Simon Smith
@smithsmm
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Principal, Learner, Teacher, mad about children's books, Views are my own. #PrimaryPicBookClub.Proud to be part of the @enquiretrust. Raring to go!
Marske-by-the-Sea, England
Joined April 2009
Just updated this post to include all my picturebook recommendation links. It has 3 lists for Year 3-6. A picturebook biography list and list of picturebooks bout loss. Hope it’s useful.
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My wife currently has COVID. I’m testing everyday before I go to work. From Monday I’ll have to pay £5.99 for each test so I don’t put my teaching, support staff or children and families at risk. Testing for school staff should continue to be freely available .
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So I can go out and spend £80 on a meal tonight with my wife and my 2 boys and we’ll get £40 off. Yet a family with two children who have lost their jobs that I’ve been delivering food parcels to only get £30 for a week. Something is properly messed up.
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If you’re swearing and doing rude hand gestures towards the public you should not be allowed within a mile of the @educationgovuk . Children need role models not adults who behave like petulant children.
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What I’ve learnt about schools this year is that by the end of today everything will be sorted, routines and systems will be in place and they’ll be cracking on with the job. Schools, headteachers, school staff. You continue to be amazing. You’ve let nobody down.
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We didn’t. Staffroom was closed. Staff were isolated in their bubbles with their class, they had dinner in their classroom with their class. We also have no alcohol in our workplace. I thought I was over #Partygate seems I’m even more angry about it now. Thanks @Mike_Fabricant.
"I don't think at any time he thought he was breaking the law. he thought just like many teachers and nurses who after a very long shift would go back to the staff room and have a quiet drink". Tory MP Michael Fabricant urges Boris Johnson to apologise.
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Tax cuts for the rich paid for by your children’s education. That’s quite a look the Tories are going for.
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Don’t forget children don’t see the world as we we do and neither should we expect them to. This Maurice Sendak quote sums it up perfectly.
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My teachers are better teachers because they have a life outside of school. Give the job your all, then walk out the door and make sure you give life your all too. It is just a job, one of the most important jobs perhaps but it is just a job.
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A boy was really struggling with school trousers due to sensory issues, it was leading to him getting upset coming to school. Chatted with parent and he now comes in jogging bottoms. His attendance has improved, he is happier and learning better. No fuss.
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Over 30000 dead, 649 new deaths over 5000 confirmed new cases yesterday and these are the headlines. Literally you could not make this up.
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The best thing to happen during this year is that children wear PE kits to school on PE day. It’s an utter revelation.
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When I was a class-teacher my son was rushed into hospital. It was touch and go. My headteacher’s response was “Why aren’t you coming into school his mum is with him?” . This defined how I treat staff at my school. essentially I do the opposite.
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Worked everyday, including being open for the school holidays for keyworkers. Isolated myself from family, saw my wife in the garden. Our staff went over and above to support families. Followed every bit of their ever-changing guidance.
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1400 Sure Start Centres closed #JustSaying.
Family means everything to me. That's why I'm really pleased that we've now delivered on our commitment of 75 Family Hubs in England. It was wonderful to visit Kingsway Family Hub in Halton and see the incredible support families like mum Chloe and Douglas are benefitting from.
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Having seen how ill my wife was with COVID and looking at daily figures of over 1000 deaths a day I genuinely am struggling to see why some people are so desperate to get their children in school. It’s vital that parents keep children at home if they can.
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Just read of the sad loss of Sir Tim Brighouse. This list has been on the wall of my class then Office for ever and was and is the most important list I’ve ever had. It’s constantly reminded me that teaching is more than what happens in lessons and that it’s about being human.
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In primary we let children take off jumpers when they are hot. They are old enough and sensible enough to self regulate (we lose the odd jumper) . Why do some secondary schools insist on pupils keeping blazers on. Surely the young people are old enough to know if they’re too hot.
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A quick message to ever teacher, member of SLT and headteacher. This term is going to be long and challenging with very little respite. Look after each other. It will also be utterly brilliant to get all the children back in school and to do the job we’re all here for.
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I was once observed by an Ofsted inspector back in the days when they gave feedback. They said it was the best RE lesson they’d seen and totally thought outside the box. I didn’t dare correct them and tell them that I’d been teaching Art.
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Extended school days and shorter holidays for “catch-up” has very little to do with education and quite a lot to do with childcare #Justsaying.
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So far children have missed 11 days school. I know it feels longer but that is all.
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Teachers are you ready for the wave of bile and hate coming your way. They are already laying the groundwork. It’s started. Led by government, pushed and fuelled by the press, and spread mercilessly across social media. You will be described as greedy and lazy….
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My teachers online lessons aren’t whizzy or showy, they are just them teaching and explaining and then the children have a go. What makes them special and what’s making it work is THEM and the connections they have with their pupils. In primary this is an important element.
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I find it odd that the people shouting in the press about children’s mental health are the same ones calling for an extended school day and less holidays. It’s almost as if their motivation wasn’t the well-being of children at all,.
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So just got a load of abuse for wearing a mask in the supermarket. I wear the mask because I come into contact with loads of kids everyday. I’m therefore more likely to be a risk to others. I wear the mask because I don’t want to risk others being ill. My choice.
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I’m in education, I think education is important. However, in the grand scheme of things at the moment it really isn’t. Yes, gaps will grow. Yes, some will do the work and some won’t. Key bit is making sure children and families are safe and supporting them to keep going.
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I love my job, however at points I’ve let it take over my life, sadly if you’re not careful it can do that. I let myself get carried away with the “importance.”. It is however just a job, an important job but still just a job. Go to work, do your best job then go home and live.
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How bloody dare Boris Johnson lecture teachers on the “moral” imperative of our job. If the government actually did their job, got track and trace running, was honest with the science and financially supported schools in making themselves safe then it wouldn’t be an issue. .
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I don’t look at teachers planning, I haven’t looked at teachers planning in years. We don’t have a format. I have medium and long term plans. If I want to know what’s going on I’ll talk to the teacher and have a proper conversation about the work. Planning is for the teacher.
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No. you encouraged people back to work, you got them to “Eat out to Help out,” you constantly changed the rules so people didn’t know what they had to do, you failed to create an effective test and trace system. Blame sits squarely with you Mr Johnson.
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People pushing for schools to fully open on a day when there are over 100000 people confirmed dead. have a word with yourself.
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A little thread about @springsteen after seeing possibly the best live performance I have ever seen. Firstly let me start by saying I’m not a lifelong diehard fan. Bruce was always too uncool for my hip indie boy tastes in the 80’s, already a stadium dinosaur 1/9…
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What I’ve seen this week is thousands of “Outstanding” schools with “Ouutstanding” leaders, teachers and support staff doing an “Outstanding” job for their pupils and communities, making the impossible. possible. Sadly most of their Ofsted grades won’t reflect that though.
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This is still sat on my Office noticeboard l, in primary the best teachers are massively interested in the children they teach. This list from Tim Brighouse still works for me.
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Seen a few headteachers calling on teachers not to strike. I genuinely don’t think that’s a fair thing to do. Sitting at the top with the most money telling others with very different circumstances and challenges what to do isn’t a good look IMO.
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If you’re a headteacher telling all staff to be in next week, just STOP! . Get the staff in you need to do the job, the rest should work from home. #StayHomeSaveLives.
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I respectfully suggest SATs are shoved where the sun don’t shine and We a la primaries start working with secondary schools to see how we can get these Year 6 pupils ready for the next stage in their learning.
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Of the staff who have had COVID in our school this term not one has tested negative on an LFT before day 10. 5 days really seems to be a vague hope rather than a reality.
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I don’t want silent corridors in our school. Calm, orderly, well-mannered. yes please. I want children that know how to behave and do it without being watched and monitored. The true test of a behaviour is what children do when you’re not watching not what they do when you are.
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Retweet if you agree. No school should be out of pocket for keeping school safe or keeping children in school when staff are isolating. All extra COVID costs for supply etc should be covered by @educationgovuk.
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When I caught the virus I caught it by going to work in school, I haven’t been in other houses, I haven’t mixed with other people, I followed all the rules. Angry at this blame narrative being spun that people who get the virus aren’t following the rules.
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I caught the virus in school, my wife is currently really ill with the virus due to me catching it in school and then passing it on. Schools are major transmission centres fo the virus. Fox is an utter womble.
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Dear DfE. Don’t get retired teachers to come in and essentially babysit children. Instead actually do something to support schools in mitigating the risks so that we reduce risk and teacher absence in school. My staff aren’t just replaceable.
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Parents aren’t “carping” when they want to get tests. They’re doing it for two reasons. Firstly if it’s negative, to get their child back into school. Secondly if it’s positive, to help keep others in the school community safe. Wanting a test isn’t “carping” it’s vital.
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Some parents haven’t bought their children back to school because they don’t believe it’s safe. Apparently that’s schools fault. Oddly every parent I’ve spoken to has confidence in what we’ve done, they just don’t trust the government when they say it is safe.
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Expecting children to be in school when they feel unwell is utterly irresponsible. It means a lot more children will be ill, it risks staff being ill. Utterly wrong.
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Don’t criticise the DfE for u-turning on London primary Schools, just be grateful they’ve seen sense and acted.
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Schools have been abandoned by the Government. More children isolating than at any point apart from Lockdown. School leaders daily on a knife-edge. Huge workload just dealing with it. Schools limping towards a finish line. Yet, just silence from the DfE.
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Been asked for my thoughts about the current crisis quite a lot recently. I have my standards.
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Is it me or has this week been longer than the whole of the last half term?.
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Do you know what Gavin. we’ll decide what works in our school for our children at various stages of their development and based on the need of the pupils and the design of the lesson. and you concentrate on getting some guidance sorted to get the children back in school.
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Thank God I’m Primary. Feel for every single secondary/sixth-form colleague and every single secondary/ sixth-form pupil. What an absolute horror show from the DfE.
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So still one of the biggest impacts on phonics attainment is the month a child is born. It’s almost as if most are able to learn them when the are developmentally ready
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What Sunak and Truss confirm for me is that education should be taken out of the whims of politicians who kick it about for support or votes. We need a Department for Education that has vision and strategic planning for the future rather than one that sways with the wind.
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I’m a headteacher who is desperate to get the children back into school but only when it is SAFE to do so for my whole community. Every head I know wants the children back in school but not at the expense of lives. #StayHomeSavesLives.
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If you’re the kind of idiot who throws abuse at three young men who were brave enough to step up on the biggest stage, don’t dare claim to be an England Supporter because you’re not.
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So our Year 6 were supposed to go to @kingswoodcamps this Sunday. After appalling communication from them they have told us they won’t be refunding the £1296 deposit we made. As a school we will refund our parents, but I’ll guarantee we’ll never go there again.
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So in the past three days we’ve had Spielman, Wilshaw and Adonis denigrating the work schools have done. Frankly their viewpoint stands at odds with the profession I’ve seen. I’ve seen people at all levels step up and overcome numerous challenges. .
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To those headteachers that have thrown teachers that are striking under the bus. You do realise those teachers will walk back into the school on Thursday don’t you?.
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So @GavinWilliamson is saying behaviour and discipline have gone up the Swanny due to Covid. He must be walking into different schools to the ones I know of. Everyone I know has been amazed by how brilliantly children have returned and how focussed they’ve been.
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“It’s not fair why is my child in group A they should be in group B with their friend” . “They’re in group A because they need to access the keyworker provision, all keyworker children are in group A to minimise risk”. “You’ve ruined school for my child”. and repeat.
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Think the biggest challenge in September will be 30 kids in one class with one teacher all the time with very little respite. (no assemblies, no playtimes with other children etc). It’s going to be quite intense.
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The children that walk through your school door they’re your children. They are your community. You are responsible for them and to them. They’re not inconvenient bits of data they’re children and they’re what makes your school what it is.
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If Tory MPs were so “bothered” about children they wouldn’t have decimated services such as CAMHs, smashed apart Sure Start, voted to not fund FSM during the pandemic, ignored expert advice on building back effectively after the pandemic. Doesn’t seem they are that “bothered”.
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According to the Times only 3% of primary schools had a Coronavirus outbreak in the Autumn term. The nine cases in my school weren’t classed as outbreak. Amazing how you can manipulate figures to suit your argument.
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Someone tell me why this couldn’t have been announced a week ago, two days ago even. Instead to open primaries for a day then close them. What an utter shambles.
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Read books, read lots, read to the children. Just read. That is our reading recovery plan. reading is threaded through our curriculum. We’ll just read.
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Mate, we didn’t even sit in the staffroom and have a cup of coffee together. Please don’t try to justify actions they should not have taken. We worked equally long hours weekends and the holidays, track and tracing cases right upto Xmas Eve. We DIDN’Thave a soirée or a party.
“These were people who were working together day in day out, most days 19 hour-days…”. Education Secretary @nadhimzahawi argues a gathering of his department’s staff is being unfairly portrayed, saying it wasn’t “a big bash”. #Peston
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We’re not secondaries, people need to stop trying to make primaries like mini-secondaries. We need to embrace what’s great about primary education and shout about it. Our job isn’t just to prepare children for the next step it’s way more important than that.
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Gavin Williamson blaming Ofqual for the exam debacle is like a headteacher blaming staff when they have a bad Ofsted. Pretty poor leadership IMO.
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We’ve found that children coming back into school have just wanted to get on with it. They have just been desperate to just get back to routines and learning. It’s amazing how quickly they’ve settled back into patterns.
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Every teacher I know would prefer to be in school with their class rather than remote learning. Partly because it’s less work and we’re all lazy after all.
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Genuinely I’d be happy to pay a bit more tax for better public services such as the NHS, police and education. Is it just me?.
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My top tips for being a human headteacher. Treating people with a bit of compassion is almost always paid back, but actually it really doesn’t matter if it isn’t.
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Out Ofsted report went out to parents today. Really proud of the work of the whole team. It really reflects their commitment to school and their hard work. I was amazed by this though and a bit humbled.
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Please stop catastrophising about children and their learning. The Gap for most isn’t as big as some would have you believe. Children are working really hard. I personally am astounded by how our children have come back to school and how much learning they did during lockdown.
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The idea of narrowing the curriculum to core subjects so children can catch up. Ignores the fact that the real gap is the rest of the curriculum. The difference is often the broader, wider knowledge and experience, narrowing will exacerbate that not make it better. #JustSayin.
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I’ve seen new headteachers come into schools and decimate them with the rhethoric of “lazy” teachers. This is almost always directed at older, more expensive staff. To see this damaging nonsense spouted on twitter yesterday made my blood boil. .
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We’re not secondaries , people need to stop trying to make primaries like mini-secondaries. We need to embrace what’s great about primary education and shout about it. Our job isn’t just to prepare children for the next step it’s way more important than that.
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If you want children to use words well, read brilliant books with them, talk about about words in context, discuss why authors have used the words they have. Making time to talk about books and words is key.
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Having just been out for a drive, I have to say I’m genuinely worried. Drove through Saltburn and it’s heaving, nobody taking a blind bit of notice of “social distancing”. Also really angry that I’m being asked to put our staff at risk because people aren’t bothered.
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We’re not opening next week, we begin reopening on the 8th. Total respect to those schools that are opening next week, equally respect to those that aren’t. The picture is different for every school. Size, staff capacity, catchment. We need to support each other not criticise.
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Literally you’ve done nothing. Heads, SLTs, teachers in fact all staff are keeping schools open. You haven’t even funded the increasing cost being incurred in keeping schools open and staffed. Agree they should be open but don’t even try to take credit for it.
Research shows that closing schools would have a negative impact on children and young people’s mental health and development. We are prioritising their education and wellbeing by keeping schools open.
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Schools have been completely hung out to dry by the government. COVID cases are rampant. Bubbles are closing everywhere, positive tests ahoy and utterly no measures. Today has been a day fighting fires with a water pistol.
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There will be bright kids marked down because of where they go to school. There will equally be some kids who got higher grades because of where they went to school. That is an utter travesty.
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Given the #keyworkers list it looks like my school attendance will be better than a normal week.
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The relief has swept over me. no children who had been in school with symptoms, no children who had been in school going for a test. I will now stand down and only tweet books and nonsense for a couple of weeks.
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Blown away today by our Year 5 children creating a textured globe to help a completely blind boy in their class understand the world. What amazing children. #ProudHeadteacher
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Children not reading is not about funny books or serious books it’s about finding the right book. Different children love different stuff. What we’ve lost is knowledgeable people helping children find the right book. Knowing them as readers and knowing the books.
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Social-distancing really isn’t all that. not if you work in primary schools according to the DfE. The guidance puts staff at huge risk. Feel like school staff are being thrown under the bus.
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So no SATs next week. I have to say from what I’ve seen Year6 are getting a brilliant educational deal this year. Personally think they’ll be a lot more secondary ready as well. SATs aren’t about children, but we knew that already didn’t we.
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Ofsted coming into a school in the last week of the year is just utterly stupid, doing it in a heatwave that has red warnings is just farcical. Somebody in the organisation needs to get their act together and show some actual leadership.
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Listening to children who didn’t bother to finish A-levels because they got unconditional offers makes me massively sad. Learning only seen as a way to get you somewhere rather than learning for learnings sake. There is intrinsic value in just learning.
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Teachers shouldn’t need mental health training. We’re not qualified and schools don’t have capacity to do this. What is needed is properly funded systems that can fully support young people. Mental health training for teachers is a sticking plaster on a gaping wound.
A new @NEUnion survey shows more than a third of teachers have no mental health training. @MaryBoustedNEU said staff were ‘crying out for help’, but ‘austerity and cuts to specialist support services has left the system buckling under the strain’.
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To anybody talking about “losing” Christmas. I’ll point you Dr Suess.
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