Unbreakable - Keiino Øve Os På Hinanden - Fyr & Flamme Higher Ground - Rasmussen - Take Me To Your Heaven - Charlotte Nilsson Euphoria - Loreen #FridayFive (and restraint not to have Keiino for all five 😍)

Join @jpembroke.bsky.social and me as we look under the hood of the IDSR in the latest Insight Inform podcast. www.insightinform.co.uk/podcast/ Please listen, comment and repost!

*DATABUSTERS LIVE* Join us in beautiful Derbyshire. Details below.

Looking forward to discussing the Ofsted toolkit and DfE performance measures, amongst other things, at Databusting Derbyshire on Friday 27th February. Join @jpembroke.bsky.social & me as we bring our latest Databusters Day to Ashover. More detail & tickets: www.insightinform.co.uk/event/databu...

*DATABUSTERS DERBYSHIRE* tickets now available for the first of our Databusters days. Join us in beautiful Ashover on the edge of the Peak for a whole day of data fun. Morning focused on accountability/IDSR; afternoon on assessment, tracking, reporting. www.insightinform.co.uk/event/databu...

#FridayFive is nostalgic. 1. Think for a Minute. Housemartins 2. Def Con One. Pop Will Eat Itself 3. I Wanna Be Adored. Stone Roses 4. Green Issac. Prefab Sprout 5. Spotlight for Sunshine. Gavin Clark

1. 1880 or So - Television 2. 1952 Vincent Black Lightning - Richard Thompson 3. 1963 - New Order 4. 1969 - The Stooges 5. 1901 - Phoenix #fridayfive

New for me for Insight Inform: The Data Wave Returns? The data wave has been receding. Are there signs that it may be about to return? www.insightinform.co.uk/2026/01/30/t... Please read, comment and repost!

It’s Thursday at BETT and we’re at Stand SL54 in the Wonde Marketplace once again! If you are here, come and talk all things school data over a Wonde Coffee ☕️ #BettUK2026 #DiscoverEdtech #WondeDiscover

It’s time for #WondeDiscover #DiscoverEdtech #BettUK2026 Looking forward to three days of madness with @insighthq.bsky.social - we’re on SL54, if you’re here, come and say hello!

The Databusters are getting the band back together and going on the road with a new one-day course: AM: external data: IDSR, ASP, performance measures PM: internal data: TA, tests, SEND, reporting to parents/govs @insighthq.bsky.social schools, get in touch if you’re interested

The first Ofsted reports under the new Framework are out (filtered for Primary Schools): reports.ofsted.gov.uk/search?level...

This is pretty urgent if you want a ticket …

For anyone who likes a a bit of electronic eclecticness, here’s my end of 2025 mix; a bit of acid techno followed by some house, DnB and left field down tempo beats. Enjoy! www.mixcloud.com/richardselfr...

Lunch with old school friends in Newcastle; perfect end to the festive season 😎 Crown Posada & the Broad Chare, the Quaysde and a bit of snow. Happy New Year, everybody!

Excellent suggestion from Laura for using LLMs to make life easier. Another good use: Tell a LLM which cook books you like, what your household’s food quirks are, then ask for a weekly menu plan. Then ask it for a shopping list. Game changer!

Here are almost 40 of my favourite #MiddleGrade reads for 2025. A fantastic range from wild fantasy, to gritty realism, historical adventures and more than a few scares. What a brilliant year its been for children’s books

The Governors’ Gateway has launched! We’re delight to share a new learning platform built for the realities of school governance. It’s the brainchild of @catherinepriggs.bsky.social and we know it will be so helpful for governors. /1

Policy Analysis: Why VAT on private school fees will raise more than planned, and why it matters barryblack.substack.com/p/policy-ana...

Data-informed #SATs prep strategies for 2026 | via @richardselfridge.bsky.social

Rachel Reeves' Budget sparks warnings about a drop in school funding, despite announcing cash for school libraries and books. Here’s how the sector has reacted…

Government plans to absorb the spiraling cost of SEND provision within central budgets will leave it facing a £6 billion annual shortfall, with no savings yet identified to meet it, the spending watchdog has warned https://schoolsweek.co.uk/government-faces-6bn-send-shortfall-once-override-ends/

And, school leaders, let this sink in: if the DfE funds this extra £6 billion for SEND provision out of the core schools budget, per-pupil spending will get hammered. The Schools White Paper was always going to be a big moment, but I think it just got a whole lot bigger.

Big news on SEND in today's Budget! Government pumping in more money to keep the system float.

NEW POST: Why designing the Year 8 diagnostic maths test might be harder than you think We explore the technical and design challenges of creating genuinely useful diagnostic tests, based on @nuffieldfoundation.org funded research. vist.ly/4ey4q

#Schools face AI attendance targets despite record fall in student absence. Attendance baseline improvement expectation (ABIE) to be issued this month. Frustration from @ascl-uk.bsky.social @naht.org.uk who say many factors leading to absence are beyond school control: buff.ly/m1fBe5D

Excellent question from @missmc.bsky.social at Norfolk School Leaders’ Association conference

Out and about with @InsightHQ.bsky.social today - at the Norfolk School Leaders’ Annual Conference, kicking off with @missmc.bsky.social ’s Key Note, ‘Education Trends 2025: What’s coming now and next?’

@richardselfridge.bsky.social and I will be organising some of our awesome Databusters events to look at IDSR, performance measures, and use of assessment data in schools. Watch this space for dates.

PS - the curriculum review report can now be viewed in full here: www.gov.uk/government/p...

So, first skim reading of the curriculum and assessment review and despite several mentions of the need not to increase volume... There are plenty of examples of adding new content and I can only find one of removing anything - and that's GPS where the caveat is increasing the stakes of the test

New IDSR is out Sample here: idsr.ofsted.gov.uk/exampleprimary Thoughts?

We had our first DISCO at Brentford two weeks ago. Next stop Wigan and Birmingham. New format, same awesomeness. A whole day of chunky data goodness. disco.org.uk

#FridayFive is pleasantly lost. 1. Mushaboom. Feist. 2. Hotel California. The Eagles. 3. Moonlit Mile. The Rolling Stones. 4. Time after Time. Cyndi Lauper. 5. America. Simon and Garfunkel.

Fed and watered and ready for a great day @insighthq.bsky.social at the Gtech stadium. Brilliant line up. What a way to finish the week! @daisychristo.bsky.social @richardselfridge.bsky.social @jpembroke.bsky.social @joshuaperry.bsky.social

I remember @richardselfridge.bsky.social once replying to a leader who wanted to know what they'd replace target grades with. He said "hope."

Edition 405, sneak peek: Scoop: Labour's white paper to introduce mandatory year 8 reading test Watchdog sides with school in fair banding row Long-read: Ofsted chief slams schools over 'tech tax' An inside look on how SEND reforms are shaping up

Ofsted has unveiled its new report cards with renamed grades and fewer inspection areas, saying inspections will now provide 'absolute clarity' for schools and parents - but the changes have not allayed unions' concerns schoolsweek.co.uk/fewer-judgem...

Worth noting: Ofsted publicly discredited our story that they were considering delaying the return of routine inspections - saying it was not on the cards Today they've announced they are ... delaying the return of routine inspections to at least December, potentially January)

🚨 Ofsted has unveiled its final plan for new report card inspections Explainer: the 8 big changes you need to know schoolsweek.co.uk/ofsted-repor... News and views: fewer evaluation areas, new grades - but unions threaten action schoolsweek.co.uk/fewer-judgem...

We have so much data and information washing through our schools, so why don’t we use it more effectively? Well, we’ve put together ten things which we hate about Student Data to help you cut through the noise and begin to focus on the key signals - M28 at 2pm. #rED25

@joejt.bsky.social at #REd25 talking about his own master’s research project into displays and classroom attention.

Extremely interesting talk from @daisychristo.bsky.social on the potential and limitations of AI use in education #rED25

Always interesting to see what speakers choose to speak about at #rED25 - the largest category is ‘teaching/teachers’, followed by AI, SEND, direct instruction and cognitive science. That said, these account for around a quarter of the 140 sessions over the day; there’s a lot to choose from!

Sam Martin talking about building an effective and balanced assessment model, kicking off by discussing the problem with progress… #rED25

@profcoe.bsky.social and Raj Chande at #REd25 There are a *small* number of teachers who we can currently say are statistically (with 95% confidence) better or worse than average for student results… but even the ‘best’ teachers have individual classes who have negative progress, and vice versa!

Looking forward to my session at #rED25 today - Ten Things We Hate About Student Data. I'll be looking at a range of frustrations, from the long shadow of Expected Progress measures to the distortions caused by Target Setting and Flightpaths and more. Join me at 2pm in M28 - see you there!

Happy #rED25 day everyone 🥳 I'll be in M28, session 2, talking about translating research for different #SEND contexts. Aiming to be useful for all phases and settings 👍 Also aiming to be awake. Walthamstow gave us its full Friday night aural experience. It's #rED25 day, yeah...?

Who's coming to this year's #researchED National Conference this weekend? Reckon I'd better start plugging my session... I'll be talking about how to go about translating all the 'mainstream' edu research to support pupils with SEND (including those in a specialist settings) 🔬 #rED25

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