😅

I really hope the proposal to put RE in the national curriculum is not a wedge to weaken the rights of Catholic schools. We already have our own RE curriculum. This must be recognised in any proposed changes.

My curriculum take is this: the educational trads brought this curriculum refocus on themselves. They didn't take their win. Phillipson is able to push this because the question of plurality (of interest, utility, and aptitude) was not permitted to be considered.

Here's a question: should our education system be designed to serve the broad national interest, or individual interest? Where do those things contradict/overlap? Should it exist to maximise societal goals, or personal goals?

Nobody talks about education anymore. All the interesting groups talking about Britain's future and growth and renewal barely mention it. The commentators and the wider culture barely consider it. The politicians just go with the flow. As an arena of ideas, we have lost interest.

“Assisted dying would appear to mitigate some of those problems, curbing the pensions bill, the NHS bill and the care bill.” The New Statesman says the quiet part out loud: kill granny to save money. www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

Prayers with Tyler Robinson's father tonight. Finding out your son is a killer is one thing - having the courage to turn him in to the authorities in a state with the death penalty is another. This kind of sacrificial duty is the real model of manhood. His heart must be broken.

Will be honest finding it difficult to engage on here. What I've seen on this platform in the last 48hrs is just so dark - and widespread - I'm not sure it makes sense to persist.

Keep thinking about his wife and kids. They were there in the crowd. How dark the world must seem to them right now. Please do pray for them - even if you don't think it works, or don't have a religion - please just say them a quick prayer

Seems like a good time to ask the question again: how do we address progressive radicalisation? It is extreme, pernicious, and (as today) sometimes violent. We are not really set up for this - and yet, for the common good, it will need addressed like all other forms of radicalisation.

utter cesspit

Seems like a good time to ask the question again: how do we address progressive radicalisation? It is extreme, pernicious, and (as today) sometimes violent. We are not really set up for this - and yet, for the common good, it will need addressed like all other forms of radicalisation.

Wherein a journalist gaslights themselves about everyone else being gaslit

Not convinced - escapism seems more the compelling feature, the sense of a world set apart, complete with risk. So boarding school stories always popular - Malory Towers, St Clare's, St Trinians, Worst Witch, Tom Brown - but also stories that evoke this same sense of apartness - think Percy Jackson

Seen on the Other Place - you were mentioned but not tagged @samfr.bsky.social - comes with fame I guess

State of this. John 11:35.

That address from Pope Leo XIV has absolutely shredded the public/private distinction in matters of religion that has become the hallmark of polite western liberal norms. Complete and utter rejection

Agreed - this, decriminalising abortion up to birth, state assisted suicide, falling birth rates - it all tells the same story

The difficulty is that all the people I know who want kids think 2 is fine. What's the benefit of the 3rd or 4th, even as a fan of big families? Is it worth having a family too big for a normal car, buying bunkbeds, etc? The answer appears to be no

We will never raise the birthrate by forever finding just one more thing to make more affordable, as if this will make the difference. It will always be cheaper not to have kids. We will raise the birthrate by realising the gift of children is a treasure worth being poorer for.

That address from Pope Leo XIV has absolutely shredded the public/private distinction in matters of religion that has become the hallmark of polite western liberal norms. Complete and utter rejection

Surely the PhDs of the future will be asking what brought about the sheer radicalisation of the high-status classes. As in, off the charts, complete leave-of-their-senses radicalisation. It needs explanation

Always good when a report gets covered well in both the Times and Guardian (+ others). Our new paper on how the rise in mental health diagnoses has pushed the SEND, health and welfare systems to breaking point. Guardian: www.theguardian.com/education/20... Times: www.thetimes.com/article/e4b4...

What has become clear in recent months is that we could have solved homelessness overnight. We could have spent money making sure not a single person in this land had to sleep on the streets. We chose not to - for reasons, yes - but it was entirely possible and a policy choice not to do so.

Surely the PhDs of the future will be asking what brought about the sheer radicalisation of the high-status classes. As in, off the charts, complete leave-of-their-senses radicalisation. It needs explanation

Refuse to believe 20% think it's acceptable

NEW POST: something a bit different - the Rough Wooing of England michaelmerrick.co.uk/2025/08/19/t...

There'd be less radicalism if there were more pubs. Don't ask me why it's just true.

There'd be less radicalism if there were more pubs. Don't ask me why it's just true.

There is a healthy scepticism in education toward the whole progressive mantra of 'preparing kids for jobs that don't exist yet'. There is a similar position though, if arrived at differently, which is more defensible: preparing kids for jobs that AI won't be able to do

In most of the world, bigger cities have stronger economies. It happens in France, the USA, the Netherlands, Belgium, and on, and on. But not in Britain. In Britain, the bigger a city gets the weaker its economy is, except for London. This costs us dearly.

It's mad because you see people on the right complaining about the lack of productivity in the public sector, one of the main ways of measuring productivity in education is grade outcomes, and when it goes up the same people imply grade inflation or cheating or whatever

A short talk on realising I was lonely, and trying to figure out why - youtu.be/ufLgx9_2Jbs?...

Hadn't realised this had found its way online - promise you I didn't write that title! www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3BG...

ouch

Can anybody tell me why my children low-level assault each other whenever they see a yellow car? Is this a thing?

I gave in... @missmc.bsky.social

I've written about this - and the broader educational culture clash - for over 10 years. There has been progress - social mobility has become more nuanced since the days of (eg) Gove and Greening, degree apprenticeships are a limited positive - but it's often 1 step forwards and 2 steps back.

this isn't capitulation @samfr.bsky.social ... just a brief and uncharacteristic period of being open to new experiences that's all

Oh for pity's sake. There is a liberal worldview that insists the only way a working-class kid can live a life of dignity is to stop being working class - and to be more like their lanyardist saviours. It drives me utterly mad