Andy

Tech / Media / Business / Sport / SEND

[©️Ruth Swailes @SwailesRuth]

There are a few people on here who seem to need a bit of help with their regulation at the moment- if you’re interested I lead training on this- do get in touch .

[Andy @SENDDadDiaries]

They'll be fine - economic slump means it's the perfect time for the edu-contrepreneurs to pivot to selling courses & conferences on how to be a property guru, buy to lets, dropshipping or FX. https://t.co/wWcyCqKr2I

[©️Ruth Swailes @SwailesRuth]

I don’t know what I find more amusing tbh, the absolute outrage that the gravy train might end up in the sidings or the swift about turns …

[Andy @SENDDadDiaries]

@ChrisHillidge @SwailesRuth Don't be coming here with nuanced, intelligent & considered viewpoints Chris! 🤣

[Barbara Bleiman 🎓 Education is Conversation @BarbaraBleiman]

This is a shockingly, limited & partisan piece.
1. In 2026 40.5% of students failed to get a GCSE Grade 4. That's a terrrible stat - something we should be ashamed of, not proud of.
2. But the GCSE exam they sat was woefully poor as a test of Eng Lang - invalid & unreliable.. 1

[Shaunagh #RemoveTheRoom @RemoveTheRoom]

The rain is absolutely pelting it down here in NI and the majority of kids attending secondary education settings cant even wear a coat or appropriate footwear to avoid getting soaked... let alone additional items to keep warm as asked by the EA due to rigid uniform policies 🫠🙃

[Gerry🧠🌱 @gerrydiamond71]

Children’s brains are shaped not only by what they experience,but also by what they may be missing in their relationships.
A smile,kind word, taking time to listen, noticing when something isn’t right, or reconnecting after a difficult interaction.
This shapes brain development.

[©️Ruth Swailes @SwailesRuth]

<5 years experience in the classroom but apparently those of us who have worked in schools for decades and still teach on a regular basis have only a thin layer of understanding.

[Andy @SENDDadDiaries]

You know how frustrating it is when you ring the bank, a tech support line etc & you're stuck with someone reading a script & not really engaging? It's maddening on a 10 minute call. So now imagine having to put up with that all day, every day as a pupil with scripted lessons 🤦‍♂️

[Colby Lyons @ImColbyLyons]

@Dale_Chu @ehanford @apmreports I can't imagine how maddening it would be for a kid to attend a school in which they listen to their teachers teaching to a script all day, every day.

[Andy @SENDDadDiaries]

@3dancingfeet Or my new preferred term for what some of them seem to think they are: a Knowledge Transmission Unit™️ or KTU.

[Rachael Jefferson, PhD, PFHEA 🇬🇧🇦🇺💃🚴‍♀️🏃‍♀️ @3dancingfeet]

@DisneyMnM @jo_cb_ Stating the bleedin’ obvious here, but children are little human beings & “learning” - not listening to an “actor-teacher” fill their heads with the facts needed to be successful from a script. That model of teaching is reductive. Stems from a basic misunderstanding of our craft.

[ICARS (Int. Coal. Against Restraint and Seclusion) @ICARSBanRandS]

ENGLAND - An autistic student who took his own life in the toilets of his sixth form college was failed by his school a coroners court has been told.
https://t.co/jvW9iJmGPr

[BeckyB @RBrooksTweets]

@Dale_Chu @ehanford @apmreports I'm a musician and a teacher. That's a terrible analogy. And yes, after 4 years training, years of classroom experience and an MEd, being asked to read someone else's words out loud for a living is an affront to a teacher's professionalism.

[Tom Sherrington @teacherhead]

Oh what... apparently oracy is to blame for Wales having a declining PISA score. Seriously you couldn't make this shit up. The sorry state of evidence-informed folk grasping at graphs looking for dubious causality. It is just pathetic. Laughable. FFS. Grow up people.

[Andy @SENDDadDiaries]

@butlerd101 @SwailesRuth Sounds about right!

[Andy @SENDDadDiaries]

"I come to talk to, and connect with people" says Bennett. Unless of course you challenge him, in which case he blocks you, because despite the bluster & tone, he's actually pretty fragile & insecure: https://t.co/dJHHFhnmb9

[Barbara Bleiman 🎓 Education is Conversation @BarbaraBleiman]

If you want to know more about spoken language & why it's helpful to know something about it in order to teach it, this by Prof Ron Carter is terrific. He's the GOAT in my books! Puts paid to the idea of children talking in full sentences! https://t.co/LJk3kIPKoC

[Warwick Mansell @warwickmansell]

Perceptive piece, as ever, by @johnharris1969 , featuring comments from parents on both sides of the Mossbourne argument. Perhaps, as MVPA told parents on Friday, "this review...has been driven by a broader cultural debate about discipline in schools". https://t.co/L3NWIUtKC4

[Dan Morrow @MoreMorrow]

I think it’s key for Trusts to look at how we are held much more fundamentally to account by the locality and place we serve and how we restore aspects of democracy in academisation. This is reform framed on refocus, not revolution.

[Michael Rosen 💙💙🎓🎓 NICE 爷爷 @MichaelRosenYes]

Just three weeks to go till Michael Rosen Day- still time for schools to register to join my HUGE Silly School Stuff Poetry Party event with Read for Good at 10am on Thursday 12 November - an AMAZING 355,000 children are already joining us

https://t.co/CQ9LVCyu36

[Andy @SENDDadDiaries]

Professor Magdi Yacoub pioneering an advanced new heart surgery technique, not just following established processes: https://t.co/n1rhiiAs8e

[Andy @SENDDadDiaries]

The best actors adapt a script to make their part better. The best musicians riff, jam & freestyle mid performance. The best surgeons have a bank of skills & procedures and adapt to the individual patient. Sounds like these are novices if they need scripts to compensate for skill

[Dale Chu @Dale_Chu]

Actors use scripts. Musicians use sheet music. Surgeons follow established procedures.

Why are scripts for teachers treated as an affront to professionalism?

@ehanford explains why Direct Instruction uses them.

[Andy @SENDDadDiaries]

De Niro & Pacino in Heat - no rehearsal for this scene, shot in one take, with an adlib line added: https://t.co/4bdmtpFyEa

[Andy @SENDDadDiaries]

Jimi Hendrix not going off sheet music at Woodstock: https://t.co/P8nkKv5NlS