Too many vulnerable children are sent miles from their communities, while parents face a low-trust SEND system as they fight for years for support. @childrenscomm.bsky.social, Rachel de Souza says: “We must do better for our children.” On Talking Inclusion... With @realgeoffbarton.bsky.social

In episode 7 of Talking Inclusion... with @realgeoffbarton.bsky.social, Rachel de Souza (@childrenscomm.bsky.social) talks to Geoff about her new #ChildrensPlan and what it means for more inclusive education. 🎧 open.spotify.com/episode/6qaz... 📄 www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/resource/the...

Learning from others: In our latest @ippr.org ‘Talking Inclusion’ podcast, it was my privilege to talk to global expert Professor Mel Ainscow about what we might learn from some other countries’ approaches to inclusive education: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

Update on AI and student literacy: interesting new research from @literacy-trust.bsky.social: literacytrust.org.uk/research-ser...

“For a limited season this autumn, Christopher Marlowe will become a star of the London stage again. Enjoy it while you can …” says @theguardian.com. Can’t wait to see the RSC’s ‘Born With Teeth’ at this week’s official opening … www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

'How might the narrative around special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) move away from deficit & barriers towards joy, belonging & opportunity?': our latest @ippr.org 'Talking Inclusion' podcast is with the inspiring @katieghose.bsky.social: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

“Seven leading Jane Austen experts make their case for who is her ultimate heroine …” theconversation.com/who-was-jane...

Introducing our new series of brief (15-min) @ippr.org podcasts looking at different aspects of what inclusion in education means now … and how it could look in the future. First conversation is with national SEND expert @mmulholland.bsky.social: open.spotify.com/episode/5G7A...

Today, we're announcing the members of IPPR's Inclusion Taskforce, chaired by @realgeoffbarton.bsky.social. We have brought together leaders from education, policy, and politics — alongside parents — to find solutions for a system at breaking point. Find out more here: www.ippr.org/the-ippr-inc...

“Everywhere, negative stories about Russia were quietly downplayed or suppressed and positive ones megaphoned. In this climate, 5 major publishing houses turned down Animal Farm as an inappropriate attack on a vital wartime ally”: the origins of a brilliant book: www.theguardian.com/books/2025/a...

“In this multitalented cast of 10, only Lossi the dog doesn’t play an instrument”: lovely, witty review of the RSC’s charming, family-friendly production of ‘Two Gentlemen’ now playing in Stratford-Upon-Avon: www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/a...

“For it’s when we feel ourselves plunged into the abyss, when our despair at our fellow human beings pulls strongest, that we most need to look upward – and glimpse the stars”: a timely dose of optimism from @jonathanfreedland.bsky.social @theguardian.com: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

“Do you get irritated by how young people speak? Or are you like, chill … ?”: entertaining, informative piece on language change in @thenewworldmag.bsky.social app.thenewworld.co.uk/story/139578...

The @theguardian.com obituary of that wonderful curator of childhood worlds - Allan Ahlberg: www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j...

Love this calm, thoughtful analysis of the likely impact of a policy proposal …

ICYMI:

My #BBCR4Today conversation with Justin Webb this morning about the new @ippr.org Inclusion Taskforce that I’ll be chairing. (Starts around 6:54am): www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

The @theguardian.com view on #oracy: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

“Students are the canaries in the AI coalmine …”: compelling piece by Jeremy Ettinghausen www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Beautifully put by Simon Jenkins @theguardian.com: "The essence of #oracy is helping pupils articulate their thoughts to others, to listen and reply with courtesy and intelligence." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... @alastaircampbell2.bsky.social @michaelrosenyes.bsky.social

In reading news ... www.elle.com/culture/book...

“It’s very special to be back in a place that gave me a lifelong love of language, of literature, of learning, and allowed me – as the best universities do – to discover both who I was and who I wanted to be”: Thanks again, @lancasteruni.bsky.social: www.lancaster.ac.uk/news/alumni-...

A helpful letter from school trust leaders in @thetimes.com on the need to reform the current SEND system so that it better serves the needs of the young people it was designed to support: www.thetimes.com/comment/lett...

Building up to this … www.daysoftheyear.com/days/tell-an...

Apropos nothing: bagpipes correspondence in @theguardian.com

Looking forward to heading back to my old stomping ground of York tomorrow for the 'English: Shared Futures' conference, where I'll join Dr Tom F. Wright & the indefatigable @barbarableiman.bsky.social to discuss - of course! - the liberating power of oracy education englishsharedfutures.org

The #oracy conversation continues … a helpful and constructive reflection:

Apropos nothing: in response to “I’m good” … @theguardian.com

Great to see the #oracy momentum continuing - as this uplifting impact report by national oracy charity, @voice21oracy.bsky.social, reminds us …

👏 @newyorker.com

After listening to the extraordinary conversation between @laurenlaverne.bsky.social and disaster planning expert Prof Lucy Easthope (www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...), I can't get this haunting song from 'Come From Away' (the aftermath to the 9/11 attacks) out of my mind: youtu.be/c7wUoayqThw?....

For those of us who studied - and still love - English literature, this is a fascinating, if unnerving, read: www.newstatesman.com/culture/book...

Some good news in the arts world ..."Campaigners from the world of dance including Arlene Phillips and Matthew Bourne have been celebrating after a training scheme for children was saved that they say stops the art form becoming the preserve of the elite": www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/j...

Fascinating myth-buster … theconversation.com/animals-cant...

“We’re guilty of overprotection [of children] in one place (the real world) and underprotection in another (online). I think that was one of the important points of ‘Adolescence’”: fascinating interview with @jonathanhaidt.bsky.social: www.theguardian.com/society/ng-i...

A lovely obituary of the late, great Aidan Chambers … and a tribute also to Jim Osborn, the Head of English who shaped his life as a reader and writer: www.theguardian.com/books/2025/m...

😀😃😄: ‘Humans are remarkably good at detecting emotional authenticity. Studies show that even infants as young as ten months can distinguish between real and fake smiles’, via @theconversation.com: theconversation.com/the-anatomy-...

“Studies on great apes and other animals such as lemurs, whales and dolphins have revealed they are capable of rhythmic structuring, vocal learning, combining signals and sounds to make new ones, and even using vowels and consonants …” theconversation.com/what-the-hid...

Good TES interview with #oracy guru Prof Neil Mercer: ‘In 2023 Sir Keir Starmer pledged that the Labour Party would weave oracy through the curriculum. Yet when the interim report was published, oracy was not mentioned at all. So, is Labour really serious about change?’ www.tes.com/magazine/ana...

Highlight this week was watching incredible ‘My Neighbour Totoro’ with @realgeoffbarton.bsky.social , @andywolfe.bsky.social, Nigel Genders, @juliemcchulloch.bsky.social, Tiff Harris, @jtoop.bsky.social, @garethconyard.bsky.social, @jasonelsom.bsky.social and others. Funny, mesmerizing and moving ❤️

👏👏👏 @newyorker.com

For @unesco.org’s International #Arts Week, I talked to leaders, pupils and an actor at Abington Vale School, Northampton, about their respective experience of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s ‘First Encounters’ production of ‘The Tempest’. Interviews here: www.rsc.org.uk/news/geoff-b...

Punctuation news: “Many writers hooked on semicolons become an embarrassment to their families and friends” (Lynne Truss): www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

With the arrival of @unesco.bsky.social's International Arts Week, this piece by @thatdanstewart.bsky.social @financialtimes.com on the decline of music is both entertaining and sobering (via @theweek.com):

“The growing and undetectable use of generative AI poses a huge threat to the integrity of assessments, and by extension to the integrity of education.”: compelling reflections (with solutions) from @daisychristo.bsky.social: open.substack.com/pub/daisychr...

Poignant and uplifting today to celebrate the life of an extraordinary headteacher, Adrian Williams, CBE. Adrian was a brilliant communicator, tireless in seeing schools as integral to their communities, and a great role-model to me. Today’s event was a reminder of the influence of great leaders.

As Alan says … @theguardian.com

Powerful proposals on the growing SEND education crisis from @matthewhood.bsky.social: schoolsweek.co.uk/ditching-ehc...

Not sure how I’ve spent this long on the planet without knowing about the National Poetry Library at the South Bank Centre, London. It’s wonderful.

Great stuff …