Michael Tidd

They're 5 and 7... And to be fair, I may have spoken too soon! Thankfully, as they got more bored, it became time for them to go to a soft play birthday party (not with me!)

I'm pleased to announce that we seem to have reached the break-even point on children being a help vs a hindrance!

Wait what? I thought it was out Tuesday!

Happy Christmas Tree Day to all those celebrating today.
May your loft ladder hold steady and your boxes stay strong.

I keep seeing it described as the *inaugural* FIFA peace prize.

Surely they'll never do it again?

Or if they did, surely no right thinking peace-seeker would accept it?

An orange man baby

Me when I’ve unloaded the dishwasher yet again.

"You can do anything ... grab 'em by the Antarctic. You can do anything."

It's starting to feel like we live inside an episode of The Day Today

The Nobel committee have just launched a football prize and made Diana Ross their first recipient.

Headline image: "New Capita-run civil service pension portal full of errors" From: The Register

Well, I, for one, am hugely shocked by this.
Imagine capita cutting corners and screwing something up. Again.

Ideologically driven approach to SEND fails to help "neurodiverse" pupils The PINS programme failed to have a measurable impact on pupil attainment, attendance, exclusions, or suspensions

New blog post.

Ideologically driven approach to SEND fails to help "neurodiverse" pupils
open.substack.com/pub/andrewol...

51 minutes to get through to someone on the Teachers Pensions live chat... Then the conversation closed because I didn't respond within 60 seconds!

These seem like straightforward things that an EHCP wouldn't really affect
The wider issue is interesting: we talk about EHC, but it mostly seems to fall to the E

What sort of support is missing that only an EHCP can provide?

Then everyone who might meet it, gets assessed for all their possible needs and given an entitlement to treatment - and no NIHCE to decide whether those interventions are worth the cost.
I reckon most people over 40 would end up with a plan, and reasonable grounds to demand a personal trainer.

Also, while the process can be unwieldy, the threshold for an initial needs assessment is incredibly low - and had led to LAs trying to find ways to gatekeep it, which have created the nightmare system.
Imagine the equivalent in health: everyone who may have a health need and might need support

The outcomes issue gets completely lost.
The quality of EHCPs is atrocious and the quality of decision-making about cost-benefits of "interventions", non-existent. So much statutory entitlement now is impactless.
If you simply pass those same responsibilities to schools, nothing gets cheaper.

🤣 took me a while to work out what "gunshee" might be

But yes, it's a good point.
I guess it was much less likely for your HoD or head to read what you wrote!

I'd love to see posts and blogs about why instructional coaching might not be all that, for example
but you'd have to be brave, and who would act on it?
Power to try stuff out has moved from classrooms to trusts, often.

Maybe there's also a trough in 'rebellion' and opportunity.
There was a time when it was okay to oppose things, or suggest alternatives, based on experience. Now everything is argued as evidence-based (regardless of the quality) that's harder.
I feel like we're back in a national strategies window.

Not only more careful, but have less to say to big audiences. I tried things as a classroom teacher which were relatively safe to try and to discuss, and relevant to a wide audience who might adopt some of the thinking. I think that audience has shrunk along with teacher autonomy.

Careful, fella - I reckon she's only after you for your body

Thank you!

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🤣

Oh, you're in for more treats. The third series is a delight, and worth it for the toothbrushing reference alone!

This clip from the marvellous Two Doors Down is becoming the soundtrack to my life in education lately...

And should we really be serving espressos to infants anyway!

My suspicion is that nor do they.

Three-quarters of parents let children miss school for ‘duvet day’ Survey shows changing attitudes towards school attendance among parents

It's alright though - we've got AI targets now, so that should solve that issue. 🙄
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...