You can thank me for that

Right, well I've got some paint I can watch dry for the next hour, so I'll leave you all to it.

The question shouldn't be 'How effective are your strategies for PP, Send and inclusion'. The question should be 'How effectively do you raise the quality of inclusion provision for all children, including send and pp'. In my opinion.

I remember from previous Labour government the incessant amount of forms and data collection they did. Already we do a PP strategy, SEND, now Inclusion. Tell you what, why don't we put them together into one and call it, oh I don't know, a School Improvement Strategy?

Happy Saturday, you wonderful people...get that sun cream on, Blondies.

10pm, really? That's way past my bedtime.

It’s getting worse. The short sentences. The tone wistful, as if looking thoughtfully into the middle distance, offering a unique and profound insight. Yes, it’s the AI post. But that’s not what gets me. It’s the fact. That people think we can’t see it. Fucking stop. It’s embarrassing.

At the @wholeeducation.bsky.social conference today, always find it very useful. Might even watch @moderncassie.bsky.social and @davidbartram.bsky.social later, but they better be good.

Look, I said to Rudi last night, You stay up if you want to, but I'm not staying up. It'll be a boring game, I've seen this all before. England will lose, nothing of interest will happen and it'll be a waste of time. Trust me, I know these things.

Looking forward to Monday morning in England. Obviously, English football fans take any defeat with humour, respect for the opposition and good grace, so I can't imagine drinking heavily from 6pm the previous evening changing that. No, I'm sure Monday will be just fine.

I see Tuchel is asking for a day off after the England game. Obviously he hasn't read the dfe memo that a day off is akin to child abuse and does he not realise this will mean a lifetime of squalor and licking vomit from the floor as a living. Think of the children Thomas.

Slick as usual. I love being told to do by people who couldn't run a piss up in a brewery... www.tes.com/magazine/new...

Just got in from work and turned the football on. Honestly, I leave them alone for 5 minutes...

I've just added this to my SEF: There are no trends for SEND data across the school, as the range and complexities of needs is so varied that the data in yearly or school context is almost meaningless. I feel strongly about this. Drawing conclusions from SEND data is deeply flawed.

Blimey it's warm...stay cool Friday, groovy fuckers.

I love the distribution of scores (2022-2025)

They've changed the phonics threshold to 31!!! Mother of God, I never thought I'd see the day. Spread it far and wide! The world is collapsing; first Keir and now this!! I can't cope...

I need to stop looking at the weather forecast, I know what it's going to say: it's going to be fucking boiling all week, getting more boiling on Thursday.

Some of Alex's father's day card, bless him...

Is that Luca Modric? Christ, he's older than me. Is he still playing? Who's playing for Brazil? Pele?

One way to help, if not completely fix, the mess that schools are in would be to remove the subgroup ‘Send’ from IDSR and national data. Schools would then only put the children on the send register who had genuine send needs.. Children’s progress would be assessed individually.

I've come for a pint. Happy Saturday, you bundles of delight, you...

We have to do new safeguarding pictures for the school. When I got mine, I asked them (jokingly) to improve it for me. This is what they sent.

Read this from Rachel about SEND and some of the issues around data and identification.

This means SEND data can be misleading, in that very often you are comparing apples with pears. Also, some schools game the system and inaccurately categorise some children with SEND if they know their attainment will be strong. All this leads to inaccurate judgements.

One of the biggest issues when comparing the quality of provision in schools is that there is no accepted definition of what defines a child with ‘SEND’. So SEND in one school can look very, very different to that in another. Yet nationally they are lumped together in 1 group.

John was my primary school teacher and first got me into rugby and when I was 16 I went to play for him again. Most of the good things I remember about primary school have him at the centre. Really sad. www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-...

I know I sound like a broken record, but I share this with teachers at the start of every term. Some of our kids have such chaotic lives, a week can feel like a lifetime away to them, so these things need to be returned to.. philsalisbury.wordpress.com/2026/02/22/w...

So now me and my mum are looking through these photos of long lost family members. Jew, she says. Gypsy, she points at another. That's why you're so dark, she looks accusingly at me. I just laugh. Scally, she points at another. That'll be your side, I say. This is brilliant.

At my granddad's funeral, a number of Jewish people turned up we'd never met. Turns out my grandad was Jewish and we got to know a whole branch of the family. Then a load of travellers turned up. We were just shaking our heads and laughing, we'd never met any of them.

Sorting through my mum's stuff and found loads of old photos. Suddenly her memory is razor sharp. She identifies long lost boyfriends from holidays to Rhyl (she knew them for less than a week), remembering stories, flavours of ice cream, songs they sang.

That's exactly it. The power of not having to think.

You'll like this @tg42birder.bsky.social

Not a soul. People think walking gives you time to think, but I value the opposite. I don't have to think, I just look at the things around me. Interestingly, some issues start to solve themselves. Something to do with freeing your subconscious, I'm guessing...

It's all a bit too much for some of us. Cheers, marvelous people..

I come across an increasing amount of people who are convincing me that Darwin's theory of 'survival of the fittest' cannot possibly be true.

Well, there we are.. Happy half term Friday, you beautiful, bouncing people.

Sat here quietly minding my own business when there it was, beautiful and elegant and looking just a little bit tired: the first Swift of the summer. Marvellous.

Rachel knows…

There is a glaring contradiction at the heart of the white paper that needs discussing: how do you reconcile a push for inclusive schools with an Ofsted framework that rewards attainment at all costs?

The schools that are most effective in providing inclusive provision will be grounded in excellent classroom practices. Slogans, pithy sayings and meaningless vision statements will not provide the education these children need. Schools have to start inclusion with the child.

I don't know what's come over me, but I got up early today, watched the NZ Warriors with Ruud and then went for a walk. I might actually be getting better...

Well that was another week. Time for some Greek shenanigans...

If Ofsted are looking for a true understanding of a school, and want to allow leaders to present the school as honestly as possible, why on earth would you inspect in sats week (or indeed the last week of any term). Madness.

That KS2 SATs learning portal, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Ah, they kill me. Another example of slick professionalism from the department of education.

Well, that was a fucking week. Happy Friday you beautiful people.

I do love an abbey I've never been to before. So quiet and magical here, I could almost hear the monks chanting...

Talking to more and more Heads that are struggling to cope with the demands of the job. I'm convinced we need to redesign our roles, acutely assess how we spend our time, re-evaluate priorities and change. We can't work the way we did 5 or 10 years ago, the game has changed.

If you play golf, and you can be arsed, can you try this app. A friend of mine wants feedback on it before they launch it globally... compete-golf.com

You are warmly invited to the second @uniwinchester.bsky.social Death, Religion and Culture MA Online Dissertation Symposium which takes place on Tuesday 28th April from 18:00 BST. This event is open to everyone so please feel free to share details widely: www.winchester.ac.uk/study/Postgr...