Can we turn KS3 into the ambitious years? Well hello there, and welcome to update #166!

"Too often, KS3 is treated as a rehearsal for GCSEs rather than a stage with its own intellectual purpose."

@marymyatt.bsky.social asks: Can we turn Key Stage 3 into the ambitious years?

marymyatt.substack.com/p/can-we-tur...

I'm starting to get some *wonderful* messages about Making Change Stick now that school leaders have had the chance to read it 😍

Check out my pod chat with Ollie Lovell here: open.spotify.com/episode/1gxX...

And check out the free taster course here: makingchangestick.co

sorry - missed this Alec. What's replaced with what?

just in case someone can let me have the link to importance of music notation - explicit teaching required (+ practice) implicit teaching then explicit + practice.

Oracy - tremendously important, particularly so since Covid. But puzzled that extent of v.poor reading, particularly in ie Islington didn't lead to more evidence-informed, inexpensive, targetted solutions.

Don't use LinkedIn but agree so much with co-ordination of early years agencies. Recently shown friend's prem baby pics reacting brilliantly to speech & movement,music etc at only a few weeks. So alert.

@alexjquigley.bsky.social Great admirer of the clarity and detail of your writing but believe v. strongly in simplicity + economy. I don't like to use bluesky to promote personal decisions but I am campaigning to replace EEF mix of trad and progressive.

Wes Streeting with the help of Alan ‘got rich in private healthcare’ Milburn, his adviser, are proposing throwing far more public money to the private sector. We can all celebrate making Private Equity bosses much much richer whilst we suffer.

This isn’t change, this is the Tories on steroids.

In July 2025, Gibb's impartiality was again questioned in an open letter from over 400 media figures to the BBC "we are concerned that individual w. close ties to Jewish Chronicle … has a say in the BBC's editorial decisions in any capacity, incl. decision not to broadcast Gaza. Implications huge.

The legislation is so ludicrous, even the police look embarrassed when called upon to enforce it.

Hundreds of elderly people charged under anti-terrorism laws because of a cardboard sign.

Although Kevan Collins must have exceptional managerial qualities I wonder how/why @bphillipsonmp.bsky.social would agree to pay c.50 times as much for 23 hrs per annum than the average worker receives. How many months/years wd the average worker need to work?

So, this happened… thanks to @waterstones.bsky.social

No. 39 in my #FavePicturebooks25 is “Good Golden Sun” by @brendanwenzel.bsky.social
A simple idea, tracing the sun’s journey becomes something brilliant. It shows how energy moves through the world and give everything life, and visually it zings. Great science. Fab stuff. #PicturebookPage

Once more for the weekend long read crowd 👇

Wonderful article from @alexjquigley.bsky.social (although #EEF has done brilliant work it has also included work of dubious/harmful worth and is massively expensive)

“We’re doing things that kind of go against what we [Holder/Obama] talked about...“we have to preserve our democracy if ultimately we’re going to heal it.” via Washington Post 22/10/2-25.

Sometimes Old Andrew' Education Battleground can feel out of kilter with the zeitgist but he can be one of the few voices analysing the situation- as here: The problem with interventions for mental health. 'Debates about what we should do can distract from debates about what we can do'

I lived in the area (top of Brixton Hill) for nearly 2 decades and saw the horrendous life-chances/illiteracy of many of the schools in the area. Jasmine Lane's work - including stemming the decline in literacy - has been remarkable. Shame on the government for reneging on their promise.

'For the entire time I’ve lived here, I believed that the strength of British identity and pride would withstand anything, that no gale could deter the journey forward. How naive I had been'

https://schoolsweek.co.uk/ive-given-my-all-to-britain-teaching-education-now-im-told-i-may-not-belong-here/

Inside tech billionaire Peter Thiel’s off-the-record lectures about the antichrist The political svengali and investor has been giving lectures on ‘an evil king or tyrant … who appears in the end times’

Tech-investor Peter Thiel, best known for sponsoring J.D. Vance and co-founding Palantir, goes theology:

“Over the past month, Thiel has hosted a series of 4 lectures on the downtown waterfront of San Francisco philosophizing about who the antichrist could be and warning that Armageddon is coming.“

Found it at last - 'Stig' passage is on Mary Myatt and John Tomsett SEND Huh p.221 - it's brilliant-taught me so much.

Reported plans to introduce mandatory Year 8 reading tests are more popular with classroom teachers than heads, according to a new @teachertapp.bsky.social poll.

🔗 Read the full analysis: www.tes.com/magazine/new...

I watched the 1st meeting day of RFK Jr’s handpicked committee of vaccine advisors. It was utterly depressing. 1/

Music Video | Rec Today Rec Today is a team of professionals who know how to make a music video that stands out from hundreds of others.

alex - on a book you recommended today on oracy - is there a way of ordering that's not through Penguin? Can't cope with additional emails but would love to buy the book.

What is a knowledge-rich curriculum? In any event not just facts, not just math and reading, and not elitist. It is the strongest lever for equity. And thus ultimately a matter of social justice. #EduSky

@timsurma.bsky.social, @danielmuijs.bsky.social

Reuters story which is headlined: White House moves forward on plans for a Department of War, By Reuters August 30, 2025

NEW: Man who wants Nobel Peace Prize creates Department of War.

Some more beautiful books here that arrived on my doorstep yesterday. @marymyatt.bsky.social . Perfect for animal classification and packed full of facts that could be used across school . My five year old loves them. #edutwitter #primaryreading #lovebooks

YES! So well articulated.

Peter Hain says UK government ‘digging itself into hole’ over Palestine Action Peer opposed banning group and says fellow Labour peers and MPs are regretting proscription

A former cabinet minister has said the UK government is “digging itself into a hole” over Palestine Action and fellow Labour peers and MPs were regretting voting to ban the group. www.theguardian.com/politics/202... #wato

DDoLL (Development Disorders of Language and Literature) has been forced to close (technical reasons that are too costly to put right, I understand). Greg Ashman 'Filling the Pail' etc + Substack contributor is setting up a network to continue invaluable support - join via Google.