Natasha Porter OBE

Founder & CEO @unlockedgrads •Board etc: @childrenscomm @impetusuk @get_further @youthendowfund BF(@PRTuk) •Forever teacher & policy nerd (KSA/TF06)

[Natasha Porter OBE @NPorter_]

@AndBerwick Given how urgent these issues are in young people’s lives, and the limited resources available (money and time), and the need to bring much more evidence into the sector generally, I think there’s a real moral imperative to focus as much as possible on what evidence says works

[Natasha Porter OBE @NPorter_]

Somehow missed the publication of 4 evaluations of Trauma Informed Practice funded by YEF and the Home Office, the first RCTs looking at the connection between trauma informed practice and children's behaviour and involvement in crime.
Headline: "no or very small positive impact"

[Natasha Porter OBE @NPorter_]

@adamboxer1 You read my mind!

[Natasha Porter OBE @NPorter_]

Highly appreciative of the TFL worker this morning at Paddington SCHOOLING on good tube etiquette.
“I don’t want see you boarding before people have come off the tube you are getting on. That makes no sense”
“Get those backpacks off before you get on a crowded carriage everyone”

[Natasha Porter OBE @NPorter_]

@PSDuffy @5Naureen @AlwaysBeMarking I think it’s much harder to know when it’s on your back how much space it is taking up. You can easily not realise you are KOing everyone you pass because it’s all going on behind you.

[Natasha Porter OBE @NPorter_]

@AndBerwick It’s interestingly v similar to a study of TIP in prisons, and actually to some bits we were taught in teacher training - practitioners get lots from it and think it improves their practice and confirms some world views, this just doesn’t translate into improved outcomes.

[Natasha Porter OBE @NPorter_]

@tombennett71 Perhaps have a rotation of different voices, so Attenborough on a Monday morning and Lucy Bronze on a Tuesday etc etc. Could then offer cameo spots when appropriate, i.e. Harry Styles could do a Friday shift this summer to mark his big tour coming to Wembley

[Natasha Porter OBE @NPorter_]

Not sure who to raise this with, but I really don’t like the new voice on the Bakerloo line…

[Natasha Porter OBE @NPorter_]

@tombennett71 But in a AI type voice which is somehow officious and condescending all at once, even though it just says station names and what side of the carriage the doors will be opening.

[Natasha Porter OBE @NPorter_]

@SamuelVimes10 I’m not sure it needs to cost more, but youth custody practice does need its own specific identity and domain of knowledge and skills, rather than being dragged back and forth between adult prison world and social work world

[Natasha Porter OBE @NPorter_]

@daisychristo There is still a v strong support base for Tottenham and Chelsea at my kids’ north London school!

[Natasha Porter OBE @NPorter_]

Kids who end up in prison come from a small number of hyper-local areas. It’s a no brainer that more work should be done in these areas to work out what exactly is wrong and how to fix it.
Simultaneously we need to rethink YOIs, starting with how we train and support officers.

[Rachel Sylvester @RSylvester1]

This was so shocking to research.
- A fifth of kids in YOIs went to the same 6 schools.
- 2/3 grew up in care
- 43% feel unsafe in custody
- 2/3 of young offenders go onto reoffend
- a place at a YOI costs double the fees at Eton and a Secure Training Centre as much as the Ritz

[Natasha Porter OBE @NPorter_]

For YOIs to deliver safe and secure care, we need to invest in radical workforce reform - developing domain specific expertise through much more training and support for frontline staff as trusted adults.

[Natasha Porter OBE @NPorter_]

As explained here, the cost of holding a child in custody is as expensive as living in the Ritz! But YOIs are unimaginably violent and outcomes are poor. The temptation is to focus on diversion alone, but this will never be the whole solution because we need the option of custody

[Natasha Porter OBE @NPorter_]

Here’s the @RSylvester1 article, and great to see such an engaged youth justice minister in @JakeBenRichards

‘You can’t harm someone to heal them’: the crisis in Britain’s youth justice system https://t.co/MsNW5pq0MD

[Natasha Porter OBE @NPorter_]

@timricchuiti I don’t know what this means!

[Natasha Porter OBE @NPorter_]

On first read this seems like an actually insane approach to reading. Am now a bit terrified that we’re slipping towards a dystopian future where instead of reading amazing books we prompt some LLM chat bot to churn out formulated crap masquerading as literature for us…

[MacKenzie Price @mackenzieprice]

2. Teach Tales

Our reading philosophy at Alpha is simple: kids learn to love reading by reading what they love.

Sure, it’s important for kids to be exposed to classic literature. But being forced to read highbrow literature as a young teen is often the very thing that makes kids hate reading in the first place. Many of them never bother picking up a novel again.

So, we built Teach Tales to solve this problem.

Teach Tales is an AI-powered story-building platform that turns your kid into the author of their own custom adventures.

https://t.co/MkUttDbIPK

[Natasha Porter OBE @NPorter_]

@chicagotechmom @jon_hutchinson_ Yup. I understand their pedagogy for aspects of English which lend themselves more precisely to knowledge transfer, e.g. teaching grammar, spelling, vocab, phonics, but not a love of reading or sharing core texts.

[Natasha Porter OBE @NPorter_]

@jon_hutchinson_ But really agree re the hopes around what we can learn that transforms social justice

[Natasha Porter OBE @NPorter_]

@jon_hutchinson_ I thought lots of the maths curriculum described in this thread which is focused on high levels of fluency and core knowledge sounds absolutely right in terms of content. The literature and skills bits less so.