@janemanzone.bsky.social May I trouble you for some advice? My summerborn child is chronologically due to go into Y1 in Sept, but hasn't done Reception (we're moving from NI where she was a preschooler). To what extent would you recommend out-of-year admission so she doesn't skip Reception?

GCSE past paper practice on @drfrostmaths.bsky.social over the past 2 months. Spot the spike yesterday before the exam! Hope it went well for everyone today.

Quite the name for an estate agent.

My 2-year-old’s first go on a pedal bike. 50% proud parent, 50% relieved my decade-old blogpost was vindicated within the household redorgreenpen.wordpress.com/2015/07/11/b...

In case you need some more headlines to depress you. Only 4 in 10 parents read to their under-5s frequently 🤯

"Children learn most effectively when instruction follows an evidence‑based cycle: grounding facts in conceptual understanding, using brief timed practice to make those facts automatic, then returning to discussion and reflection to deepen that knowledge." journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10....

I hear many concerns from police and NHS workforces, but the stress of inspections and their report cards doesn’t really feature. Have I just missed it? Is it because a school is a much smaller unit than an entire police force or NHS trust? I ask this with genuine curiosity rather than an agenda

Couple more days to apply for this headship at a great trust

Just discovered there is a Mo Mowlem playground in Belfast. Forget Nobel peace prizes, surely there is no better signal of universal high regard than having a playground named after you.

Shoutout to @mrjlauder.bsky.social who is consistently posting really thought-provoking education stuff here. Loads of great thinking coming from the Dixons MAT.

Anyone who has not visited her blog should definitly do so. A gloriors writer as well, funny, with a twist and full of good advice for colleagues. The #Edu community stands to lose in many ways, not just a lovely person… Last post just a day before the accident.

Some fascinating interactive graphs here. What can we learn from the top right schools here (Swanlea School, Ark St Albans, Ark Globe, George Dixon Academy) that have well above average sustained education and employment outcomes in very high Pupil Premium contexts? www.schooldash.com/blog-2306.html

Be thankful you’re not the Northern Ireland Education Authority comms team today, who accidentally sent emails about everyone’s primary school places a week early. 1.1k comments on their Facebook post 😬

We've been sceptical about AI marking. Not any more! When the facts change, we change our minds. We think this is really big. substack.nomoremarking.com/p/so-can-ai-...

This is so good, particularly on the need to slow down *so that* you can speed up later. A possible lethal mutation of ‘mastery’ (especially in secondary if you forget they’ve already had 7 years of formal education when they get to you) is never getting to the speeding up bit.

🟡 🔵 This Friday is Pi Day! @DrFrostLearning.bsky.social🟣🟢 A selection of news, history and other facts about Pi you can share with your students. How many digits of Pi do you know? Can you approximate Pi accurately? Find it here: buff.ly/yfzp1zX

✅ relates to an actual book ✅ easy and cheap for parents ✅ children engage with a great story This is how to do world book day!

Well reasoned article here with research rather than platitudes behind it. Surely pen and paper will be making a comeback - at least it should if it’s *learning* that we really care about.

Excellent column by @sarahoconnorft.ft.com on generative AI and universities:

Just in case anyone else is looking for recommendations for books to read to young children.

The famous International Ecstasy Units

Links to all the picturebook list blogs i have done… aiming to add a few more and update soon. #PicturebookPage smithsmm.wordpress.com/2020/08/23/y...

Serendipitously (or algorithmically?) discovered @smithsmm.bsky.social ‘s #picturebookpage hashtag shortly after this post - full of gems. 🙏

Relatedly, I’m finding it surprisingly hard to find good kids books. Amazon top 100 goes “Julia Donaldson, Julia, Julia, book about poo, Julia, poo, celebrity book about poo, Julia”. I love Julia Donaldson but c’mon…

Obsessed with my 4-year-old’s burgeoning mathematical understanding (combining my favourite things: learning maths, and my own progeny). Today, “I’m just checking if there will still be 7 tomatoes when I muddle them up”

Over on LinkedIn, @brunoreddy.bsky.social is sharing some interesting posts on reasoning in maths. Worth a look! www.linkedin.com/posts/brunor...

Help me convince John we need this in our house.

50%. They're either following you or they're not.

My strategy for getting 💯 on this was genuinely choosing each option that sounded like it led to higher workload for school staff.

The exceptional Jane Herron is stepping down from her role as Bedford Free School Principal at the end of this academic year. She will be a very hard act to follow. We are looking for someone to do so. mynewterm.com/jobs/138228/... Conversations & visits very welcome. Please repost.

Just remortgaged the house to pay for Rainbows uniform.

If you have a resolution to do more good in 2025, why not apply to be our Chair at @drfrostlearning.bsky.social ? We care deeply about the potential of maths to change lives. Millions of teachers and students have used our resources and platform. I’d greatly appreciate if you could share!

If you have a resolution to do more good in 2025, why not apply to be our Chair at @drfrostlearning.bsky.social ? We care deeply about the potential of maths to change lives. Millions of teachers and students have used our resources and platform. I’d greatly appreciate if you could share!

I thought wasps or snow were the biggest thing to mess up a lesson. Today someone walked down the road (right outside my window) dressed in an inflatable orange dinosaur costume. Then a bit later they walked back again...

So so SO good to see Daisy at ResearchEd Belfast and great to be a big room of people having these conversations in NI #rEdBelfast

Let’s be honest. Blazer sleeve.

I just took a survey that would have benefited from the modified 2-D Likert scale I just invented

Starting my ResearchEd presentation while travelling today a see me in Carrickfergus on Saturday ☺️

This is a good challenge to optimistic notions of AI and 'personalised learning' from Bill Gates via @ddmeyer. It is pragmatic and matters to future plans for tech use (teachers know the optimism crashes into the reality of the classroom): open.substack.com/pub/danmeyer...

What a ridiculous argument. This isn’t how the winter fuel payment works. Losing a payment into your bank account doesn’t magically give the electric company that amount. I too am sad the government doesn’t give me unlimited funds to give to church and charity.

Been desperately foraging for some autumnal 'loose parts' as asked for in passing on page 3 of the September pre-school newsletter, only for the teacher to display utter confusion when we brought in a bit of hedge.

The algorithm on TikTok has started showing me teachers recording themselves in class. The amount of shouting out and interrupting they are willing to showcase happening to them, presumably as something to look up to, honestly gives me an eye twitch.

What proportion of homeschoolers do you think had always planned to, versus those who de-registered reluctantly after their child started school? My assumptions were completely the wrong way round.

An interesting follow up to our discussion @jameshandscombe.bsky.social

Completely laughable! It’s reverse engineered so Oxbridge then Russell group are near the top; then add in whatever whims capture the editors’ interests at the time. When I was applying (👵🏻 alert), they heavily weighted computer rooms per student which led to some massive boosts for random unis.

First lesson year 7 today. Trying to get a handle on a bit of chronology. So guys… when do you think I was born? Had absolute full range from 1000 to 2000. So erm what you’re saying is that I look anywhere from 1,024 years old down to 24? I’d even told them I’d been teaching for 22 years! 😂

The purpose of a system is what it does. Corporate training exists so that when an employee inevitably screws up, HR can show they were, in fact, told not to make the unforgivably egregious error that their lawyer latterly claims they “never knew about”.

I’m in the early stages of really understanding ‘agile’ as used properly in tech (thanks to some v smart colleagues at Dr Frost). It’s clear there’s a lot that can translate to schools if done really carefully and non-faddily. I’m pleased Dixons are thinking about this and sharing so generously.

An initial skim through Ofsted's Big Listen response left me with v mixed feelings. Great that they're listening and trying to respond to concerns but I question how far the levers identified will make the desired difference, and even how far that's in Ofsted's control. www.gov.uk/government/c...

I’m struggling to understand the approach to safeguarding. Impossible to ignore, given the tragedy of Ruth Perry’s suicide. I don’t envy the stress of keeping the SCR perfect. Equally, offering reinspection seems a bit of a cop out. Either it matters enough first time or it doesn’t, surely?