We’re so pleased to be sponsoring 'Everybody Thriving: How can we promote wellbeing and a love of learning?' - a one-day event from Rethinking Ed, @teamsquarepeg.bsky.social and @edpolalliance.bsky.social. 📅 Saturday 11 October 📍 St Ambrose Barlow RC High School, Swinton 🎫 buff.ly/XP5WYQv

This amazing event is both online and face-to-face, so wherever you are in the world, you will be most welcome! It's an 'unconference' designed to crowd-source ideas for how we might increase wellbeing within the constraints of the current system #wearethesystem Link 👇

🎧 When we design for the most marginalised, everyone benefits. Too many children feel like square pegs in round holes, explains Ellie Costello of @teamsquarepeg.bsky.social. Listen to episode 8 of Talking Inclusion... with @realgeoffbarton.bsky.social now! open.spotify.com/episode/64dD...

I love hearing about schools that offer some curriculum flex. Carr Manor in Leeds timetables interest-based learning 1 day/wk for KS3 - described in this @teamsquarepeg.bsky.social book. Promotes inclusion & engagement. www.crownhouse.co.uk/square-pegs

Hearing @teamsquarepeg.bsky.social talking to #jamesobrien was so refreshing. I couldn’t agree more.

And they say you shouldn't meet your heroes... Wonderful afternoon setting the world to rights with @audreyt.org and Gisele Chou, co-authors (among many others) of the uber-fascinating and inspiring Plurality Geeking out at the Ashmolean with @teamsquarepeg.bsky.social & the amazing Finn!

The introduction of short-shrift command & conquer / reward & sanction behaviour management policies in my kids’ school from 2011 started a cascade of consequences we as a family continue to face today. 1/ rescueourschools.co.uk/2025/02/25/c...

I ❤️ Carr Manor’s KS3 curriculum as described in Square Pegs: Inclusivity, compassion and fitting in by @teamsquarepeg.bsky.social, esp the Y9 pupils’ choice of specialised ‘study school’ learning every Monday ✨

Read no.3 of 2025 - It took me a long while to get through this one, but as a parent to 2 square pegs, it was an important one. I recommend that every head teacher in the UK read this @teamsquarepeg.bsky.social

There's an interview with Ellie Costello of @teamsquarepeg.bsky.social in my new book that you might find interesting.

I guess maybe something like the ‘consistent commitment to include every family, to give every child every chance’ approach outlined by Lucie Larkin of Carr Manor in Square Pegs: Inclusivity, compassion and fitting in, by @teamsquarepeg.bsky.social. Their ‘staff circles’ idea is awesome 💕

Cliched explanations for the attendance crisis – such as shifting attitudes and the prevalence of working from home – ignore the real issues facing children across the country, says Ellie Costello from @teamsquarepeg.bsky.social

Well, truly humbled to have been asked to write about attendance for @tesmagazine.bsky.social by @jonsevers.bsky.social. Grateful to be given the opportunity to add some context re. narratives around what’s ‘motivating’ families. Often, the reasons are heartbreaking. www.tes.com/magazine/ana...

The opposite of 'inclusive design's is not 'normal design' - it's 'exclusionary design'. Or if, like me, you are feeling spicy 'hostile design'.

‘While physical punishment is no longer allowed, mental punishment is’ - Dan Rosenberg, writing in Square Pegs: Inclusivity, compassion and fitting in (2023) 😔 @teamsquarepeg.bsky.social

Made it into a pretty awesome starter pack! How lovely is that? 🥰 Thank you @beckycarlzon.bsky.social

Wow! Feeling the BlueSkyLove! Thank you @kezzasett.bsky.social 🥰

Heart is brimming & brain buzzing after time w a courageous, determined HT who wants to work w SP after reading our book, buying 70 copies for staff, kids, parents to read & share, which has led to more collaborative convos & insights in last 6 mths than ever before for this HT & sch community.

Yesterday was just wonderful. ASCL Pastoral Leadership conference is a pretty special space. Excellent to listen to @pepediiasio.bsky.social on ChWB Schs Bill; Tom Shaw Carr Manor; Soofia Amin Ken Primary Sch & join panel @nicoleponsford.bsky.social & fabulous colleagues chaired by Phil NAPCE.

We're expanding our GEC Platform with a Parent & Carer module to build inclusive, equitable & supportive school communities 💗 but we need your help... To be part of this groundbreaking work, simply add your details here: share.hsforms.com/1BtUPMOhITV-... #EdTech #EduSky #EduSkyPrimary

Also, thanks to @teamsquarepeg.bsky.social and @nataliepacker.bsky.social for their helpful contributions. This isn't about criticism of schools - none are named. But it does ask "Surely we can do better?"

Topics on the other place that have been hard to navigate this week: Isolating kids Restraining kids Vexatious parents Institutional harm In no other sector are these themes dismissed, denied, misunderstood quite so much as in schools and education.

The sector needs to stop, listen, and engage… forcing chn into schools that cannot support their needs, or worse, place them in a constant state of stress, is immoral. We are punishing chn and families for struggling within a system that was not built for them. www.linkedin.com/posts/adam-v...

90% of excluded primary school kids have additional needs. We are failing them. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Good Golly Miss Molly! An absolute privilege to spk at today’s ARC conference. How do you follow the incredible @pauldixbehaviour.bsky.social & the utterly wonderful @floellabenjamin.bsky.social? By taking a deep breath, following their lead, sharing authentically & courageously. What an honour.

They have learned nothing from their own Independent Learning Review. This proposed 'reformed' system proves what Dame Christine Gilbert found - that Ofsted's leadership and management are still 'defensive and complacent'. Must do better.”

Magic day yesterday delivering a days training with an exceptional group of co-operative settings. This week on the road talking attendance, belonging, dignity in edu, values, culture, finding Another Way. Together. Hope to see lots of SP friends & #InnovatorsinEducation 🥰 Cup is overflowing!

Well. Turns out (after grieving hard won base of 17k on the other place, which stagnated after refusing blue tick, regrettable panic buy last month), this space is rather exciting & soothing socials wounds w excellent starter packs. Huzzah. 🙌🏻

Been contacted by a co-operative of schools wanting some consultancy. It’s a really sensible solution and sits right in with SP’s value set of partnership, collaboration, shared endeavour, mutual benefit, strong community interest, place, space, voice & choice. 🥰

On this day in 1970, Charles Schulz replied to a 10-year-old kid who had written and asked, “What makes a good citizen?"

"That chase for a narrow shadow of excellence... that only succeeds by pushing problems on to others - that ends now" @jonnyuttley.bsky.social on why two sentences in a Bridget Phillipson speech last week are the most important of the past 15 years www.tes.com/magazine/ana...

Interesting vibe on here post election. Finding starter packs is awesome. Experienced full body shockwaves tho in seeing some #edutwitter folk on here with which there’d been unpleasant exchanges. Hoping same aggression & conduct won’t be the same here. 🤞🏻🙏🏻🖖🏻

Online abuse, harassment and hate toward women has soared in the days since the US election, with phrases like “your body, my choice” and “get back to the kitchen” exploding on platforms like X and and TikTok, according to the Institute for Strategic Dialogue

Kind of wild to live in a system that allows one man to spend a couple hundred million dollars to elect his favored political candidate and then see the free market reward him with tens of billions of dollars in net worth www.forbes.com/sites/dereks...

The latest The Backlash is out, and this time it's a special on the backlash-against-feminism election across the Atlantic, with links to writing by @sianushka.bsky.social and others Sign up to get free reads on the backlash against feminism, (almost) once a week open.substack.com/pub/thebackl...

Don’t miss out on the next #CreativeConversations event launching #UnfinishedBusiness in Edinburgh on the 6th of November! Celebrate the life and legacy of the amazing Sir Tim Brighouse and find out exactly how you can #BeMoreTim. Find out more:

One of the most important themes we’re exploring and have been formulating for the last 5 years is what can be learned from other sectors getting things right. It lies at the heart of our book #SquarePegs, drawing on one of our most talked about chapters Lessons from a 999 Call. 1/

Young people's mental health: we need to check our perceptions, as "Some children present more obviously than others, & it is easy to assume that those behaving most extremely are the most affected. This is not always the case, & it is not as transparent as identifying..." @keziah70.bsky.social 1/2

November is B-U-S-Y! Next week I’m thrilled to be taking part in the FED Education Summit, joining 2 panels. Wonderful people to bounce off and chew that fat. Hope & Finding Another Way brimming over. Can’t wait. 👍🏻

When a Behaviourist vs Trauma Informed bin fire on X is still raging following a ‘fair’ debate.

Great to see @realdavidc.bsky.social & Mick Waters discussing Sir Tim Brighouse's remarkable legacy & the current relevance of his work on the 'They Behave for Me' podcast hosted by @adamboxereducation.bsky.social & @mrarobbins.bsky.social: https://buff.ly/3NIYxMM

Next up in our #BeMoreTim quotes from #UnfnishedBusiness: The life and legacy of Sir Tim Brighouse, read Ian Gilbert’s insights on getting to the heart of education. Find more: https://buff.ly/3TqABkG @itlworldwide.bsky.social