/ February 9, 2019 at 7:17 PM
104 views
Children are noisy. This is something people often don’t appreciate if they don’t work in schools, as can be seen by the recurring experiments with “open plan classrooms” that seem to happen every few years. Before I became a teacher,…
/ January 26, 2019 at 8:13 AM
122 views
I first joined the NUT (National Union Of Teachers) back in 2001 as a PGCE student. It is now part of the NEU (National Education Union). This year, I finally resigned my membership. I think being in a trade union…
/ October 24, 2018 at 6:00 PM
332 views
Earlier this week there was a school shaming focused on the rules one school was introducing for managing behaviour in corridors during transitions. A large number of people, many of whom have never worked in a secondary school, used an…
/ July 15, 2018 at 6:34 AM
283 views
Just a quick post here, but something on Twitter reminded me of another problem I’d talked about when the College of Teaching was proposed. Back when discussions were underway about the Chartered College Of Teaching, one thing I argued for…
/ May 19, 2018 at 7:36 AM
338 views
This is a follow up to this post, and is the second of three posts about attempts to silence educational traditionalists online. In the last year or two, I have seen an apparent rise in the use of legal threats…
/ May 5, 2018 at 6:45 AM
410 views
Teacher Tapp is an app that surveys teachers every day. While those who answer are self-selecting so it is probably not completely reflective of all teachers, it’s probably going to be biased towards the more informed teacher, rather than the…
/ February 4, 2018 at 7:47 AM
338 views
Yesterday I blogged about the background to the issue of teacher autonomy and the dilemma facing traditionalists who, when progressives were in control, argued for autonomy, but now see it used to justify bad practice. Although I still tend to…
/ February 3, 2018 at 7:53 AM
346 views
When I first started blogging, and for several years afterwards, teachers were being forced to teach in a way that, if you were familiar with the history of educational thought, could only be described as “progressive”. Skills were more important…
/ January 5, 2018 at 8:26 AM
388 views
Three weeks ago a couple of people (who I would call “trolls”, but who would no doubt see themselves as perfectly justified in all the abuse they’ve posted over the years) started sharing my blogposts from 8 or 9 years…
/ November 19, 2017 at 7:13 PM
384 views
Yesterday I wrote about what I think makes some subjects “academic” and other subjects, while still worthwhile, not academic. The discussion on Twitter immediately afterwards was particularly helpful in helping me reconsider some points and defend others (although by now…
/ December 4, 2016 at 8:23 AM
858 views
Back in July 2015 I wrote this post and this post about arguments that were being used more and more by progressives, as their traditional arguments of “it’s what the government/OFSTED tell us to do” and “it’s what the research…
/ September 16, 2016 at 8:59 AM
732 views
Last week there were stories in the press about a school that enforced its uniform policy (yes, that really was considered newsworthy). Much of the response resembled “school shaming” which I wrote about in this series of posts in the…
/ August 26, 2016 at 8:38 PM
654 views
The College of Teaching popped up again today on social media. I have blogged about this very many times. There has been a prolonged attempt by the education establishment to create a new professional body for teachers, following Michael Gove’s…
/ August 18, 2016 at 10:18 AM
728 views
Apologies for getting a bit behind with these. In May, Schools Week published my review of the best blogs of the week. Purple praise: a spoon full of sugar helps the marking go down By @Xris32 We all know that praise in…
/ August 10, 2016 at 7:53 PM
476 views
I have been writing a series of posts about schools being publicly ‘shamed’ in the press and on social media. The Daily Mail is still shaming schools Don’t Twitter shame a school and call it a debate What’s it like for a…
/ August 10, 2016 at 7:53 PM
585 views
I have been writing a series of posts about schools being publicly ‘shamed’ in the press and on social media. The Daily Mail is still shaming schools Don’t Twitter shame a school and call it a debate What’s it like for a…
/ August 7, 2016 at 7:47 PM
696 views
I’ve written a couple of posts recently about how schools can be “shamed” in the press (usually the Daily Mail) and on social media. Here, I’m going to show what that is like. I’m not going to name the school…
/ July 31, 2016 at 8:30 AM
627 views
Yesterday I wrote about the Daily Mail’s shaming of schools. The stories generally consist of a parent’s complaint about a school, in which the parent describes what the school did, with insufficient attempts to confirm whether it is accurate or…
/ July 29, 2016 at 6:13 PM
731 views
Back in January, 2015 I wrote a blogpost about the Daily Mail’s hypocrisy in shaming schools for enforcing their rules. While noticing that they often run stories complaining about a lack of discipline in schools, I observed: …they also frequently…
/ July 18, 2016 at 5:17 AM
601 views
Continued from yesterday As discussed in the previous two posts, there is every reason to doubt the existence of a general “mental health crisis” in children in the UK. However, here I want to ask whether if we were to…
Chris Hobbs Posted on April 19, 2016 / Policing 42 views
Clive Lord Posted on February 17, 2019 / Politics 35 views
Jane Carnall Posted on June 29, 2015 / Labour Party 35 views
Michael Harris Posted on September 5, 2015 / Politics 34 views
Scottish Unemployed Workers' Network Posted on February 16, 2019 / Politics 31 views
