SEND REFORM: IT'S NOT (JUST) ABOUT THE MONEY. "No amount of funding can “put things right” because a rotten system can never be “right”... [It's] a “uniquely bad system … which guarantees conflict” [and] is also ruinously expensive." BLOG POST johncosgrove55.wordpress.com/2025/11/02/s...

SEND CRISIS: IT'S NOT (JUST) ABOUT THE MONEY... Today, The Times points to concerns over the Abu Dhabi Sovereign Wealth Fund running special schools in the UK for profit. Another reminder that our SEND system is rotten and ruinously expensive. johncosgrove55.wordpress.com/2025/11/02/s...

SEND REFORM: IT'S NOT (JUST) ABOUT THE MONEY. "No amount of funding can “put things right” because a rotten system can never be “right”... [It's] a “uniquely bad system … which guarantees conflict” [and] is also ruinously expensive." BLOG POST johncosgrove55.wordpress.com/2025/11/02/s...

With Mrs C away (and swanned off with the car) I am heading to my hospital appointment by bus. It takes forever - but it's free for old folk like me, I am in no rush and the front seat at the top was available!

Another interesting article from Dr Pam. Well worth a read.

Well that’s an interesting possible campaign slogan ….

Reading the curriculum and assessment review. Very interesting, and will offer longer thoughts when through. But reflecting on lack of mention, at least at the start, for the copious concerning evidence we have on pupil wellbeing/engagement,+lack of a parent or pupil representation on review panel.

And on the proposals for mathematics...

I would love to welcome the new commitment to enrichment. Our schools, our curriculum, our children need enrichment BUT... ALWAYS WITH THE JUDGING! More and more new ways to fail create nothing but resentment, stress and low morale. They improve nothing.

I enjoyed this. Thank you @drpam.bsky.social

@johncosgrove.bsky.social manages to press many buttons in this very detailed and evidenced blog. Like John, I'm not sure that @bphillipsonmp.bsky.social has a strong grasp of the realities of inclusion. "Culture change" needs a mindset change; it's a principle, not just a word.

NEW BLOG POST: SEND Reform - It's not (just) about the money... There is no amount of funding which can “put things right” because a rotten system can never be “right”. johncosgrove55.wordpress.com/2025/11/02/s...

3 things Starmer could do instead of camps in old barracks that would actually WORK👇 1. Create safe, regulated routes to apply for asylum in the UK 2. Let asylum seekers WORK & support themselves 3. Fast track status for people from obviously unsafe countries metro.co.uk/2025/10/29/k...

An article by Amanda Spielman in The Spectator (editor M Gove) about a report authored by former DfE permanent secretary, Jonathan Slater, prompts the question: how did anyone with so little insight, understanding, humanityor even common sense ever get to be HMCI?

From Private Eye... It amused me.

150 New Zealanders have accessed my blog this week. Their interest is in this post from June about attendance. Do the references to Phillipson, Keegan, De Souza, Gove et al... resonate in NZ? Maybe I need to keep the global audience actively in mind. johncosgrove55.wordpress.com/2025/06/28/t...

The walk that never fails to deliver... the soothing sounds of wind and sea... the view that for me sums up the privilege of living in West Cornwall.

Loving Camilla's "gothic hedgehog" costume for the Pope's fancy dress ball but, frankly, Charles could have tried harder.

Wonderful Tremenheere Sculpture Park this morning (currently half price for locals) with the Mount rising in ethereal splendour from the silver waters of the Bay.

And another one, she probably thinks they're too left wing. It's believed another 4 are ready to jump ship.

Delighted to see @privateeyenews.bsky.social has published 2 items in a few weeks about how awful the TRA is (p50 current issue). Here's hoping they keep up the good work. Last year I wrote about why the TRA needs root and branch reform. johncosgrove55.wordpress.com/2024/08/18/t...

So much to say about the 90% phonics target. Most of it is about the ridiculousness of it. We have been 90% and 92% the last two years before that with a very SEND heavy year 1 we were 70%, before that we were 84%. Nothing to do with teaching and everything to do with cohort…

UK banks oppose tax rise. Falsely claim to be paying 46.4% tax rate. The PwC generated number includes PAYE, employee national insurance which is paid by workers. VAT which is borne by customers. it is extrapolated from a sample, can't be verified Why do media reports not expose this sham claim?

Christine Gilbert says Ofsted’s new complaints process is “far better” than it used to be. “You can talk to a body, a person.” That's been the case for years; it's not the point. Waiting more months for a possible independent complaints process is not good enough. schoolsweek.co.uk/ofsted-claim...

How do we feel about this? @oaknational.bsky.social receive £43m of public money and yet, wait for it, they are charging via MEI £135 per teacher for a course on how to use their materials: mei.org.uk/event/b935a0...

I don't do any retrieval practice activities during my lessons at any point. We converse, of course, and these conversations build on previous conversations. But the notion the we must be doing retrieval in lessons, even at any point, is a chosen assumption and not an empirical fact. #UKEd

Excellent thread again. Thank you @grahamchatterley.bsky.social

Yesterday's Algarve sunset. Have I mentioned that retirement has its compensations?

This is good. Thank you NAHT. A senior coroner demanded Ofsted, the DfE, and Reading Borough (by extension all LAs) must plan to prevent future deaths. I hope there is still time for the flawed and dangerous new Ofsted arrangements to be scrapped. schoolsweek.co.uk/union-tells-...

What is sooo disappointing here is that this crisis has not blown up overnight. Why wasn't there a plan ready to go the day after the election? Why the scrabbling about for a policy over a year later? www.politicshome.com/news/article...

I could empathise with this as a holistic philosophy; somethingthat I aimed for. Thanks for highlighting, John.

There are good, evidence based ways of improving attendance, attainment, achievement and aspiration: testing 13 year olds is not one of them, DfE please note. Ger Graus works with and advises Education Departments round the World - but not ours... 🤷 johncosgrove55.wordpress.com/2025/04/23/s...

Teenagers disengaging from education is a problem, so the DfE proposes tests of English for 13 year olds. 🤦 I am guessing no-one at the DfE has read Ger Graus' recent book: johncosgrove55.wordpress.com/2025/04/23/s...

Yes, you can and should argue that Reform’s new policy would lead to an economic crash that could resemble a full-on depression, not just recession. But you should also be able to straightforwardly say it’s *wrong*. Not that it should matter but: It’s not even bad politics to say that!

Yes, I miss the buzz of a school in September, with the year ahead laid out before us; the fresh faces, the optimism, the excitement, the sense of latent potential reaching for fulfilment... but mornings like today are a reminder that retirement is both a privilege and a blessing.

"Unacceptable” the government has still not defined inclusive education, and "does not appear to have a clear understanding" [of it]. Solving SEND: Education committee reveals its 48-point plan... But is Bridget listening? share.google/RpJ5qHL57VMe...

socialsync.app/fundraiser/c... Let’s do it! 🏊

After the awful, tragic events at Hillsborough in 1989 the families' sorrow and distress was made worse by their long fight for justice and truth. Now, the fact we need a new law because senior police officers and other public officials cannot be trusted to tell the truth shames us all.

My hospital (Lewisham) had a far more impressive message for us

Written by a doctor at St Thomas' Hospital, London after the Tommy Robinson march on 13/9.

"Ofsted has finally published its new inspection arrangements: two defiant fingers jabbed up at the World and waggled in the faces of those who had dared to hope for change." BLOG: Ofsted: Still Toxic After All These Years. johncosgrove55.wordpress.com/2025/09/12/o...

NEW BLOG: Ofsted - Still Toxic After All These Years "Ofsted has finally published its new inspection arrangements: two defiant fingers jabbed up at the World and waggled in the faces of those who had dared to hope for change." johncosgrove55.wordpress.com/2025/09/12/o...

NEW BLOG: Ofsted - Still Toxic After All These Years "Ofsted has finally published its new inspection arrangements: two defiant fingers jabbed up at the World and waggled in the faces of those who had dared to hope for change." johncosgrove55.wordpress.com/2025/09/12/o...

I thought I was growing up in a racially tolerant Britain. I now realise I was wrong | Rohan Sathyamoorthy www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I didn’t realise we were copying America in this way. He shouldn’t have been arrested in the first place but there was no reason to detain him - he ought to have been released immediately with a huge apology.

I see Bridget Phillipson today setting the tone for the new school year by talking tough on attendance. It's an approach that doesn't work and cannot work, as I explained in June... johncosgrove55.wordpress.com/2025/06/28/t...

Worth a repost...

What we're dealing with is the results of collapsing Sure Start, punishing local austerity, an exodus from mainstream schools with no adequate funding of specialist settings, a mental health crisis that ballooned on their watch , and more. Not 'overdiagnosis'. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

No, Jeremy, your government imposing ridiculous blanket targets on children, then corporatising their schools & premising their OFSTED rating on them meeting these caused much of the problem. Impoverishing their families & letting children become data points for Instagram, TikTok etc did the rest.

10 year old granddaughter Leila borrowed my camera and took this at the Eden Project yesterday. I have had the camera more than 10 years and can confidently assert I never took a photo of this quality.