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Georgia Harper

@mindtheflap.bsky.social

Autistic autism policy wonk. Occasionally veers into Doctor Who and trains; not helping the stereotypes. Views my own. She/Her. https://linktr.ee/mindtheflap

2,635 Followers  |  852 Following  |  714 Posts  |  Joined: 03.07.2023
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Posts by Georgia Harper (@mindtheflap.bsky.social)

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Happy 30th birthday to all Pokemons who like dancing to Enya

27.02.2026 18:40 β€” πŸ‘ 347    πŸ” 116    πŸ’¬ 6    πŸ“Œ 9
Fake Telegraph headline from the Allister Heath Headline Generator reads: "Allister Heath: Britain's obsession with the Allister Heath Headline Generator has turned us into an international laughing stock." The generator can be found at tinyurl.com/tnw-heath

Fake Telegraph headline from the Allister Heath Headline Generator reads: "Allister Heath: Britain's obsession with the Allister Heath Headline Generator has turned us into an international laughing stock." The generator can be found at tinyurl.com/tnw-heath

27.02.2026 18:58 β€” πŸ‘ 7    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
A Class 465 train in Network Southeast livery at London Bridge train station with the Shard in the background

A Class 465 train in Network Southeast livery at London Bridge train station with the Shard in the background

Definitely a photo I'm proud of, the Shard is silly tall though!

465908 "Chris Green" in NSE Livery is seen calling at London Bridge with 2H48: 1726 Charing Cross to Tunbridge Wells service during the evening peak

Getting a photo from P5 during the peak is always risky with frequent Thameslinks!

26.02.2026 21:46 β€” πŸ‘ 256    πŸ” 28    πŸ’¬ 7    πŸ“Œ 0

don't think you're getting away with this btw

cc @ftw.bsky.social

26.02.2026 17:37 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0

I, whose literal job has been to understand the Schools White Paper for the past 3 days, have just found where the Specialist Provision Packages are set out in the supplementaries to the SEND reform consultation doc in the supplementaries to the White Paper

it's like it's deliberately inscrutable

25.02.2026 09:49 β€” πŸ‘ 9    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 3    πŸ“Œ 0

I'm writing this at 7.54am, so the Government does have an opportunity to do something extremely funny

23.02.2026 07:54 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Reminder as you read the morning papers and watch the breakfast news: The Schools White Paper isn't actually out yet. Until it's published - hopefully not too much longer now - and we've had a chance to actually read it, the Government sets the agenda and we're all just reacting to a press release.

23.02.2026 07:54 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 1

Just watched Battlefield, which means I have now seen every surviving episode of Doctor Who.

My hot take remains "I enjoy Doctor Who".

22.02.2026 21:29 β€” πŸ‘ 8    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

people just assume disability and chronic illness mean you are the same kind of disabled every day. that couldn't be further from the truth. and we have an employment system designed with very little flexibility in that regard

22.02.2026 00:23 β€” πŸ‘ 901    πŸ” 192    πŸ’¬ 9    πŸ“Œ 4

something abled people don't get is you can have just one day a week where you are too sick to work, and that's enough to disqualify you from nearly all full-time jobs. it doesn't take a lot

22.02.2026 00:20 β€” πŸ‘ 4722    πŸ” 1838    πŸ’¬ 54    πŸ“Œ 61

I think (I hope) this is the Times' framing rather than the Government's, but "who have had autism and ADHD *diagnosed*" only makes sense as a phrase if the next part is "but we don't believe them"

19.02.2026 17:21 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Because the transition to secondary school is famously a really easy time for everyone involved πŸ™ƒ

19.02.2026 13:53 β€” πŸ‘ 5    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Major 'leaks' of huge changes for schools - not fleshed out enough to provide any certainty or enable practical thought - during half term is really, really poor.

19.02.2026 08:18 β€” πŸ‘ 23    πŸ” 6    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 2
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Dear DfE, don't marginalise special schools and AP! In their quest for inclusion, ministers must not push specialist settings to the margins

'Mainstream school appears 13 times in the new DfE estates strategy. Special school doesn’t appear once'

https://schoolsweek.co.uk/dear-dfe-dont-marginalise-special-schools-and-ap/

18.02.2026 16:02 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 6    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1
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Families face a bitter fight for SEND support: 'It nearly killed us'

Big Issue has spoken to seven families about their fights for educational support for their disabled children, as the government prepares to announce plans to overhaul the system.

17.02.2026 07:03 β€” πŸ‘ 14    πŸ” 5    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1

do you know what would help!!!!!!!! living in a society that lets people experiment with their gender without treating it like the most important thing in the world!!!!!!! letting people get it right or wrong without politicising their decisions!!!!!!! just being chilled about gender!!!!!! aaahhhhhh

16.02.2026 17:03 β€” πŸ‘ 2037    πŸ” 368    πŸ’¬ 30    πŸ“Œ 8

Roses are red,
Violets are blue
Can I make it anymore obvious?

14.02.2026 15:18 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Spare a thought for @ftw.bsky.social, who had to try and flirt with me through Literally This Level Of Obliviousness

14.02.2026 18:26 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Just a stone's throw away from @ftw.bsky.social, despite the fact he isn't actually on the map

09.02.2026 13:23 β€” πŸ‘ 5    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

I don't believe that all mental health challenges are downstream of politics but I've been finding it increasingly rough, watching autism & ADHD turned into a new theatre of the culture wars. The hit pieces on SEN kids, the endless badly-researched columns on 'overdiagnosis' - I feel really crushed.

07.02.2026 16:26 β€” πŸ‘ 123    πŸ” 25    πŸ’¬ 7    πŸ“Œ 2
Snowy owl perched on a barbed wire fence watching the sun go down.

Snowy owl perched on a barbed wire fence watching the sun go down.

Happy #SuperbOwl Sunday! πŸͺΆ

08.02.2026 11:09 β€” πŸ‘ 263    πŸ” 45    πŸ’¬ 3    πŸ“Œ 1
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The War Between the Land and Sea – Reviewed! The shape of homo aqua… Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Salt, accompanied by two Sea Devils (Image: BBC) Adam Kendrick provides his thoughts on the latest Doctor Who spinoff, The War Between the Land and the Se…

We're back! Adam Kendrick reviews The War Between the Land and the Sea for Tides of Time. 'Admirable dedication' 'Weird limbo' 'sweetness and sense of empathy' - but why and where, and what else? #doctorwho #thewarbetween oxforddoctorwho-tidesoftime.blog/2026/02/07/t...

08.02.2026 09:10 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 2

Oof, this hits hard

07.02.2026 17:12 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Autistic girls much less likely to be diagnosed, study says By age 20 diagnosis rates for men and women almost equal, research finds, challenging assumptions of gender discrepancy

Important study in Sweden found that females may be just as likely to be autistic as males but boys are up to four times more likely to be diagnosed in childhood. www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

06.02.2026 23:04 β€” πŸ‘ 291    πŸ” 105    πŸ’¬ 10    πŸ“Œ 9

Like, for most of my adult life my anxiety stuff has been much more disabling than my actual autistic traits, and it's not always simple to pick the two apart but you shouldn't *have* to tie it to autism for it to be seen as a Valid Acceptable Anxiety

06.02.2026 08:36 β€” πŸ‘ 6    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Don't like how quickly "ADHD and anxiety" has turned into a dogwhistle for "not really disabled".

Yes, because it's being used to undermine a much broader range of needs, but mainly because it's really cruel and unfair *to people with ADHD and/or anxiety*, both of which can be very disabling indeed

06.02.2026 08:31 β€” πŸ‘ 20    πŸ” 4    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0

seeing this Daily Tism article while sat on a chair, thinking "hahaha not about me but very funny" and slowly realising that right at that moment I was in a position not entirely dissimilar to spirali pasta

05.02.2026 18:07 β€” πŸ‘ 56    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

also: it genuinely baffles me that so many autistic pupils end up out of school because they can't meet increasingly rigid rules around behaviour, uniform etc

when as the kind of autistic pupil who would actually follow all of that to the letter, I can tell you now this is somehow ALSO wrong? πŸ™ƒ

04.02.2026 11:23 β€” πŸ‘ 12    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

(disclaimer: I work for Ambitious about Autism, who produced this survey; views posted here are my own)

04.02.2026 09:00 β€” πŸ‘ 7    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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One in six autistic pupils in UK have not attended school at all since September Data comes as government prepares to publish plans to overhaul Send system in England

Really harrowing figures. In particular it *really* frustrates me that a non-zero number of autistic children end up out of education entirely due to minor uniform infractions to meet sensory needs - if uniform is meant to be a leveller that's not how to do it!

www.theguardian.com/education/20...

04.02.2026 09:00 β€” πŸ‘ 53    πŸ” 12    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 1