John Cosgrove

Taken from contributions from nationwide colleagues sharing their thoughts from long careers. Didn't quite get to 1000 years of experience, but have been revisiting their contributions.

chrischiversthinks.weebly.com/blog-thinkin...

Congratulations, Kathryn. Looking forward to this.

Pupils lose court fight over 'distressing' isolation policy School had not 'crossed the boundaries of what the law or good practice permits', judge says

So, a judicial review finds that making a child sit in silence for 6 hours, staring at the walls of an "isolation booth" for 83 days of the year is not against the law.

I'm with Dickens on this: "If the law supposes that, the law is an ass."
share.google/2lCYyqzfphbh...

Very clever, very funny man. A real loss.

Ah! That would explain it.

Bakewell: we found fudge, pasties and a beautiful riverside walk... but I saw no tarts.

Remember:

100,000+ people marching about war/austerity/gaza/tuition fees/Brexit = elite out of touch with the wider British people

-1000 racist thugs trying to riot at a asylum hostel = Britain a tinderbox, we need to bring Farage in urgently to stop it exploding

I don't know about stoic... Mrs C prefers "daft".

Covid Blood Updated for a second time in September 2021 with a new final paragraph “It won’t be much fun, but this is your best chance of keeping the leg.” It was 10.30 at night.  Lights were out in the r…

... Not that I, personally, have any reason to regard him with anything less than immense gratitude. The mistakes came earlier and were not his fault.
johncosgrove55.wordpress.com/2020/07/30/c...

Truro surgeon accused of fraud over his leg amputations Neil Hopper, 49, is also accused of encouraging the commission of grievous bodily harm.

The only reason I recall the name of the surgeon who took off my toes 5 years ago is because Mr Hopper seemed comically appropriate. Not quite nominative determinism but close...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

In 3 years 472 pupils left "before the scheduled end of their time at the school." 28% had SEND; 39% had no alternative school to go to. All this is bad enough but I really hope it's not true staff were expected to issue 25 detentions each, every week.

www.itv.com/news/meridia...

We’re calling on Bridget Phillipson to rethink approach to early years.

Children need play, not pressure.
The science is clear, school readiness shouldn’t come at the cost of child development.

🖊️ Sign the open letter: forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/Respon...
#PlayMatters #RethinkEarlyYears

Any schools using Seesaw for free? RTs welcomed.

"Centre" right ideas?

I see the National Trust at Trelissick has taken a clear stance on the controversy de nos jours. On one side of the shop are books about people's walks along the Coast Path; the other side has novels, though "Cornish" is not entirely accurate for those pictured bottom right...

Thank you. That worked (I think).

Hi Dorothy. I just tried but BlueSky informed me you can't be messaged. Sorry.

From the headline "Racket" to the scorn poured on neurodiversity (after which I stopped reading) it's an outpouring of nasty prejudice. While sad that anyone could be so ignorant as to pen it, and sad that anyone would publish it, I am glad it's behind a paywall and readership will be limited.

Thank you.

Two reports in 2019 (Children's Commissioner and Children's Society) highlighted Children in Care missing out on education - being forced to miss out on education - but the Government was too busy crying crocodile tears over "the attainment gap" to do anything to solve this abuse.

Threats and place ‘caps’: Councils reveal admission woes Watchdog report shows widespread clashes between councils and academy trusts as Labour plans admission reforms

Schools using admissions processes to keep out Looked After pupils and those with SEND? I (and others) have been banging on about this for years. It's more important and damages far more children than term time holidays. Bridget, please sort it. Now.

schoolsweek.co.uk/enforcement-...

Like a Moth (& Raynor) to a flame The Salt Path, brass neck and the blame game. And a genuinely brilliant and moving alternative to the Salt Path which you should read instead.

The Observer expose about the Winns/Walkers has been, predictably, followed by a slew of opinion pieces, some better than others, but this one is IMO the best so far: open.substack.com/pub/theladyn...

Thank you Jenny!

Thank you Helen.

Our town is 3 miles from the most glorious beaches. It's been an urban "myth" for years, denied by many, that there were children living here who had never been to the beach. Then a Radio 4 programme (The Patch) came and demonstrated it was true.

Thank you.

Lewis Carroll's Cheshire Cat faded away to a grin. Our Cornish Cat doesn't do grins; she will one day fade away to a scowl.

Now there's an idea... 😅

Thank you Jenny.

To Fine or Not to Fine? I agree with the 250 psychiatrists who have written to Gavin Williamson imploring him to ditch fines for non-attendance at school, though my reasoning is more practical: fining parents doesn’t work…

Thank you. I think - I hope - I am writing as a teacher. Albeit retired now, I wasn't when I first wrote about attendance and when I did the analyses mentioned here:
johncosgrove55.wordpress.com/2020/08/27/t...