The curriculum wave may have broken. Sallie Stanton discusses how that affects our approach at Advantage Schools in this excellent blog here: thedustytsundoku.wordpress.com/2026/06/26/c...

My daughter has to go from stop b to stop c on the train, and then later that day from point c, through stop b, and on to stop a. Can she turn up at stop b and buy a return from stop a to stop c and use that?

The phonics threshold going down to 31, and we all shrug. What would have been the reaction if it had gone up to 33, and what does that say about our approach to this assessment?

I know that I'm one of the very last to realise, but he's not actually a very nice person, and he's very self-centred.

Is behaviour worse in primary schools than secondary schools? HUGE new episode with Cathie Lock exploring all sorts of things: behaviour, leadership, literacy, curriculum and more! Tune in and share if you can 🙏 open.spotify.com/episode/437E...

Great to see a primary guest on the podcast! Very interesting views although didn’t entirely agree with Cathie Lock’s spicy take on primary school libraries. I think they can work well in the right circs. Roll on more primary guests!

Toy Story 5 is disappointing.

Some of the smartest people I knew around education started to get into AI. This was probably the biggest challenge to my AI in education cynicism. And now I know that they were being paid to post and talk about AI.

Good night for the Tories, decent night for Labour, terrible night for Reform.

The small things in life make me happy/ unhappy, so please can someone enable my computer to allow me to attach documents that I have open. Thank you.

Also: think about stuff you got taught in PSHE. How much did the life lessons of a largely uninterested teacher across 35 minutes for four weeks stick with you? Additionally: once "teach it in schools" is your fix, you're giving up on everyone over 18, and with it, fixing the issue for *decades*

This has been bugging me for a week: That Reform councillor who said “we don’t know what’s going on - we are new”. I detest everything Reform stand for. But I want people who are less professional standing in local elections, and I want them to admit when they don’t know what’s happening.

A weird thing in The Big Report is how it's really clear that kids with good gcse grades appear best prepared for work but then implies these courses aren't good preparations for work.

I thought I'd be in favour of mass screening for prostate cancer. My MP @benobesejecty.bsky.social has been an advocate, and hence I've been screened. But having read more I think it's a sound decision. I might be wrong, so check my working...

Summer holiday thoughts: Can you get hotels in sunny places with kids clubs that take three year olds for half a day or whatever? I do love him but I also love reading a lot of books on holiday whilst doing nothing, and I will compromise a bit. Seems like they're all 4yo or older!

The price of a single pepper in my local Tesco was £0.70 and I swear about a year ago I'd get three for that much. 70p for a pepper. What?

When I was a kid I loved the Naafi shop on the air force bases we lived in, but I cannot for the life of me remember why.

I’ve been listening to Ed O’Brien’s album and I *really* like it. And that’s weird because, extremely few song excepted, I’ve never been into Radiohead. Find them so hard to love. I think I’ve realised after more than 30 years I don’t like Thom Yorke’s voice. Anyway, listen to the EOB record.

I think everyone except me knew this, but this is an incredible book. Gutted to be finishing it.

I’ve reached the age where I’m always ready for bed at 10pm and I don’t need to set my alarm to wake at between 5-5.30 to take the dog for a walk or whatever. I don’t know if this is good or bad.

I’m very much anti social media and phones for kids (and tbh for us all) but a claim such as “brains have been rewired” is going to need a heck of a lot of evidence to convince me. I’m no expert but I don’t think evolution works that fast.

The PM campaigning probably makes a win less likely, so the PM will campaign for Burnham in order to make it less likely that he wins, and hence that may save the PM.

I cannot get my head round the relaxing of oil sanctions on Russia. This is the kind of thing I would have backed this PM to be stubborn on.

Completely agree with this. Impotent government, leader no-one wants, and only a GE to unstick the country… and likely land it with Reform.

Being told you are trendy: compliment. Being told you are a trendy: not a compliment.

I think that the argument/ sense that voting against Burnham would cause chaos to Labour is an attractive one to a whole load of people including very may who voted Labour in 2024. Sending the cabinet there could feed into that. I think >50% chance he doesn’t win.

I'm available this weekend for conversations if you've just picked up that we are recruiting for a Principal at The Vale Academy, Bedfordshire. Deadline Monday. Lovely school, trust into disruption-free learning and no fads. mynewterm.com/jobs/138714/...

The answer is don’t eat it because she will be downstairs less than half an hour later.

Domestic quandary: if your wife gets home from the gym and you’ve made dinner, but she pushed herself very hard and says “I don’t want dinner” and goes to recover, and you can’t disturb her… should you eat both portions to avoid waste?

Why has everyone stopped mentioning Angela Rayner?

That’s that part done then.

Where is @samfr.bsky.social when I need to be told what I think?

Here we go

Lewis Goodhall nailing the problem with Starmer’s speech.

I like Gordon Brown and Harriet Harman, but this just looks even more like a desperate Prime Minister. I wasn’t just a Labour member a year ago. I was a Labour member and I supported Starmer. He has to go.

Anyone want to buy my two tickets for Ellen Kent on farewell tour in Cambridge doing Carmen on Sunday. I completely forgot we had tickets and have not arranged childcare.

Went to the gym for the first time in seven plus weeks due to a broken wrist (which obviously I’ve barely mentioned to family and colleagues). I didn’t realise how quickly one becomes unfit. Vomited for twenty minutes afterwards after not taking it easy.

I’ve supported Weston-super-Mare since my Grandad took me to a 2-0 win against Dawlish in the 80s with about 200 people there. This year we made the FA Cup 3rd round. We have more points than ever before in the highest league we’ve ever been in. Today is the biggest league game in our history.

You can delegate what you like, but make sure you trust those you delegate to and check on what is important, because if you're the boss the one thing you can't delegate is accountability.

Very pleased to see phones in school will now be banned by law. This creates a very clear position from which schools can discuss this issue with parents, lessening any potential diminishing of relationship between school and home.

You can delegate what you like, but make sure you trust those you delegate to and check on what is important, because if you're the boss the one thing you can't delegate is accountability.

Everyone who has participated or paid for or otherwise supported this needs to be in jail and I will pay more taxes for more jails. I actually cannot believe what I am reading. Women can often not trust the men they are closest to and love.

The wisdom of the crowd was absent. We failed.

My bet was 5.30. I’m going to go for 6.30 after Bluesky’s influence, and return home if I’m not in the first twenty or so.

Help please. I need a few seconds of your time and I just need a very brief reply to a short thread. Just post a time. I need a 'best bet' here. Feel free to give your guess but please don't look at others' guesses before guessing. I am going to average it out and use the wisdom of the crowd.

Genuinely feel like if we hadn't had the Boris era of brazening things out - and I guess the Trump era - then Starmer would have gone today.

Oh thank goodness Iran has reopened it.