Susan Rankin Reid Educational Coaching and Consultancy

I can’t imagine how difficult it has been for some families. Taking children back to school, encouraging them to play, giving them the time to work this through, could not possibly be more important at this time.
Time for the government to show real understanding and compassion...

Prioritise play when schools reopen, say mental health experts Letter to education secretary warns of impact of coronavirus lockdown on children

Exactly!

When schools reopen: 😬

Hi, I hope you're well and thanks to everyone who let me know that... My account has been hacked, I am sorry! Please excuse the messages, I am fine, well and don't need money, and will never ever ask anything of you through this page. I wish you all well at this challenging time and send love and good wishes XX

Ofsted running unofficial ‘sub-grade system’ Analysis finds more than 60 'good' or 'outstanding' schools were warned in reports about declining standards

I completely agree. I have always thought that this country was astonishingly disrespectful towards teachers. 4 years at university, minimum, and a tough probationary year..
And in school they have constant monitoring, learning walks, observations, pupil progress meetings...
It's tough here, it's rigorous and it's exciting.
But this idea that if children aren't learning, it's the responsibility of the individual teacher is one of the serious weaknesses in the system. Teachers are not trusted to plan and assess using their professional knowledge and skills, they have to follow plans imposed by the school, assess according to imposed criteria.
If a child isn't learning/working at a level that we want them to, the teachers are held responsible, then we have to say that if a teacher is not learning/working at a level we want them to, the school is responsible. And the school? The wider community is responsible. We are all responsible for the education of our children. We need to work on developing a level of respect for our colleagues, for the hours they work, for the commitment they show to their children, for the pens, shoes, tampons they buy, the lunches they pack, the snacks they just happen to have in their bags..
We need to live in a society that respects children, where they are living good, healthy, happy lives, where there is enough for all of us, and we can all feel more generous and supportive of each other. Ofsted is supposed to hold the child at the centre of everything. This is the philosophy that underpins the process of inspection. In reality, Ofsted has become politicised, a weapon to beat schools and teachers. I do hope this new framework will change that, but as we wait for it to bed in, why don't we all make sure that we are as positive as we can be about people doing their best, because in the main, their best is actually pretty good.

'Mistrust of teachers holds England back' EXCLUSIVE: Andreas Schleicher, head of the Pisa global education rankings, uses Tes interview to warn that 'nothing has changed' for teacher workload in England and to advocate for light-touch school inspection

..from nursery to PhD, wow!

Punjab Has Just Announced Free Education For Girls From Nursery To PhD Free textbooks will be provide to all students in government schools from the next academic session.

Great practice at a lovely school in Central London

How London's autistic children thrive thanks to fantastic sensory classrooms The pupils often find it overwhelming in mainstream classes, but can enjoy learning here

This is so serious, and we will lose so many skilled and clever people if it continues..

Why is teacher wellbeing in such a dire state? Teachers are in the grip of a wellbeing crisis because of the erosion of their autonomy, the culture of presenteeism, pointless workload and accountability, writes Emma Kell

All children were made in a unique way, all children!

Children with special needs. Kids with special needs are not weird or odd. They only want what everyone else wants. To be accepted. Share proudly on your wall to show...

Disappointing but not surprising, the point is surely to develop a system of review and accountability that is fair and reflects the world in which teachers teach and children learn.
And to keep politics away from it.

‘Startling and systematic bias’ in Ofsted ratings Ofsted inspections are biased against schools with more disadvantaged pupils, Education Policy Institute conference told

this is a very interesting, very important article

Mental health crisis in teens is being magnified by demise of creative subjects in school The arts can help schools to really tackle the mental health crisis.