Chief Executive, Advantage Schools
Joined February 2009
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Stuart Lock retweeted
So much damage is done by the idea that there is a majority of people for whom life is straightforward. The world was designed for them, they effortlessly comply with societal demands and get over their life stresses easily. They never wonder whether there is something different about them, or criticise themselves for minor failings. They sail through school and work. They have meaningful relationships with only transient conflict. Their emotions are manageable and in proportion. They are round pegs in round holes.
The neurotypical
Some people look like this from the outside. Hardly anyone reports being like this from the inside. Yet more and more books and training programmes promote the idea that if you’re not like this, you must be neurodivergent. Wired differently.
We have pathologised the human condition.
Stuart Lock retweeted
Suspensions and exclusions are a necessary part of a functioning system. Their elevated use can indicate a healthy system responding to increased or high challenge, or attempting to improve standards that are low. There is no correct rate of exclusion. The only question that needs to be answered is, 'Was this exclusion necessary, given the behaviour that preceded it?'
If this can be honestly answered 'yes' then the rate is simply a by-product of that circumstance.
Criticising a school for having a higher than average rate is like criticising a hospital for having a greater mortality rate than the cinema next door.
Schools cannot be sensibly asked to tailor individual suspension or exclusion decisions to a hypothetical 'right' level described by other circumstances.
Stuart Lock retweeted
Very disappointing to see education folks burning their credibility like this. Notable, too, how many of them were sharply critical of virtual during COVID but now think a AI education is the future.
Stuart Lock retweeted
If you feel the need to start your argument by claiming that what you are advocating in education is not dumbing down, then it's probably dumbing down.
Stuart Lock retweeted
Reducing inequality in education outcomes by…no longer measuring it
This policy would be utterly laughable were it not so harmful
📚 | NEW REPORT: Disadvantaged children are nearly three times less likely to achieve the highest marks in Year 6 SATs.
We call for a rethink of primary school assessments to reduce inequality, ease pressure on teachers and create a fairer system for all pupils.
Read here 👇
ippr.org/articles/what-comes…
Stuart Lock retweeted
Years ago I was chatting with a friend who taught year 4. It was the time that the times tables check was coming in. She said she was worried about it. I said why, surely you've been doing the times tables for years and its not a big deal
She looked at me and was like "yeah kind of but not really"
I was reminded of Ofsted's research into KS2 science SATS. Once they went, science in primary declined.
Similar pattern in secondaries with removal of KS3 assessments. Its a normal and uncontroversial area of educational policy theory:
Standardised external assessments drive behaviour. Same in primary, same in secondary. Removing them lowers the stakes, lowers focus and reduces standards.
Stuart Lock retweeted
If you're worried that the Government's plan to offer technical pathways from age 14 could mean the end of a 'broad and balanced' curriculum, you might want to look away now....
🫣
My new post on LinkedIn: lnkd.in/p/eBgaXGv2
Stuart Lock retweeted
Year 9 girls were on rugby this morning & Year 9 boys were on basketball. Great to see both groups showcasing excellent sportsmanship 👏
@PeHoustone
Stuart Lock retweeted
I found the Children's Commissioner's Childhood Lottery a frustrating read. I have no doubt more children have difficult childhoods in Middlesbrough than Surrey. But excluding obvious confounding factors and selecting on dependent variables is not a good way to make that case.🧵
Stuart Lock retweeted
England is forgetting that education policy should be based on evidence and informed by experience - my first Substack piece
amvspielman.substack.com/p/g…
Stuart Lock retweeted
Shot / Chaser
This stuff isn't about "children talking in lessons". It's about whether or not politicians understand what improves outcomes for students. Pushing schools to groovy but nebulous ideas leads to worse results.
@LucyMPowell
h/t @StuartLock @Trivium21c
Stuart Lock retweeted
'Oracy' is principally associated with a school with negative Progress 8 and a programme that didn't show positive impact. It's a failed idea with a name that won't resonate with the public (cf. many don't know what *numeracy* is!)
Who is this meant to win over other than Hyman?!
Stuart Lock retweeted
The Welsh National Curriculum guidance for English in 2008.
Anything stand out?
Stuart Lock retweeted
What a rallying cry! Maybe we're in for a period where it's "truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne" - but reality wins in the end.
There's been a lot of talk in the last few weeks in edu circles about whether the trad education movement has failed, what it needs to do next, etc.
This article is just the latest in a succession of examples that shows how us edu-trads have not been nearly as successful as we hoped in altering elite consensus on education.
We have obviously seen with all the Labour party policies that we completely failed to convince Labour.
But actually, it's not like we've really convinced the Conservatives either. This is Dan Hannan, major figure in Brexit, major figure in Conservative politics, presumably has some idea of who Michael Gove is - and here he is in the Telegraph confidently asserting that we no longer need to know things because we can look things up.
(The ironies in this piece abound, by the way. He argues for lessons in spotting bad bogus arguments at the same time as building an article around the argument that memory doesn't matter any more. He argues that "identifying improbable claims" is a generic skill that can be taught in the abstract, at the same time as claiming that handwriting and geography are obsolete. He says that you can always just look up what you need, whilst signally failing to look up any of the evidence on the role of long-term memory...I could go on.)
I wrote a few weeks ago that there was some evidence journalists at the Financial Times were waking up to all the evidence on cognitive science, its implications for schools, the international test evidence.
But the elite understanding of this is a very thin layer, absolutely skin deep.
The mass of second-hand dealers in ideas are still distilling their frenzy from Romantic pedagogy.
Depressing. I honestly don't know what else we can do.
We wrote the books. We had the debates. We built the schools. We aced the tests.
And then it turned out nobody cared.
Right now it is definitely a bleak time to be a trad. It feels like we are on Athelney Marshes, beset by vandals without and dissension within.
BUT we have to keep the faith. Reality is an undefeated champion. Despair is a sin! What we do works!
It may well be that for now, the New World with all its power & might etc., is going to have to step in to save our bacon for a bit. Maybe the momentum is shifting to @ehanford and Sold a Story, @rastokke and Chalk & Talk, @jettybe3 , etc.
We have got to dig in. As Declan Rice said, it's not done!
Stuart Lock retweeted
There's been a lot of talk in the last few weeks in edu circles about whether the trad education movement has failed, what it needs to do next, etc.
This article is just the latest in a succession of examples that shows how us edu-trads have not been nearly as successful as we hoped in altering elite consensus on education.
We have obviously seen with all the Labour party policies that we completely failed to convince Labour.
But actually, it's not like we've really convinced the Conservatives either. This is Dan Hannan, major figure in Brexit, major figure in Conservative politics, presumably has some idea of who Michael Gove is - and here he is in the Telegraph confidently asserting that we no longer need to know things because we can look things up.
(The ironies in this piece abound, by the way. He argues for lessons in spotting bad bogus arguments at the same time as building an article around the argument that memory doesn't matter any more. He argues that "identifying improbable claims" is a generic skill that can be taught in the abstract, at the same time as claiming that handwriting and geography are obsolete. He says that you can always just look up what you need, whilst signally failing to look up any of the evidence on the role of long-term memory...I could go on.)
I wrote a few weeks ago that there was some evidence journalists at the Financial Times were waking up to all the evidence on cognitive science, its implications for schools, the international test evidence.
But the elite understanding of this is a very thin layer, absolutely skin deep.
The mass of second-hand dealers in ideas are still distilling their frenzy from Romantic pedagogy.
Depressing. I honestly don't know what else we can do.
We wrote the books. We had the debates. We built the schools. We aced the tests.
And then it turned out nobody cared.
Right now it is definitely a bleak time to be a trad. It feels like we are on Athelney Marshes, beset by vandals without and dissension within.
BUT we have to keep the faith. Reality is an undefeated champion. Despair is a sin! What we do works!
It may well be that for now, the New World with all its power & might etc., is going to have to step in to save our bacon for a bit. Maybe the momentum is shifting to @ehanford and Sold a Story, @rastokke and Chalk & Talk, @jettybe3 , etc.
We have got to dig in. As Declan Rice said, it's not done!
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