'outstanding' judgment 'stuck'?
Is a school that's been 'outstanding' for a decade but hasn't reached out to a struggling neighbour 'stuck'?
The first rule of education policy is:
You don’t mess with Early Years teachers.
The second rule of education policy is:
YOU DON’T MESS WITH EARLY YEARS TEACHERS.
💪🧡👇
'When it comes to the youngest children, Ofsted needs to choose its words with care. Early years teachers are preparing to be the backstop against a regime they see as increasingly formal, and they are not in the mood to make a deal' says
@teshelen
@ggreenwald
Hopefully enough people on Park Avenue realise they didn’t just get there by working their butts off, but by the luck of birth and privilege. People everywhere work their butts off or would given a chance
I went on strike as a 15yo.
Yes, we were quite chuffed to skip school.
We also forced the French govt to repeal a school finance law that would’ve seen more of public school money handed to private schools.
So we helped more kids stay in well-funded schools.
🤯