Just because!

Day 1 of arriving in the dark and leaving in the dark completed. 34 more to go before Christmas!

A walk up Coombe Hill with the school dog. As we reached the top the clouds descended and the described stunning view of the Chiltern Escarpment is still but a mystery!

Happy Diwali! 🪔

Our school dog is proving as good for staff wellbeing as she is for supporting the children!

Year 6 residential. The boys are performing a spider ritual before bed. 🕷️ 🕷️🕷️🕷️

Fuel to help with today’s task. Helping my wife find an outfit for our niece’s wedding. She hates shopping. She really hates clothes shopping. Wish us luck!

A fitting scented candle for this evening… He claims he has cleaned today; we are unsure of which minuscule part of his bedroom he is referring to!

New DMs for a new academic year and no blisters after day one!

I love autumn foraging. #autumn

2 down, 193 to go! (I do love my job really 😉 but today was a bit of a day!)

Our last hurrah of the summer! #summerholiday #familyfun #food

An early start to beat the rain; a fabulous walk in the Surrey hills.

I am sickened by the relentless demonisation of refugees. No refugee underfunded a school. No refugee closed a hospital. No refugee took away support from the sick and disabled. We need solutions not scapegoats. Stop blaming refugees and tax the rich instead!

This is what I’m trying to tell myself as I walk around school looking at 3 half finished building jobs. 😬

I need this kind of positivity in my life!

It has really been a day of emotions. Awaiting GCSE results for my boy 🤢 Our boy sharing his GCSE results with us 🥰 Bad news on my Dad’s cancer 😢 Dropping my boy off at Reading festival 😬

A trip to @nationalarchives.gov.uk.web.brid.gy to see the MI5 exhibition. Really interesting - would highly recommend.

Happy Left-Handed day to all my fellow left-handers! www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/ar...

A lovely afternoon with two of the best colleagues I’ve ever had to celebrate a retirement. #endofanera #ladiesthatlunch

Finishing off our holiday in Greece with a stunning full moon (the photo doesn’t really capture its full beauty).

Our son has described us (his parents) as being in a civilised partnership to someone we have met on holiday and we will now call it this for evermore! 💕

Only we could arrive in Greece to rain!

I left my office for two minutes…

The children are out, just an INSET tomorrow and we will be done!

Since the DfE's new writing framework seriously downplays the importance of emergent writing, I'm giving away a free copy of my book on mark making because it 100% *does* matter! ☺️ Like and repost to enter. Winner announced next Thursday. #EduSky #giveaway #freebie

Anyone remember the poem ‘dog in the playground’ from Please Mrs Butler? That happened in our school today at lunchtime! As lockdown was called, I couldn’t help but recite this in my mind!

Tomorrow, I have a wellbeing day so I’m currently in South End on Sea for the night with my boy who turns 16 tomorrow. #feellikeimskiving

@headteacherchat.bsky.social has kept me organised this year. Just received my new planner for the same again next year!

Mammouth working day today. First set of reports complete ✅

First time ever I’ve successfully grown a cucumber and got sweet peas to flower.

Our new tuck shop did a roaring trade today for our whole school picnic.

Last governor meeting and a lovely gift. I’ll be glad to get some time back but it has been a privilege.

Tents up…90 Year 5s camping…guess how much sleep I’ll be getting tonight! #10experiencesby10

I’d quite like to be there right now.

Gooseberry season has begun and my son is munching on them like they are sweets. Hoping there’ll be some left for a crumble!

Today has been the kind of day that if you told someone not in education they would not believe you!

Summer 2 is bonkers, isn’t it? 🤪

A little routine of mine is always to have a hike to create calm the day before the madness of term begins. This was a route of many stiles!

Michael Rosen's thoughts on this years KS2 grammar test are definitely worth reading. @michaelrosenyes.bsky.social michaelrosenblog.blogspot.com/2025/05/this...

Only we could take the scenic route on a day like today.

Coffee with a view to start the day.

My view for the week. It’ll do!

Prom shopping is exhausting! But I think we have it all… suit, tie, hankie, shoes, shirt, cufflinks and an empty bank account!

“Grit”…”Grit!?!” Some of these young people who walk through our school doors deal with more and manage more than many of us will experience in our lives. Yet, to cover up years of failure supporting young people and our increasingly intransigent school systems the govt tell them to “toughen up”

✅ SATs ✅ 7 GCSE exams Cheers from this exhausted household!

Started today’s wellbeing day with ´Come and Read with Me’. Brilliantly attended and always so lovely to see parents sharing books with children. #edusky #books #story #parentalengagement

We have had to muster up three scribes last minute after we’ve had three Yr6s break/twist their writing arms/wrists. I’m just grateful that the injuries have all occurred under the parents’ watch! 😬😂

I’m never the best sleeper in the lead up and during SATs week but add your son doing his GCSEs at the same time and I’m next level tiredness. Throw in a monitoring visit… and I think it might be wine o’clock soon! #SATs #GCSEs

We have a privately-run care system that costs residents ca. £6000 per month yet only pays a minimum wage to its workers. Solve that problem with some proper regulation of the sector, and you won't need to ban hard-working immigrants, who are the only people stopping care from collapsing completely.