I got permission to share this, and I'm extremely grateful for that. The Onion got this letter from one of our subscribers in Alaska. She works with dementia patients and decided to leave a copy in the car for each one. This email made my year. Read it and you'll see what I mean. People are good.

Well this has certainly got people talking on here and on LinkedIn today!

Gates in an interview with the @financialtimes.com doesn’t hold back about Musk’s USAID cuts: “The picture of the world’s richest man killing the world’s poorest children is not a pretty one,” www.ft.com/content/bdd9...

‘In 2011, I was a junior official working on SEND reforms, including introducing EHCPs. Because these included a health element, we had to present the idea to Department of Health officials. They laughed at us, and that meeting is seared into my memory’ schoolsweek.co.uk/ditching-ehc...

ONS confirms our exclusive story that Ian Diamond has resigned as head of the national statistics body! It came after mounting pressures over the ONS's handling of a collapse in response rates to key household surveys. It had made its unemployment and employment figures useless

Anyone who is interested in understanding the judgment the Supreme Court will be delivering today in For Women Scotland v The Scottish Ministers will no doubt find @michaelpforan.bsky.social's excellent overview of the legal issues very useful. knowingius.org/p/sex-in-the...

I am reading the new book by the Facebook / Meta whistleblower - Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams. Interesting bit where she says that the big tech bosses all push their products on other people's kids but refuse to let their own kids use them.

This is how we were. You see kids today and there’s a reserve in them that’s new.

Adding to phone immediately

🚨NEW: There has been a big spike in schools using funding for disadvantaged pupils to plug budget holes. Our new research reveals that more cash-strapped schools are cutting back on staff, trips and equipment than in 2024⤵️ 🧵

Good advice for universities from Akua Reindorf KC www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/many...

The Observer editorial on @sullivan-review.bsky.social: "A report lays bare the extent of real-world detriment caused by institutions that have caved in to activist pressures" www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

A few bits here are just bonkers. Firstly the prison population issues are absolutely not because of increases in exclusion. Secondly it is weird to suggest that because there are links between the cohort excluded from school and those committing serious violence we should stop exclusions.

Bruce has been groomed and looks very handsome indeed

Fine tribute to John Prescott from Tony Blair institute.global/insights/new...

Cuts to the AMSP programme for Further Maths. 2 approved Maths schools on pause. Maths courses being shut at universities around the country. It’s not been a great few days for an AI powerhouse……

Exclusive: Academy trust which has generated income of more than £12m from phonics product starts “investigation into its tax status” www.educationuncovered.co.uk/news/173356/... Wandle Learning Trust reveals it should have been registered for VAT, in latest accounts.

This is huge: a Russell Group uni making such severe cuts shows the extent of the crisis in HE funding. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

‘I agree that phones have no place in the classroom. It is entirely right that schools take firm action to stop their use, and I know that is what the vast majority of schools already do’: Bridget Phillipson rejects Tory plans to legislate against mobile phones

This is why you don't design curricula around "jobs of the future". We can't predict the future but we do know what general skills and knowledge will be valuable whatever job you do.

This is Bruce. He’s just had his coat brushed and is looking very handsome

Well look at that! 38 years ago!

So much wonderful, tasty cheese at the Courtyard Dairy in Settle

‘Just think what we could achieve if pupils had a seamless curriculum that taught them knowledge and skills in a carefully planned sequence, right through from 3-19’ www.tes.com/magazine/lea...

I can never understand why children's books get left out of "great book" lists. The books we call "children's books" are really books written for an audience that includes children, but excludes no-one. They are books for EVERYONE - and if you exclude them, you miss the most important books of all!

Well done @branwenjeffreys and @BBCBreakfast for profiling the work of Dame Christine Gilbert showing how information about and evaluation of schools is not and should not be driven by Ofsted. #beyondofsted #gilbertreview www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Who on here remembers Twizzle, with his extendable arms and legs? How were small children of the 1960s not terrified by him?

Beautiful sky here in North London before the rain comes down

The pics from this first-ever private spacewalk are amazing. It’s an incredible experience but I would find it terrifying. Am I just a big wuss? news.sky.com/video/share-...

Very interesting

Mumsnet predictably furious about the new term-time holiday fines but this poster makes a good case

This is very good from Jon Coles schoolsweek.co.uk/ofsted-refor...

Name change is a powerful statement about the trust’s future, says CEO Becks Boomer-Clark www.tes.com/magazine/new...

I found this part of the review astonishing – ‘the role of Ofsted’s governing board was “curiously limited”, highlighting that the chief inspector (or HCMI) was not “wholly accountable” to the board and that it has no control over the watchdog’s budget’ www.tes.com/magazine/new...

Some good advice and I admire Jon’s perseverance

And with a bit of advice for Martyn Oliver: ‘Your job is to help improve the lives and outcomes for young people through inspection. That’s it. It won’t necessarily make you popular, or win you friends with government or indeed the sector, but it is what the job requires’ www.tes.com/magazine/new...

Experts are pointing to mental health struggles for girls, absence, misogyny and exclusions

Making jam the way my babcia used to — in a frying pan. I used to laugh at her but she was right