Was a pleasure to do the @rcpch.bsky.social virtual Grand Round talk on Children’s Sleep recently, link here: learning.rcpch.ac.uk/home/webinar...

The story, in the end, is ours. snyder.substack.com/p/the-man-in...

two different interpretations

the only video worth rescuing from my deleted twtter

Unsure which is more surprising, the fact that Finland had a pop magazine called STUMP or that the Fast Show's Jazz Club presenter (you know, the one who says "niiice!!") appears to have actually existed

"The most recent Census data found there were around 5.8 million unpaid carers in the UK. Of these, nearly a third said they provided 50 or more hours of care per week." It's 24/7 here with no respite as can't recruit PAs. #autism #FragileX #epilepsy www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

My Teach Secondary column this week is about the toxic narrative in much of media which seeks to portray young people as entitled or lazy without acknowledging the shitstorm of challenges they face. Some snippets below.

Reform's candidate Robert Kenyon said abortion was a "cowardly act of murder" and implied that people falsely claimed to have been raped He said: “Don’t dole out the ‘what if someone is raped by their brother’ arguement... don’t want babies? Use contreception! [sic]” observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

I must be super evolved then because I understand very well that Google is trying to build an agentic wall around the entire internet with the ultimate goal of users paying to access it and data owners paying to contribute to it.

Every summer I repost this article on how to spot drowning. Please read it and pass on. In the last few years I’ve had SIX messages from people who saved a kid’s life after clicking on the link from my feed. slate.com/technology/2...

"Meetings are held, emails are sent, phone calls are made, and something like 520,000 children die of malnutrition, diarrhea, tuberculosis, malaria, and HIV." prospect.org/2026/05/22/w...

We run a series of CPD events each term, and the next one is the SLCN specialist teacher network. Continuing on the theme of language literacy and DLD. Bookings and details of other networks. www.naplic.org.uk/events/ #DevLangDis

Parents! Carers! If you have a child in Y12, this is worth reading and sharing with them. Some schools put an awful lot of unnecessary pressure on students about this

'As IPSEA chief executive Madeleine Cassidy told a SEND protest in London last weekend: “If it’s this hard when we have rights, what will it be like when we don’t?”' Recommended reading for anyone who has skin in the SEND game from @cjayanetti.bsky.social

'The deepest thread running through Common SEN (Mis)Interventions isn’t really about any of the ten items. It’s about something more fundamental: the difference between support that follows from assessed need and support that follows from diagnostic labels.' SEN provision should meet need, not Dx.

Important explanation that these headlines were not based on any science but are essentially the opinions of well connected people. open.substack.com/pub/gidmk/p/...

The equality watchdog has completed its draft report into allegations of unlawful treatment of disabled benefit claimants by the Department for Work and Pensions, two years after the inquiry was launched under the last government. #DWP www.disabilitynewsservice.com/equality-wat...

Stunned, appalled, shocked etc to see actual tax reform from a politician. This from Wes Streeting today. A thread on why capital gains tax is broken. It's too low AND too high. & why this is a good proposal.

Maybe this is because you can't turn on the radio without hearing hourly updates on the number of people arriving in small boats.

💫 Hopefully the SEND reforms will improve outcomes for people with ADHD 💫 In the meantime, here's some ADHD role models who've reached for the stars and can inspire your ADHD youngsters. #Inclusion #EduSky

A Reform councillor accused of shaming a disabled man and a dyslexic colleague, has been put in charge of Special Educational Needs at his council Sam Journet has faced a barrage of complaints for bullying and intimidation whilst regularly using Meta-style camera glasses to film residents and staff

"With regards to phones and social media, the evidence of causality for ADHD specifically remains limited. Attention development, from the early years into adult life, is so complex. We should be wary of pinpointing a single cause." Fascinating interview in Tes today from @jonsevers.bsky.social ⬇️

Anyone want to help search through the Reform candidate in Makerfield's recently deleted twitter account? web.archive.org/web/*/twitte...

'It's overwhelming - how do I keep carrying on?' www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

It was kind of Robert Jenrick to set me up for an obvious joke at his expense.

In other news, I really needed to read this by @naomialderman.bsky.social today

And the government's current education SEND white paper proposes to reduce the tribunal queue problem by . . . removing most current SEND appeal rights. It should, instead, be applying painful sanctions to the bodies and individuals who fail to comply with their statutory SEND duties.

Gillian Doherty, co-director of @specialneedsjungle.bsky.social, said: “Delays in accessing tribunals are causing significant disadvantage to disabled children and young people who are often unable to access suitable education and provision in the meantime." www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Aside from year-long waits, in some cases councils are conceding to parents’ demands just before a tribunal is held, while in other cases councils are failing to implement tribunal findings. Parents have a near-100% success rate at SEND tribunals.

Parents are having to wait more than a year for SEND tribunal hearings into ­inadequate provision for children with special educational needs after new cases surged by more than 50% in a year. By me, for the Observer: www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Disabled children & the Equality Act 2010: Written by SEND expert Philippa Stobbs OBE, this tells teachers and schools what they must do to prevent and address inequalities, & avoid discriminating against disabled pupils. Share it with your child's school. bit.ly/4uTwEp0

Crikey, this is significant. All about Orban's regime showering money on populism abroad including the UK. David Frost mentioned as an alleged recipient, plus Unherd and The Spectator. So much for pushing back against foreign interference. H/t @guystall.bsky.social

Jesus Christ this is the most chilling thing I've read in ages. The "new understanding of truth" described here is not new in any way, it is basically a return to pre-literate dark ages & the inevitable result is going to be fascism.

Sending out feelers for carers for lil ol me. Holiday or sickness cover to start, above London living wage, general household tasks and assistance with medical admin or accompanying me places. Must like cats and be weird. WhatsApp me ❤️❤️❤️

‘Your brain isn’t fully formed until you’re 25’: A neuroscientist demolishes the greatest mind myth www.sciencefocus.com... Dr Dean Burnett tackles a stubborn, and increasingly harmful, brain myth. For Science Focus Magazine. #Brains #Teens #Development #Autonomy

Brexit may have defeated my ability to send a greeting card to Europe, but I am still here making bold prints, cards, homewares and t-shirts. UK orders very welcome. www.gailmyerscough.co.uk

Talking of Labour economic thinking, punchy blog here from Reeves's former chief economic adviser John Van Reenen, suggesting her approach is starting to bear fruit in terms of productivity, and lamenting "the media’s obsessive negativity towards the government": blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandp...

Welsh names are really interesting.

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/...

To anyone on here new to SEND and wanting to get a feel of what’s at stake I recommend following the amazing parent Rachel Filmer of SEND Rights Alliance on Facebook. She has made these helpful materials and talks in plain terms about the way the Government have been handing this.

'As IPSEA chief executive Madeleine Cassidy told a SEND protest in London last weekend: “If it’s this hard when we have rights, what will it be like when we don’t?”' Recommended reading for anyone who has skin in the SEND game from @cjayanetti.bsky.social

“I really used to enjoy reading. But now, in school, I can’t read without having this fear of being in trouble for not tracking every line with a bookmark,” pupils, parents, pols complain about behaviour management policies at Athena Academy Trust. (At 3.55 here: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis... )

Some news - you can read it all in the alt text www.gailmyerscough.co.uk

Oral diadochokinesis (DDK) is a tool to help detect oral–motor deficits that may not be as prominent in regular speech. Authors propose a learning–based algorithm that may outperform traditional methods for assessing oral DDK https://pubs.asha.org/doi/10.1044/2025_AJSLP-25-00213 @charlesuni.cuni.cz

How cash-poor public bodies pass the buck on vulnerable people: We see profoundly disabled children with significant needs told the NHS thinks care isn’t its responsibility & social services will do things like peg feeding, trach care or even a ventilator www.politicshome.com/news/article...

For my more detailed thoughts on the SEND reform "areas of development" and "Specialist Provision Packages" see here: www.moorhouseinstitute.com/four-in-ten-...

On SNJ Today: Melissa Hayhurst, the SEND mum taking the DfE to court, explains why, when she saw the complexity of the SEND consultation, she had to launch a judicial review, so families got the meaningful chance to respond that they deserve www.specialneedsjungle.com/daughters-se...

It’s called a Cordon Sanitaire, and it is precisely how all parties committed to liberal democracy, rule of law and respect for human rights should treat far-right, fascist, anti-democratic parties. A media committed to a democratic state should do the same. www.bbc.com/news/article...