Gareth K. Thomas ❤️‍🩹

Every week, I speak to schools going above and beyond (with too few staff, too little money, and enormous stress) to do right by their children.

I also see children being pushed out of schools and into specialist provision because the school can’t (or won’t) meet their needs.

Children should attend school with their neighbours, friends, and teammates.

To make this possible, they need to have their needs met.

This can’t be the sole responsibility of schools (who have enough on their plates), but they clearly play a vital role in meeting needs.

Clearly, for some children, there is a need for specialist provision.

For the vast majority of children, they should be able to attend their local school (where their friends go, where transport is logical/affordable, where they are part of their community).

By the end of the decade:

📈 One in every 20 children will have an EHCP

📈 Special school placements will cost councils £8bn

(According to the CCN)

There’s an over-reliance on higher-cost placements/specialist provision, including private school places, according to The County Councils Network (CCN).

In 2014/15, there were 109,000 children in special schools in England.

Now, there are 194,000.

Another day, another sign our SEND system is utterly broken.

At the start of this year, there were 638,745 EHCPs in place.

That’s up 10.8% from the same time last year.

However, it’s not just EHCPs that are breaking budgets...

This is from a school that excels in many areas, and I understand why these things happen.

However, it ties in with the broader point I often make: we’ve moved away from humanity and connection, replacing them with systematisation and automation.

Nothing says “well done” like a failed mail-merge.

We are educating children for a world where they will navigate social media, manage personal data, identify misinformation, and use mobile technology for work and communication. If we ban the device entirely for seven formative years, we are sending them into the digital deep end without ever teaching them how to swim.

I’m part of the last generation to experience childhood without a smartphone.

I learned how to “swim in the digital deep” as an adult who got to play as a kid.

Seems to work well.

Last weekend, a machine cut a duplicate key for me.

This weekend, a machine processed my lunch order.

I didn’t need to speak to another human.

Is this progress?

As a care-leaver, my eldest was automatically entitled to significant benefits.

I encouraged and supported him into part time work. The ‘benefits’ he’s gained from this are immeasurable.

Full report… www.northwalessafeguardingboard.wales/wp-content/...

From the Child Practice Review (CPR) looking at Neil Foden, the former head teacher and "prolific sex offender who harmed many children".

Will lessons be learned?

For the families I work with…

Their children didn’t play when they were little.

They were too hungry, scared, terrified.

They were trying to survive.

I no longer have any doubts about the importance of play.

All while charging Local Authorities £85,617 per pupil, per year.

www.20splenty.org/2nd_anniver...

In Wales, over a period of 18 months:

“...14 people have not been killed on Welsh roads because of 20mph and 98 will have avoided a hospital visit for a serious injury.”

Proud to live in a country where research and policy override politics.

Ooooh... new book from Charlie Mackesy out this month. 😍

There's no parent-blaming here. My youngest chose to stay home and watch TV instead of walking the dog.

But I do worry. Where did all the kids go?

5pm, after school, on a mild September evening.

This purpose-built facility in our village is empty.

Not a child in sight here, or on the two surrounding playing fields, or in the two nearby playgrounds.

Keep school at school. Keep home at home.

For children with trauma, this is often essential.

Why do schools do this?

An email goes out asking, “Are you nervous about being back in school?” on the same day they’re putting a child into a “lunchtime lockdown” for chewing gum (a well-known regulation strategy for children with trauma).

From an interview with Peter Lamont, author of Radical Thinking.

All three of my kids were shown graphic videos of Charlie Kirk’s assassination yesterday.

They’re three different ages, in three different education settings (two of which have phone bans), across three local authorities.

One of my kids doesn’t have their own smartphone.

Would you say that's the primary driver of this increase?

UNDERSTANDING behaviour is not EXCUSING behaviour.

👉 Going below surface-level behaviour is not dismissing behaviour

👉 Being radically curious about behaviour is not accepting behaviour

👉 Accepting what drives behaviour is not endorsing behaviour

Therapeutic bath. 🛁 ❤️‍🩹

As our kids return to school, I’m thinking of all those wonderful security blankets in the form of humans who work tirelessly with our kids.

Children with trauma want a better life.

That starts with never feeling that scared again.

Is this sustainable?

From Lana Hempsall in The Spectator.

Tom Bennett: strict rules ‘dovetail perfectly’ with inclusion The DfE attendance and behaviour ambassador defends his record and tells Tes why he wants to check on teacher-training providers

www.tes.com/magazine/ne...