The govt's Student Loan Plan 2 repayment freeze in April 2027 must be reversed. It isn't moral.
I'm concerned that my debate with Kemi Badenoch this morning distracts from the most immediate problem. In April 2027 Rachel Reeves will freeze the Plan 2 student loan threshold until 2030 which by then will increase graduate repayments by £300/yr more.
This is effectively a unilateral negative breach of the student loan contract. Students were told the threshold would rise with average earnings. No commercial lender would be allowed to do this. The govt shouldn't do it either.
Changing the terms of future students loans is a political decision - people may not like it but it is transparent. Negatively changing the terms of contracts already signed, and long in place, is a breach of natural justice.
I cried in our staff meeting tonight.
Not for attention. Not to make a point (and I'm not doing that on here). But because I finally said out loud what so many of us are feeling - that this is the toughest time in education I’ve ever known and I need my colleagues’ help to get through it (so I can keep helping them too).
I love my job, our community and the people I work with. I'm lucky because I really do.
But the intense pressure and relentlessness… the growing SEN needs… the feisty world we live in... the funding cuts that force us to dismantle the very things we all know make a difference - it all takes its toll. It hurts. It keeps you awake at night.
After 15 years as a head in two very different places, I’ve never felt pressure like this. I want to do more for our families, more for the children who need us most, more to support my brilliant colleagues who are running on empty. Their tears break me and I’m running out of wise words and clever solutions - and we’re not even in the Ofsted window yet.
The daft thing? School is in a great place. We’re playing like we’re pushing for a Champions League spot while living in a relegation battle. It’s confusing and so bloody exhausting.
So yes, I cried. And I’m glad I did.
Because my colleagues were there for me - and vulnerability brought us closer and made me feel stronger, not weaker.
If you’re feeling it too, please talk to someone at school. Make space for each other. Create safety. Create belonging. Make it deliberate.
Things will improve. They have to.
Until then, let’s be kind - to ourselves and to each other.
OK... I have had a chance to take a good look at the Labour Manifesto...it's well considered, comprehensive and although I know none of us will like everything ( I am disappointed around the support for Nature..although I welcome the clean rivers and new forests) there is some seriously good stuff in it. I think it's time for a new approach...we were stuck in a reactive pinball game and now limbo when we need to move forward. I want a serious Government and that looks very much like Labour to me.
A man I sometimes chat to in the park when walking our dogs was telling me this morning about his new rescue chickens. He pretty much made my day when he told me he’d called them Hen Solo, Jabba the Cluck, Obi-Hen Kenobi and Princess Layer.
Honest tweet now. This account is run by frontline NHS staff. There’s just 3 of us. We have tried our best to get out what is happening on the ground. But we are completely exhausted. If you support what we are doing pls will you follow & RT this to your followers? Thank you 🙏🏻
👑 Royal @Ascot Competition Time! 👑
We’re giving away a pair of Queen Anne Enclosure tickets to next Wednesday at #RoyalAscot!
🙌Stop the GIF in the correct spot
📸Reply with a screenshot of your attempt
🔁RT post
Winner picked on Tuesday!