Since 2014, we've had seven Education Secretaries (Gove, Morgan, Greening, Hinds, Williamson, Zahawi and now Donelan). If a school had been through seven headteachers in that time, alarm bells would be ringing. Very, very loudly.
Jon Biddle
@jonnybid
Year 5/6 teacher and English lead. Children's books and reading mostly, Blake's 7 sometimes. Currently reading: When the Birds Wake Up by Jessica Mary Ellis.
Joined April 2009
- The three children who were murdered less than a week ago have now been totally forgotten by the media due to the actions of a few thousand far right supporters. It's heartbreaking.
- Am definitely going to be contacting Ofsted tomorrow to let them know about my daughters' schools. They need to be aware of how hard every single member of staff is working, in almost impossible conditions. Phone: 03001231231 Email: [email protected] Twitter: @Ofstednews
- Have just invented a new Wordle spin-off, where you wake up each morning and have six guesses to work out who that day's Education Secretary is.
- 75 is quite a lot less than 1416, which is how many Sure Start centres have closed since the Conservatives came to power in 2010.Family means everything to me. That's why I'm really pleased that we've now delivered on our commitment of 75 Family Hubs in England. It was wonderful to visit Kingsway Family Hub in Halton and see the incredible support families like mum Chloe and Douglas are benefitting from.
- Gavin Williamson is spouting nonsense again. Teachers aren't talking about how the children have 'lost discipline', they're talking about how superbly the children have coped with returning to school and how well they're doing. Stop making up a problem that isn't really there.
- Strike action in schools isn't going to have any real long-term impact on a child. But endless funding cuts, a retention crisis caused by pay & conditions, collapsing staff morale & the unnecessary pressures created by Ofsted & excessive accountability, yeah, I think that might.
- Teacher well-being is about ensuring staff don't have to regularly spend a large chunk of their weekend working, not about giving them a sachet of hot chocolate to drink while they're doing it.
- A pupil asked if he could spend the Christmas holidays in school because his home is always 'freezing cold' and he can't get to sleep. There are going to be children worrying about this type of thing in virtually every school in the country.
- Let's not forget the silent majority in all our classes...the kids who bang out good behaviour, lesson after lesson, who always try hard, who wait patiently while someone else gets praised to the hilt for not messing about for five minutes. They're important too.
