Unprecedented. Unparalleled. Extra-ordinary. These are all part of words and phrases that we’ve heard a lot over the last 3 months or so since the COVID-19 lockdown. And it’s not wrong. We are in really strange old times and it may well be that way for a while yet. Shops […]
UKEdChat
26 posts
“No they can’t. Or well, perhaps they can because parents are home-schooling perfectly well and they don’t need teachers at all.” “Look at the New Oak Academy materials that we’ve had to make because schools aren’t doing what they need to and it’s just not good enough. In fact it’s […]
Some people can be excluded by what is meant to be inclusion. For neuro-diverse people our classrooms can be a ticking time bomb. The sounds, the smells, the expectations, the infrastructure, the movement, the unpredictability, the inflexibility. All of these can push people whose world view is that little bit […]
I’ve got my feet in many camps and my fingers in various pies and I am very lucky for it. This term so far, my focus has been in the special educational needs and disability (SEND) camp, with a finger firmly planted into the ‘climate change education’ pie. What I […]
I’d have written sooner, but someone cut through the internet cable in our road and we’re waiting for it to be fixed- it’s been more than 2 weeks and so far Open Reach have not been forthcoming! Then my laptop fell on the floor and the screen is pretty darn […]
I had my hair cut today. And I had lunch out. Then I came home and I played with my doglets, watched ‘Say Yes to the Dress’ and child the little dude. Then I tutored some awesome kids and made really yummy dinner (no-one has reported any adverse effects yet […]
I have just read two very different articles which could be interpreted as ‘pupil voice’. One, written by a teenager at the coalface of the exam system, is scathingly well-written, sharing her frustrations with the limitations of her school’s curriculum. The other, written by a teacher talks about the conflicts […]
I had a meeting this week in Wiltshire, with a commissioner from the council, a seminar as part of my AMBDA course with some Educational Psychologists from BANES and I’m in the middle of writing a book chapter on parents and schools working together to support dyslexic young people, mainly […]
Yesterday, I read a thread on a Facebook Group I’m part of asking about support strategies for a student who was trying to revise and retain information ready for their GCSEs. This is fairly run of the mill. That is, until it transpired that the student had only recently arrived […]
There is a lot in the news about climate change, young people striking for the future, and teachers and schools becomings sites of political activism. I’m on leave from school at the moment, until the end of the calendar year. It’s a really privileged position to be in; I get […]
Exam malpractice is a serious matter and any ‘Exams Officer’ or ‘SenCo’ knows that from reading the JCQ exam regulations or the Access Arrangements documentation from JCQ. Centres can lose their exam hosting status, people can lose their jobs and students can lose their entire suite of qualifications for breaches […]
I am going to preface this by saying that it is all based on my own personal opinion, experience and dogmas. I’m not citing research and do not claim to be a guru on the matter. Also, that the ideas in the heading are not mutually exclusive. You can have […]
It’s the week between A Level and GCSE results and students across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, as well as internationally, are waiting for results of have got results that determine their next steps. It’s not an easy place for them all to be. I was out on Saturday night […]
… what I really really want is to have time. More time to spend with my students and my colleagues each day and each week so that I can make sure that I meet their needs, support their progress and build better relationships. As the end of the school year […]
I read this article this morning and I saw red. I saw really, really red and decided to write. I think it’s important I caveat this rant by saying that I agree with some of the sentiment behind the article: all teachers are teachers of SEN. However, conflating being a […]
This time last year, I had just secured a new post at my current school after having made the decision to go part time as a teacher and do lots of other things alongside it. I had been SenCo at a lovely independent school in Wiltshire and had learned a […]
Reading about the next stage of academisation of English schools today sort of made me pull a bit of a grimace. I got a little bit cross and then facepalmed, because there just doesn’t seem anything new about the concepts being trundled out as though they are shiny new toy. […]
I’ve read a really sensible article today in the Times Educational Supplement where a teacher writes about the opacity of how teachers understand ‘sensory’ as an adjective to describe learning, teaching and needs. ‘Sensory’ could be viewed as a bit of a buzz-word at present. As written in the article […]
I will preface this whole thing with the following: I don’t like reading, I rarely read for pleasure and tend to only read things for function rather than because I just ‘fancy a read’. For me as an individual, there are far easier and more attractive ways to take information […]
2018 was a funny old year. I finished 2017 and moved into 2018 as a Dr rather than a Mrs and that was quite a big change. I graduated my PhD and was picked up at the University of Bath Winter Ceremony as quite an out-of-the-ordinary Phd-er. I did it […]
Are teachers respected in the UK? Would my mum be proud of me if I decided to become a teacher? Spoiler alert… my Mum would be proud of whatever I do, as long as I’m the best I can be. Barber- be the best; plumber- be the best; bank robber- […]
I am in a very privileged position, in that I genuinely love my job. I have flexibility because of the different things I do around my classroom-based time and I am eternally grateful for that. I realise that there are significant numbers of people who are not in that position. […]
Despite it being Tuesday and currently not raining (although it is distinctly grim outside), today, I mainly have a face like a wet Monday morning. I have spent much of the weekend asleep and feeling horrible with nasty migraine, something I have had since I was a young one and […]
This week has been a funny old week, but in a lovely way. I’ve been running around like a airborne insect with a cobalt-posterior and that does tend to be how I navigate life. Mr Dr Ross has been away so that doglets and I have been making the most […]
Usually I write on Wednesdays, as I’m not at in school. I didn’t manage it this Wednesday, as the day ended up being a little bit bonkers and I wound up running out of evening. I was slightly disappointed with myself for missing my own, self-appointed schedule. However, I am really […]
My PhD focussed on supporting young people with dyslexia and explored how they understood themselves through their relationship with their dyslexia. On one hand, I found that young people could frame their dyslexia positively and that is didn’t need to impact their access to learning and pr ogress negatively. ON […]