Education, music, politics, football, Minidiscs.
Joined May 2011
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MiniDiscsReturn retweeted
The tragedy is that we absolutely know how to solve this problem. It's hard work, but not rocket science. Children need to be taught habits of successful behaviour, clear boundaries, and predictable consequences. They need to know that the adults in the room with them are in charge, and that they care for them.
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It doesn't demonstrate any kind of causality at all. Correlation is not causation. Taking my umbrella with me on a rainy day does not cause my flowers to grow; the rain caused both.
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Behaviour debates are so intractable because some ideologues imply that the only possible causes of bad behaviour in children are 1) teachers, 2) society, and 3) SEND.
They ignore both human agency and the influence children, particularly teenagers, have on each other.
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I am gobsmacked and astonished at Disney's massive promotion for Doctor Who. It is incredible and simply off the scale
teapawt.net/thatotherharry/status/…
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This should be reported on every UK news show. No one should be forced to work against their will & threatened with the sack if they refuse. The government has gone too far. This is a defining moment. It’s time for workers across the country to unite & say NO
🚨Sunak’s Government just confirmed it will rush ahead with its plan to rob teachers & millions of workers of their right to strike, force them to work against their will & sack them if they refuse
THIS IS THE MOMENT! WORKERS ACROSS THE COUNTRY MUST STAND TOGETHER! ✊
@The_TUC
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NEW EPISODE!!! I chat with my friend
@sarah_garnham
about the gifts Doctor Who has given us over the last year. Thus begins the new era of Galactic Yo-yo.
open.spotify.com/episode/0FT…
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Parked my car en route to the England Australia game at Wembley and I’ve just walked neck high into a canal or a pond. Thought it was grass. Pity the people sitting next to me.
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Powerpoint: in the middle of a presentation, press "w" on your keyboard to generate a blank screen
These are the kind of teacher hacks I live for.
Particularly on PowerPoint. Because that’s where most of my days are spent at the moment. Me and @LJR_Maths have learned so many things this past month!
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My notes for the opening to my debate on ‘strict being bad’ at the ‘rethinking education’ event tomorrow… I’m sure all the activists in the room are going to love me! 😂 … would love your thoughts/feedback on this…
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I'm fascinated by a particularly bad bit of behaviour advice at the moment; the classroom teacher should take time outside of the classroom to discuss misbehaviour with a single student, a corridor talk during which time the classroom is not supervised. This is bonkers.
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A few months ago I was contacted by management for Harry Styles asking whether I would consider doing his portrait. I didn’t really know of his celebrity at the time so I said yes but I wish I hadn’t cause the whole thing has been a disaster.
He came to my holiday home in padstow and sat for two days but I only spent about 20 minutes on the picture in the end cause I had an issue with my russell hobbs fridge/freezer and so I had to defrost it and I realised there was some diced goat going off so I made massaman curry. Anyway I thought I’d done a good job of the pic but his management were quite cross and one of them said ‘it’s Harry Styles not Jeremy Beadle's face on a fucking egg’ and Harry just awkwardly kept saying it was an honour to meet me whilst not eating his curry. They didn't take the painting so I spoke to the National Portrait Gallery on the phone and they said they don’t take unsolicited submissions and it was hard to make a judgement on a call so I went in in person and the girl on the desk was really nice but said she wasn’t sure I was what they were looking for and she also said she didn’t want any goat massaman curry because she’s a vegetarian.
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STOP PRESS! I promise that as MP for Uxbridge & South Ruislip I WILL move the hand dryer in the gents’ urinals at the Crown & Treaty to a more sensible position. TO PROVE IT, I have just signed a treaty with the Crown & Treaty, that if I win they will move it. I keep my promises!
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Andrew Newell Wyeth (1917-2009).
Christina's World. 1948 Egg tempera on panel. 82x121 cm Museum of Modern Art. New York. USA.
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Student evaluations of teachers are not reliable because of a) biases and b) inability to discern expert practice. You can still sample student voice, but it cannot be authoritative.
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In Back to the Future, Marty goes back to 1955, where the year’s biggest song was ‘Mr Sandman’. If it happened today, Marty would be returning to 1993, where the year’s biggest song was ‘Enter Sandman’.
Goodnight.
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Exclusive: Thought the arrest of @GrahamSmith_ and @RepublicStaff protesters at the King’s coronation was a bit over the top? Meet Alice Chambers, a quiet, 36-year-old Aussie who’s lived in London for about seven years. What happened to her on Saturday is a wild ride.🧵
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#OnThisDay #OTD April 14, 1996, Skinner purchased fast food to disguise as his own cooking at an unforgettable luncheon with Superintendent Chalmers, when "22 Short Films About Springfield" first aired on Fox. @thatbilloakley @Joshstrangehill #TheSimpsons #SteamedHams
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8 Reasons for abolishing OFSTED or at the very least stripping it of it’s powers….
1.Unfair judgements - as inspections last for 2 days and are done by a small group of humans (sometimes 1), the chance for unreliable judgements is high
2.OFSTED doesn’t help schools to improve - following an inspection, OFSTED doesn’t help a school or it’s staff. For example ‘this school has bad behaviour in it’ - they walk away post inspection not to be seen until the next inspection. There is no school improvement arm to OFSTED.
3.Impact or a poor grade - this links to 1 and 2, but the community impact can be as follows: a) parents don’t want to send their kids to the school (each child is worth money to the school) b) some teachers don’t want to join the school as scared off by rating c) and prob the biggest - the psychological imprint of a poor grade is something I can’t imagine having to deal with as a school leader. But what I know is - it can be devastating for an individual and their family.
4.Pay and budgets - HMI pay is 72,000 a year, day inspection pay is £330. OFSTED budget is £150 million a year. Bonuses are awarded to OFSTED senior leaders usually between 5000 and 20000. OFSTED haven’t disclosed what these bonuses are for. In a school funding crisis, where teachers and TAs are having to battle for relatively small increases, surely this is wrong.
5.Impact of OFSTED pressure - it won’t take you long to find examples of leaders needing healthcare as a result of the pressure of upcoming inspection. Grades can be career defining but, as previously mentioned, are not reliable. The lottery of ‘who you get through the door’ and ‘what their lines of enquiry might be’ causes uncertainty, doubt and stress.
6.‘Doing it for OFSTED’ - OFSTED say no one should do anything for them which is easy for them to say when their own careers don’t rest on OFSTEDs judgements. Schools feel they need to ‘do’ all the time - new policies, new protocols, to ‘keep up’ with other schools and OFSTED themselves. The competition culture OFSTED inspires is damaging.
7.There are alternatives - the grading system doesn’t have to exist, neither does the OFSTED inspection system. Other countries do things very differently - take Italy, Ireland, Finland and Germany as just a few examples very close to home. It can’t possibly be argued that the English education system is better off than any of these by employing the system it does.
8.There is no evidence everything would fall apart without OFSTED - what’s the harm in giving it a try for a year or two? What’s the harm in a 5 year experiment - no OFSTED gradings whatsoever for 5 years and then survey schools, parents and children to find out about what’s changed for them positive or negative?