Journalist is on BBC Radio 4 right now panicking over having ‘brain fog’ - ie one day when she couldn’t remember what she planned to say on air. Was just thinking: Hasn’t every teacher experienced this? And she said: ‘lots of people have written in… teachers…’

❌ Exclusive: AI-driven reports that government said would help bring attendance 'back to – and beyond – pre-pandemic levels' have been suspended just days after they were launched This comes after leaders noticed inaccuracies in the data provided... schoolsweek.co.uk/embarrassing...

Wild times.

People forget that there was dog poo everywhere, besides anything else!

@michaelt1979.bsky.social “If you wait by the river long enough, the bodies of your enemies will float by” - Sun Tzu. 😆 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Every time the radio says Trump is demanding One Billion Dollars from the BBC, all I can see is…

As late as the 1960s, the Prime Minister’s driver used to always have to make sure he had four one penny coins in his pocket because if there was an alert of imminent Soviet nuclear attack when the PM was travelling, that was how the PM would dial Whitehall and coordinate the UKs response.

I had totally forgotten that we used to text with numbers 😆

The BBC is the latest part of ‘the public realm’ to feel the wrath of the right. The playbook is wearyingly similar. Underfund them. Hold them (piously) to the highest standards. Pillory them for all errors. And then co-opt, or neuter, them. 1/2

My favourite is explaining pagers to children. ‘So you phoned one person. Told them your message. They wrote it down and sent it to the person’s device’ ‘How did they respond?’ ‘They couldn’t.’ 🤯

Thanks so much again to the expert panel, including @cassiebuchanan.bsky.social @jonhutchinson.bsky.social @jo-annebaird.bsky.social and the others for their wisdom

🚨The curriculum review is out! First: Government commits to a new national curriculum in 2028. Will also replace year 6 writing test, new oracy framework, financial literacy in primary Our news story on the government's response to the key review findings: (1/4) schoolsweek.co.uk/new-curricul...

Professor Becky Francis has published her final curriculum and assessment review report. She spoke to Schools Week about some of its key recommendations and the thinking behind them https://schoolsweek.co.uk/interview-becky-francis-on-the-big-ideas-in-her-curriculum-review/

"A Year in Willerby" will go on sale in December for £20. Twelve of our stories, village history and other ephemera, illustrated with original lino cut illustrations. Let us know if you're interested so we can get a sense of how many to print. www.welcometowillerby.co.uk/a-year-in-wi...

Singing in the Wire. A Willerby Story. A call centre connecting the living with the dead. Five minutes to say whatever it is you never got to say. willerby.substack.com/p/singing-in...

Sometimes I like to dream about being from a nation where you always know where you'll find your country name in an alphabetical list.

My GP just gave me a new response the next time something goes wrong at work

I had every sympathy for Rayner and her housing situation. That was complex. But I have zero time for people who don’t get the right renting licences, especially in London, where you almost always need one, and the information is entirely googleable.

I keep being told spending cuts are easy. Honest proposals such as those recently outlined by Policy Exchange show they are not My column www.ft.com/content/f086...

Well, if the Greens are going to be a bigger part of the conversation, I’m going to need to learn a bit more about their history, so I’ve dug out this 1984 classic… (Just before they changed their name, they were still the Ecology Party!)

Erm… I’m on a train where the *train manager* is watching videos on his phone without headphones. This is a new low.

If they’re going to bin off Strictly (not confirmed, but presenters are going) … Can I put a bid in for a Surprise Surprise reboot presented by Stacey Solomon? You know it makes sense.

I see you, senior Tory, giving away your millennial roots… Can anyone else spot the tell?

The points @msjasminemn.bsky.social makes in the body of the article are important. Rhetoric around immigration has now moved against not only illegal immigration, but legal immigration. schoolsweek.co.uk/ive-given-my...

❗ Big policy news - the schools white paper will not be published this Autumn as promised Instead ministers want more time to consult on their SEND reforms, and are now promising it will come 'early in the new year' Probably the right call, but still frustrating schoolsweek.co.uk/schools-whit...

Scenes: Companies need to start filing accounts through third party digital software next year as part of Making Tax Digital. To do this you must print off a physical form from Companies House, physically sign it and scan back in, or post it, to get a code to do the digital filing. 🤦🏼‍♀️

"That's a robot, a Nazi, and a poorly-disguised Russian. Give us your phone, love." Brilliant. ~AA

This is not normal discourse. It is not just a bit of fun for a Sunday paper interview. It is beyond the realms of the concept of decency shared across the political spectrum until last year.

Apropos of nothing, I really do think UK journalists and politicians need some reminding that mass deportation of LEGAL immigrants, particularly those with permanent status, is far more extreme than even Trump's America and would basically place Britain completely on its own among democracies.

Hang on… Victoria Derbyshire says no country has raised serious money with a wealth tax. Then says Norway only got £2.7bn. But it’s 1/12th the population of the UK! Scaled up that would be £32bn. That’s serious money. Now…

The challenge isn’t equal: schools in the most deprived areas are 3× more likely to have pupils still learning toileting skills. Read our data in full via the weekly blog 👉 bit.ly/3Wx5Mfa

Watching Homes Under The Hammer these days is so bleak. Beautiful Victorian terrace with original features? Gorgeous 4 bed family home after a bit of love? No, a grey box 6-bed HMO. “Profit margin is better”. That’s it. Literally it.

🚨NEW BLOG🚨 A few weeks into Teaching Practice placement some #ITT beginning teachers need support around developing their professional communication and relationships. This analogy may help. #TeacherEducation #TeacherMentoring #EduBlogUK uonhistoryteachertraining.school.blog/2025/10/16/s...

Children with SEND from poorer homes are less likely to secure an education, health and care plan and access a special school place, a new study has found

📈 We find evidence of discontinuities in favour of female students & against those on Free-School Meals 🎓We show that these biases have consequences for university outcomes 🎙️ Governments' considering increasing reliance on subjective assessments should take steps to mitigate this bias

📖 New Working Paper "Measuring systematic gaps in teacher judgement: A new approach" 😷 We use the Covid-19 induced cancellation of exams, where teachers assigned student grades & rankings within grade econpapers.repec.org/paper/uclcep... @opmc1.bsky.social @gillwyness.bsky.social Rich Murphy

This week’s movers and shakers include an Olympic wrestler, a Lego collector and a former tree-logger

"each student with special needs, autism or any behavioural disorders will count as two students in the classroom. The aim is to allow them to receive more personalised attention and to reduce the workload on teachers" Mainstream SEN provision, Spanish style. www.surinenglish.com/spain/spain-...

A National Education Union stunt where primary school pupils handed out leaflets at the Labour Party conference drew criticism last week – but what does the law say? Schools Week investigates…

New post. Has additional become the point? bennewmark.wordpress.com/2025/10/10/h...

New post. Has additional become the point? bennewmark.wordpress.com/2025/10/10/h...

Ages since a Schools Week first paragraph raised my eyebrows quite so high! 😮 Full story: schoolsweek.co.uk/schools-trus...

Superbly clear-eyed piece on the forces pushing some parents to insist on additional SEND support for their child.

Just 6% of Sendcos feel able to complete their tasks during weekly working hours, according to @teachertapp.bsky.social As the daughter of a Sendco I can attest to this - a core childhood memory to regularly see my mum working v. late into the night! www.tes.com/magazine/new...

Gibbet Cross. A Willerby Story. Do not linger at the petrol station at the site of the old gibbet. This and fifty more free stories on our village website. Link in bio. Come find us. willerby.substack.com/p/gibbet-cross

And of course, your reminder that the Conservatives in government enthusiastically approved every single one of the Sentencing Guidelines that they now claim are evidence of the far-right “two tier justice” myth.

I’m just not willing to accept this. It’s WHSmith and that’s that. Feels like I’ve woken up after travelling back in time and it’s the butterfly effect in action.

A cancelled train to Manchester for Tory Conference has meant I’ve gone via Warrington with a 50 min change time. So I’ve popped out to the library on Museum Street where I studied a lot during A levels… and my heart is so full: it smells *exactly* the same.

Having recently discovered that we made it a legal requirement to chip cats last year but if someone doesn’t basically nothing happens, I’ve become evangelical on this. If you’re not enforcing a rule, you’re just inconveniencing the compliant.

Is there anywhere that lists the peak, off peak and super off peak times for each rail route? Because I’m constantly told Trainline I have to travel at specified times… but there doesn’t seem to be any way to know what the times are?!