I did this once in the pre-internet era and was misled by an Italian who said that in was a single town split by the border. Cue a long walk with a heavy rucksack to get to Noba Gorica. The border guards gave me a quizzical look.
Was a lawyer, now a primary teacher. Interested in politics, chess, citizenship and education especially reading and maths. Has lived in šÆšµš°š·and now in š±š¦. https://open.substack.com/pub/markgoodrich
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I did this once in the pre-internet era and was misled by an Italian who said that in was a single town split by the border. Cue a long walk with a heavy rucksack to get to Noba Gorica. The border guards gave me a quizzical look.
I found this a really interesting explanation of why students struggle with experiment variables and a possible solution. Will be of interest to #EduSkyPrimary as well as secondary given that these terms are usually introduced in upper primary.
A couples of unsung heroes I hadnāt appreciated before this are (a) Lucyās older brother who let her play with him and his mates and always put her on his team and (b) her boysā team coach (read it for the story there!).
In general, not a big fan of interviews with sportspeople but this was fascinating and touching. On BBC 1 later today, if you wouke rather watch it than read it. www.bbc.co.uk/sport/footba...
Looks great - very much looking forward to getting my hands n a copy!
You already took some of my favourite authors (check out their other books as well!) but I would definitely nominate The Letter for the King. A straightforwardly told but thrilling adventure that some kids have loved.
I guess āpunchyā is one way to describe the policies of Enoch Powell and the BNP.
This is a huge benefit of this platform.
Charley!
Amazon has currently got a bunch of very good educational books on Kindle at 99p. (Yeah - not my favourite place to buy from either but I can justify to myself for something I would not otherwise buy).
Itās very tricky, isnāt it? I canāt immediately think of anyone who would be exactly right. Needs academic chops, no nonsense style and not too overtly political (the whole point was that Bragg had to avoid anything political).
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Wow - just did the maths to work out he was 86. If I can be half as on the ball at that age, I will be well chuffed.
This is one of the most extraordinary programmes ever made by the BBC which I only discovered a few years ago. The back catalogue of obscure and fascinating knowledge is amazing! Really hope it carries on after Melvyn Braggās departure although it may not be quite the same.
Iād love to see people polled on this because I live in a bubble where everyone knows that foreign students cross-subsidise domestic students but you may well be right that the general population doesnāt think this at all.
Brave and important blog by @mbdscience.bsky.social. Canāt believe feedback like that was given to anyone. (Also, it would be nice to see Claudia back on here). open.substack.com/pub/mbdscien...
I sometimes see a little āblockedā sign come up in peopleās replies. I am guessing thatās what happens if the blocked person is replied to and otherwise it just disappeared. Itās a great tool, isnāt it? Even if I rarely use, itās nice to know it is there.
I am generally very tolerant of people and *touch wood* I havenāt had any abuse on here.
Curious to know what happensā¦.do others see a blocked reply under my recent post quoting Sam Freedmanās Substack?
Just did my first ever block on Bluesky.
I think the big danger is that as a minor party leader, this will be the one thing people can remember about him.
Apols for no alt-text. āBut for the government itās quite mad to keep using X. Itās active participation in its own destruction and against its own interests. I cannot fathom the logic of doing it. It would be like a Reform government communicating entirely through the Guardian comments section.ā
This by @samfr.bsky.social absolutely nails the madness of government comms going out on X. (Full list of questions and answers for those with a subscription below. I ask the first Q) open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/w...
I donāt really keep up with news from my previous career but this is a staggering scandal and failure of oversight. When I started out, Ince & Co were a major and well-regarded firm.
I am sure she will!
Try to find time to talk to the teacher about what they are trying to achieve. Teachers can very task-focused when they are busy but understanding the purpose of the lesson makes a huge difference.
Sadly, even Elon Musk is failing to move the needle any more. He is literally promoting fascists daily and the people still on X seem to be *shrugs*.
It is noticeable that a lot of people who have accounts have stopped posting (education sphere in my case). Difficult to see it moving unless there is some government action against X (totally justified for reasons that @sundersays.bsky.social has outlined).
It could hardly be clearer that X is in breach of its Equality Act duty tp provide an equal service to minorities, when broken complaints system invariably defends endemic unlawful hate crimes Its what Labour under Corbyn got done for: no adequate mechanisms for complaints But the EHRC is asleep
Obviously, correlation with parental circumstances causes most of this but there might be something important about the first day. Summed up well in this blog: open.substack.com/pub/lynseywh...
I think this is definitely better!
Yes - I used to do it as one of the the summer term Year 4 books combined with a trip to Kew Gardens. Lovely because I know they would have struggled a bit with it at the beginning of Year.
The Explorer by Katherine Rundell. Engaging and gripping story, strong curriculum links, sharply drawn characters that develop throughout the story. Itās a joy!
Icymi If youāre getting ready to go back to school and will be leading English or science in primary, these new books are just for you! Please do share with anyone you think might find them helpful.
You could do an experiment on an intervention to encourage attendance during the first week and see if that has any effect. I was referring to an experiment to check whether attendance in the first week makes a difference to subsequent attendance.
I think it would be difficult to set up an experiment ethically although looking at subsequent week attendance might offer some indication.
Thatās true but I have a hunch that coming in on the first day is a marginal push in the direction of attendance for the rest of the year and not coming in is a marginal push in the other direction. Would be interesting to see the Week 2 or Week 4 statistics to see if that is right.
This also relates to a correlation / causation point that I saw somebody make on this. Still, even with those caveats, I think it is worth the gov making the point to parents and schools in the hope that it moves the needle a little.
Fair point but I think there will be an element of causality in this.
As teachers start to head back to schools, I think this blog by @clairestoneman.bsky.social is a great way to think about behaviour. Creating good behaviour has so many components that it is definitely an intellectual challenge! substack.com/inbox/post/1...
This is what support for womenās football looks like! ā¤ļø www.bbc.co.uk/sport/footba...
With West Ham last in the Moyes cup?
A real expert on this Is @mralmonded.bsky.social but he has been sadly missing from here recently.
Ah - this is something I have had a major change of mind on. I now think there are real benefits to investing time in helping children to write legibly and fluently. Also, oddly may become of more practical importance as AI forces us to rely more on written exams again.
I am glad you said this. Most people working in education know this to be correct but itās often missed by lots of smart people outside the education sphere who want to teach kids critical thinking, creativity and ā21st century skillsā without appreciating that they canāt be taught in a vacuum.
20 minutes walk from where my mum lives. Sickening. (Although also important to note that a local window cleaner cleaned it off for free - there are good people out there).
GPS is a great invention for sure but I think the point Daisy is making is that you donāt learn the route as well by following it. No big deal in that context but similar cognitive offloading in the case of, say, writing may have longer-term negative consequences.
There is quite a bit of evidence that enjoyment of school takes a big dip on starting secondary and never recovers. If we could improve that transition, it could help a lot.
We need more opportunities for young people to show us what they can do.
Yeah - 100%. I had enough when he let Alex Jones back on the platform.
This is just a lovely positive story for your weekend. Meet the three-year-olds helping anxious teens spend more time in school www.bbc.com/news/article...
I can see that this is going to become a very long thread (!) so just getting in early to say that the exodus is far from complete and I fear for a lot of those still on X.
Hugo Cabret is a great book for inspiring art and writing. Wish Iād remembered it but glad you did! #KidILitUK
Weird is something you could probably say about all his books!
Never read that and you have convinced me not to!
Stephen has kicked off an excellent #KidLitUK discussion over here. I think the really interesting question is which childrenās books do you nonetheless really enjoy as an adult. Katherine Rundell is one for me.
Hmmmā¦if you are coming at me with Cooper and Pullman, I would say Garner. I believe he is another one who didnāt think of his books as āchildrenās booksā and when I read The Owl Service to my children, I could see his point.
Looking forward to seeing the list!
One thing which blew minds in the classroom was that it was written before Covid but features a somewhat similar pandemic!
I asked my wise daughter when she finished school this year what made a great teacher and she said (a) strong relationship with the students and (b) ensuring that new learning was actively used in the lesson so she really knew it. Seemed a good summary to me!
I used to get great writing (and art) using The Astounding Broccoli Boy by @frankcottrellboyce.bsky.social in Yr 4. Really engaging story which got the childrenās imaginations going!
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I get that there is lots of love for Edward Tulane but Despereaux is even better.
I just re-read The Tale of Despereaux and itās an absolute banger. #KidLitUK
Itās an achievement almost on a par with Leicester winning the league.
Just a bit of fun as Peter Snow would have said but actually more scary than funā¦.
This is just an insane set of figures. I hate to think what your nowcast would look like with these plugged in.
I suppose itās possible that this is false recall but I really donāt think so! Any #EduSky help greatly appreciated.
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Great guide to problems with curriculum here. A couple of othe problems I experienced. 1. Existing practices / topics getting in the way of the intent of the curriculum. 2. Prioritising curriculum coverage over achieving real understanding.
As it happens, I just posed a question to @samfr.bsky.social on his Substack as to his view of the chances but I would be interested in the views of people here as well!
From the perspective of someone who taught for 2 years in the UK, the implication that an EHCP is easy to get is laughable. I would see a lot of need at a level where an EHCP is not realistic.
I would have agree with you 3 months ago. Now I am not so sure. (I have progressed from ānot a hopeā to āthis is a serious riskā which is still a long way short of saying they are gonna win).
Now off to comment on your TES article. š
I donāt disagree - see my first post above the one about likes - but I am just pushing back gently against the implication that they are irrelevantā¦
Not just China. Also true in #Laos (which imports a lot of them from China). In the absence of reliable statistics, my hunch is that well over 50% of new car sales here are electric.
It certainly seems to be underestimated by the leadership of the Labour Party.
Also likes are not irrelevant - sometimes I have nothing to say back but I want to let someone know that their post was meaningful for me!
I am trying to reply more and like less. As Gandhi didnāt say, ābe the change you want to see in the worldā! I see pockets of discussion here but all of us who hate what X has become have a responsibility to try to make it engaging and interesting for #EduSky people on her.
The Lib Dems have gone with āTaliban Taxā for this one.
This is absolute nonsense.
Thanks - I think itās a similar concept of a minute or two of quiet before trying to learn.
Tried a search-engine and it produced a lot of AI nonsense first and even scrolling through results, I couldnāt find it.
OK, #EduSky hive-mindā¦ sometime over the summer, I saw something here about a Japanese school practice of short period of quiet focus before starting work having educational benefits. I donāt seem to have pinned it and hope that someone can help. Reposts also appreciated. š
You can totally hear Blairās voice and conviction in that speech. Looking back, one really odd thing is that lots of people saw him as āfakeā whereas now I see Labour government-era Blair as very authentic whether I agree with him or not.
This may not be the main point but, reading this, speeches were genuinely better then. Itās not just my nostalgiaā¦
I would agree with you if this was a private-sector dismissal but the Fed is not under direct Presidential control and it is seems highly unlikely that Trump had the power to dismiss her. I note that your colleague @henrymance.ft.com has made a similar point!
In fairness, we are both in the top half of the table even if we arenāt competing for Champions League places.
You are ahead of me!
You might want to have a word with your colleague Chris Giles who referred to Cook being fired in his post earlierā¦.
Good explainer but really you shouldnāt refer to Lisa Cook ābeing firedā. As the explainer notes, that is very much contested and every serious piece of legal analysis I have seen is of the view that Trump does *not* have the power to do this. I suggest āTrump attempting to fire Lisa Cookā.
It feels to me that the BBC should be giving more prominence to attempted sacking of Lisa Cook. Itās clearly the biggest story in the US right now.
Absolutely superb from @daisychristo.bsky.social. Only tangentially relevant to teaching but way better than most things written on AI. I read it this morning and have been thinking all day about the parallel with our obesogenic society. Canāt fault the logic. open.substack.com/pub/daisychr...
My kids and I really enjoyed the Kuromori book series by @jasonrohanauthor.bsky.social. It's a Percy Jackson-type series but with Japanese rather than Greek mythology. Lots of fun and satisfying ending to third book. #KidLitUK
This is appalling and I hope the Tory party take action against Robbie Moore (although I have very little hope).
I confess an interest here because Anna is a friend who I have known since university but this is just appalling and a failure of common decency by the Tory MP here. Putting a fellow MP at risk by chasing the online far-right.
May already be following him but @studymaths.bsky.social for sure and, although not a teacher, @teakayb.mathsy.space brings a interesting perspective. It annoys me that Craig Barton is not on here but you can follow him on Substack if you want to avoid X.
Often the way!
Thought-provoking stuff from @rethinkingjames.bsky.social and a nice little surprise endingā¦. open.substack.com/pub/drjamesm...
We were having a family debate on this earlier. I am firmly in the no clues at all camp but this means I sometimes donāt even get in 6ā¦..